If you ask the makers of the "Earth Video Cameras," they will you tell you that everything is about to change.
The cameras, which are designed to provide "the world's first high-definition video platform of Earth, streamed from space," are set to arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) mid-October, according to the company's website.
As it stands, scientists hope to install the cameras on the football field-size spacecraft in order to take both still photos and videos of the Earth.
"Around the last couple of weeks in December or the first couple of weeks of January is when we'll be able to officially turn stuff on and start showing all the streaming images," Larson told The Canadian Press.
When this happens, images and videos taken from them will be loaded onto a website and available to the masses with only a one-hour delay. And they're not just talking pyramids of Egypt - according to Larson anything over 3 feet will be visible.
"You'll see if there are 10 people together in white shirts in a green field," he said.
Unlike far-reaching satellite images, however, the cameras will only be able to focus on one relatively small area for a relatively short amount of time.
"If we decide there's something over a downtown that we want to see, we can point the video camera, hold it for about 90 seconds and then it goes on to the next target," Larson explained.
This includes parades, stadiums and outdoor concerts on the one hand, or fires and volcanoes on the other.
In fact, the company - called Urthecast - has already signed agreements with the United Nations that would allow them to use the cameras for crisis monitoring as well as humanitarian and environmental issues.
What's more, people will able to know a full five hours ahead of time when, during the spacecraft's 16 daily orbits around the Earth, the cameras are located above them.
Faces and licence plates, Larson said, will be too small to identify.
Let the flash mobs begin.
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