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posted by martyb on Wednesday February 01 2017, @09:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the can-you-dig-it? dept.

GlobalXplorer has been launched:

A website that will let members of the public search for potential archaeological sites has been launched. It is the brainchild of space archaeologist Dr Sarah Parcak who set it up using prize money from the Ted conference. Describing it as "Indiana Jones meets Google Earth", she said the site would also allow the public to help prevent looting. [...] Using the [satellite imagery algorithm] technique, which is used by a growing number of researchers, she has discovered 17 potential pyramids, 3,000 settlements and 1,000 lost tombs in Egypt.

[...] [To] make sure looters do not use the site to locate potential targets, the high-resolution satellite images are broken into tens of million of small tiles which are displayed to users in a random order without the ability to navigate or pan out. The tiles do not contain any location reference or co-ordinate information.

Users are rewarded for their time with content about Peru, behind-the-scenes looks at archaeological sites and the opportunity to join archaeologists on digs. DigitalGlobe, a satellite imagery company, is providing more than 200,000 sq km of satellite imagery of Peru for users to peruse. There are plans to launch the site in other countries later this year.

6:59 TED talk.


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday February 01 2017, @09:35PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday February 01 2017, @09:35PM (#461809) Journal

    I remember when Zooniverse was just about classifying galaxies and galaxy mergers. They have come a long way.

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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday February 01 2017, @10:41PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 01 2017, @10:41PM (#461821)

    Yeah that's the tragedy that if she was focused on the work she'd get a lot more eyes and a lot less replicated effort at the giant zooniverse but she's focused on building her personal brand as sort of a startup founder.

    The idea is awesome, the data is awesome, the purpose is awesome, the public involvement is awesome, the results sound awesome .... her motivations, well, not so much.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 01 2017, @11:27PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 01 2017, @11:27PM (#461837)

      You've figured out her motivations how?

      Is there something bad about her focusing on her personal brand? Isn't that what capitalists do?