Sep 12 2007
Google and Amazon harness satellite imagery in rescue operation
I was amazed this morning when I heard on the radio that Google.com and Amazon.com are using satellite imagery and teamed their social networking tools to assist in the rescue search for downed aviator and millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett. To me, this is the epitome of using web-based tools and crowd-sourcing to the ultimate advantage.
Here’s a brief synopsis, based on a news report from NPR.org:
- Steve Fossett goes missing somewhere in Nevada, last week.
- His friend Richard Branson, also a tycoon adventurer, tells reporters that he’s been talking with Google about using the company’s satellite imagery from products such as Google Earth and Google maps to help locate Fossett.
- Google contacts GeoEye and DigitalGlobe, the companies that provide those photo images, with urgent requests for satellite images of the section of Nevada that Fossett was presumed to be lost in.
- Both companies collect photos after Fossett went missing.
- Google gets those images and passes them to Amazon.com, which puts them in its AmazonMechanicalTurk artificial intelligence tool so that thousands of people can search small sectors of map space. (The tool divided the entire search area of 6,000 square miles into small sectors of 300 square feet.) Each sector was assigned to any person who signed up to help.
- According to Amazon, tens of thousands of people signed up to participate.
- If the person sees something interesting, they say yes. If not, no.
- The international community of Amazon searchers has marked several thousand images as “interesting” and those sector images have been forwarded to search teams.
- So far, none of the tips have produced any results.
NPR reports that images cost $7 per square kilometer and this section of desert would cost approximately $100,000. But the time saved by having thousands of people online scour small sections of desert is invaluable.
As far as I’m concerned, this scenario merely scratches the surface of the Internet’s capabilities, but it’s a brilliant example of its power.
5 responses so far
Maybe they can use this amazing technology to find those missing chemical and missile plants in Iraq. Send this blog to W right away. Ho! Ho!
As a matter of fact, maybe this technology can help me find my glasses whenever I lose them- which is about every ten minutes.
Haha! Good one. You could use a GPS tracker for your glasses, but since you usually use them around the house and trackers are typically good down to 10 to 100 feet, you’d probably only be able to figure out a room or side of the house.
You’d be better off with a button to click to make them beep.
We’ve been discussing this and crowd sourcing in general on one of my education mailing lists. You are right. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Wouldn’t it be funny if they found Jimmy Hoffa?
Heck, Jimmy Hoffa would also be the tip of the iceberg. I’d be willing to bet that Internet denizens worldwide would be able to solve tons of mysteries.