Malaysia missing plane: Armchair aeroplane hunters head online By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News 18 March 2014 Last updated at 17:33 Needle in a haystack: Most images on Digital Globes Tomnod system show just an empty sea One of the most common questions being asked about missing flight MH370 is simply: How could this possibly happen? Hundreds of satellites are in the Earths orbit, people realise, with many taking imagery, some in staggeringly high quality. Cant we just look at that and find the missing plane? The simple answer is: Yes, but it requires a huge effort. And people all around the world are chipping in to help. As well as the professionals analysing the data, there are now millions of armchair aeroplane hunters hoping to spot something that can provide some clue to the planes fate. Crowdsourced spotters Sometimes its not expert knowledge that makes a difference, but sheer leg work. Using the crowd - the term given to a large number of mobilised volunteers online - is an effective way to sift through vast amounts of data quickly, creating human resources beyond the reach of any single organisation. In the hunt for MH370, satellite imagery is at the centre of the effort. Digital Globe is a company that captures huge amounts of digital imagery, and is able to present it online for people to zoom in on and inspect. In response to the search for the missing plane, the company launched a crowdsourcing campaign that allows people to search satellite images - section-by-section - and highlight anything that looks interesting. The site offers examples of what certain things could look like from a distance, such as an oil slick or life raft. The images are so detailed, the company says, that something as small as a briefcase would be visible. After launch, the Digital Globe site buckled under the pressure of receiving so many visits. The most up-to-date stats provided by the company say that the maps have been viewed 385 million times. The obvious side-effect of this technique is the number of false alarms that will inevitably occur. The firm says about 4.7 million things have been spotted. Its unclear how many, if any, are of any worth. To combat this, the system makes multiple people - about 30 - look at each individual segment. The images that have been tagged the most by the volunteers are referred up to Digital Globes experts - who will then determine whether the information should be passed on to the authorities. At first, the images provided by the company focused on the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand - keeping in line with the official search area. Now, with attentions turning to the region around Malaysias Malacca Straits, the online searchers need to re-focus their efforts.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 10:06:31 +0000
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