Tag: mechanical turk

  • Adventure Network International Sets Up Camp At The South Pole

    Adventure Network International Sets Up Camp At The South Pole

    Adventure-Network-International-LogoIn addition to the United States Antarctic Program’s presence at the South Pole with the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, other “non-governmental organizations” are also permitted to have a small presence at the pole. For these NGOs, there’s a very specific marked area that they’re allowed to camp in, and their access to the south pole station is limited. This season, Adventure Network International setup their south pole basecamp in support of incoming ANI expeditions – both ski expeditions, as well as tourist flights.

    The ANI folks are great, and run a very solid operation. Their camp, while portable and temporary, is top notch, with sleeping facilities, a galley, bathrooms, and power generation. During their time here, I had the opportunity to meet a few of the camp staff members while giving them tours of the South Pole Station, and also got my own tour of their camp. A few pics of the ANI NGO Camp at the South Pole:

    Approaching the NGO Camp Area from the south pole station – it’s about 1/2 mile away from the station.
    2013-01-04 NGO Camp
    2013-01-04 NGO Camp

    ANI’s campsite, fully setup. You can see the main meeting and mess tent, as well as their supply tents.
    2013-01-04 NGO Camp
    2013-01-04 NGO Camp

    Between tents are the solar power arrays, snow melter, and other equipment.
    2013-01-04 NGO Camp

    Camp staff sleeping quarters.
    2013-01-04 NGO Camp

    Inside the main tent, complete with galley, eating area, and heater. Actually quite comfy!
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamfan2/8395503273/in/photostream
    2013-01-04 NGO Camp

    Find out more about ANI’s expeditions to the South Pole, as well as the rest of Antarctica on their website.

  • Amazon iPhone App’s “Amazon Remembers” Feature Works

    Amazon iPhone App’s “Amazon Remembers” Feature Works

    After installing Amazon’s new iPhone app, the first thing I tried was using the “Amazon Remembers” feature. The feature is supposed to allow users to snap pictures of stuff they need to remember – kind of like an ad-hoc scrap book or shopping list, and then have amazon keep the pics, to look through later. Additionally, Amazon performs some object recognition, and attempts to find the product in it’s catalog.

    I took a picture of a tube of Zicam on my desk at work, and, lo and behold, 10 mintutes later Amazon emailed me a link to the Zicam product page – both as an iPhone link, and as a normal browser link. The direct link to the product page, coupled with Amazon 1-click buying proved to be the perfect combo – I hit “Buy it with 1-Click”, and just like that, a box of Zicam tubes is being shipped to me tomorrow. Success!

    To shed some more light on how Amazon Remembers works – According to the blurb in the “What happens to my photos” screen in the iPhone App –

    When you take a photo using Amazon remembers, it is saved for you in the following places:

    • this application [sic]
    • your Amazon.com homepage [sic]
    • Your Lists (link available at the top right of any page on the Amazon.com site)

    We also use a community of real people to research your photo and try to match it to a similar product on Amazon.com.

    If we find a product similar to your photos within a day or two, the results will be associated with your photo. A numbered red circle will appear on the Remembers tab to let you know that a similar product is ready for you to view.

    In addition, we’ll notify you by sending you an e-mail to the address on file for your Amazon.com account. If you would like to stop receiving these e-mails, you may turn off Amazon Remembers e-mail notification from Your Account in this application.

    Amazon is apparently using a panel of real people to manually comb through the photos and assign product pages to them. Given how low-contrast my Zicam photo was, I’m not surprised that a real person had to take a look at the photo to figure out what it was. Perhaps this would be (or is.. no confirmation on that yet…) a great application of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform, which uses a form of crowdsourcing to grind through tasks only a human brain can handle. Amazon calls these tasks HITs – Human Intelligence Tasks.

    Now if the Zicam would only make this cold go away…