In Omniveillance, I predicted a future surveillance technology that would be able to record vast amounts of video over a wide area, and permit a user to effectively watch history progress, as if they entered a time machine. Back in 2008, I wrote:

As distinguished from previous forms of public monitoring, this new form of surveillance will be omnipresent, as it can record vast areas of space over a very small period of time. It provides the users of this system with omniscience to know everything happening in a specific location at a specific time. Furthermore, this information will be indefinitely retained, and easily accessible. When future versions of this technology is properly implemented, it will be possible to enter a time, date, and location, and witness what happened at that moment as if you were there. It is a virtual time machine.

Researchers at Cargenie Mellon University have developed this technology, appropriately dubbed the GigaPan Time Machine.

Each Time Machine on this page captures a process in extreme detail over space and time, with billions of pixels of explorable resolution. Choose a time machine and zoom into the image while traveling backwards or forwards through time. Select a Time Warp and the time machine’s authors will take you on a guided space-time tour with text annotations explaining what you are viewing.

Yep, that is almost exactly what I had in mind. See, I told you so. Wait till someone installs one of these cameras in Times Square, and Omniveillance will be nigh.

You can watch a video exploring this cool time machine, but I encourage you to click on to some of their time machines, in particular the Plant Growth and Early Universe Time machines.

H/T Gizmodo