Geeks Spot Fossett?
By David Axe September 12, 2007 | 7:25:00 AMCategories: Roll Your Own
Aviation adventurer Steve Fossett went missing while flying over Nevada a week ago Monday. The cops can't find him. The Air Force can't find him. (They did spot 6 other previously unknown wrecks, though.) But maybe, just maybe, a geek sitting at his computer succeeded where the government failed. Using an Amazon.com service called Mechanical Turk, web users have been scouring massive amounts of satellite imagery in an effort to assist rescue workers. And one of them may have spotted Fossett's plane, according to AVweb (registration required):
Sure, it's a long shot, but AVweb readers taking part in the Mechanical Turk effort to locate Steve Fossett through Google Earth imagery has found something that doesn't look like it belongs on a mountainside. Have a close look at the accompanying image. It looks to us like it could be the fuselage and wings of a small plane. We'll likely know soon enough if this is Fossett's Super Decathlon (or a combination of rock and shadow that looks like it) but in the meantime, the important thing is to keep looking. "Humans are still much better at picking objects out of photos that don't appear to belong there than computers are," AVweb points out:
Those logging on are asked to have a detailed look at each image they receive. If they spot something that could be Fossett's plane, they are asked to mark that image with a click on the appropriate selection. That will put the image into a higher level of rotation and if others also mark it, it will result in a team of search specialists viewing the image and possibly alerting rescue officials.
Is it just me, or does it seem like this service could have massive implications for a sort of civilian-powered populist intel service to aid the hunt for terrorists? Anyways ... more on the Fossett search here.
Bookmarks