Images from Google Earth are being enrolled in the search for adventurer Steve Fossett. Many people are scouring up-to-date satellite images of Nevada to try to spot Mr Fossett's downed plane or wreckage. The project is being co-ordinated via Amazon's human-powered problem solving scheme called the Mechanical Turk. It comes after a frustrating weekend in which searchers failed to turn up any sign of Mr Fossett.
Mr Fossett went missing on 3 September after taking off in his single-engine Citabria aircraft from the Flying M Ranch near Yerington, Nevada. The trip was supposed to last a maximum of three hours. The search for Mr Fossett or his downed plane covers 44,000 sq km (17,000 square miles) of Nevada's wilderness as well as parts of California.
In a bid to help searchers focus their efforts, Google released up-to-date images of Nevada for the search giant's Google Earth software. Following the release of the images, Amazon created a collaborative search scheme run via its Mechanical Turk system. The Mechanical Turk pays people to perform tasks that computers would struggle to complete, such as translating text or evaluating images.
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News source: BBC News
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