ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) has recently developed Bhuvan (derived from Sanskrit word Bhuvana-meaning earth) for having a close look at Indian territory. The technology is on the lines of Google Earth but Bhuvan is said to be an advance version of Google Earth though limited in territory yet with a better resolution as close to 10 m of any object in Indian territory against Google Earth’s 200 m resolution across the globe.
At a time when developed countries are even more hard-pressed to develop indigenous and ground-breaking technology to boost their growth against a stiff competition in claiming business from other competitors, Bhuvan’s development will be an advantage to India.
Times of India has quoted, ‘If Google Earth shows details down to 200 metre resolution on the surface and Wikimapia to 50 metres, Bhuvan will have image resolution down to 10 metre, which means you can easily see details up to a three floor high building and also add information.’
Megaleecher.net mentioned, ‘Bhuvan will provide multi-layered images with zoom levels up to 10 meters and images being updated every year.’
ISRO expects the service to be launched in next six months by March 2009, all the infrastructure and software required for the service is already in place. A prototype of Bhuvan should be ready by end of November.
