Heavenly Viewpoint Helps Assess Claims
Monday, October 23rd, 2000 Property TechnologyNew "eye in the sky" technology using satellite images is dramatically changing the way insurers assess and respond to property damage caused by hurricanes, fires and other disasters, according to the product’s providers. The Property Loss Research Bureau's Catastrophe Services last month began providing satellite images of objects as small as one meter in size for damage assessment use. The images, which are taken by the recently launched IKONOS satellite, are purchased from Techni Graphic Systems, based in Wooster, Ohio. Besides acting as the middleman for satellite owner Space Imaging Inc. of Thornton, Colo., TGS also works with Catastrophe Services to map the images and pinpoint "polygons" that denote areas of specific damage ranging from light to heavy on a scale of one to five.
