SoylentNews

takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

GlobalXplorer [globalxplorer.org] has been launched [bbc.com]:

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 [youtube.com].

Original Submission