crowdsourcing
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Google incubator's New York City subway app offers Waze-like alerts
Crowdsourced navigation apps like Waze are helpful for avoiding the real-world hazards that conventional apps don't mention. But what if you use mass transit -- why can't you get alerts that go beyond official route closures and delays? You can now, if you live in New York City. Google incubator Area 120 has released an invitation-only Pigeon app for iOS that offers NYC subway directions based both on real-time train positions and user-submitted feedback. If a train faces an extended delay or there's a glut of people at a given station, you can switch lines and stops to make your commute a little faster (or at least, less painful).
Amazon Studios stops taking amateur scripts on June 30th
For years, Amazon Studios has held an open call for concept and script submissions. You could send an idea to the company and not only make it publicly available, but (if you were lucky) see it developed as an honest-to-goodness Prime Video production. However, you'll now have to scramble for an alternative. Amazon is closing the open call on June 30th, 2018. You'll still have access to the companion Storybuilder and Storywriter tools, but you won't be showing Amazon the fruits of that labor.
Spotify needs your help tagging and sorting tunes
Music streaming services can be frustrating if you're an avid listener, since your definitions may not line up with theirs. They may lump trance, techno and drum-and-bass into a generic "dance" category, for instance. Spotify, at least, knows it needs to do better... and it's asking you for help. It quietly launched a Line-In feature that lets you suggest edits to the metadata for artists, albums and songs. You can recommend genres, tags, moods and even nicknames. You could clarify that an "electronica" album is really tech house, or remind Spotify that many people refer to Metallica's self-titled record as "the Black Album."
Axon hopes you'll submit smartphone video as evidence
In theory, handing your smartphone video over to the police if you have evidence of a crime is the right thing to do -- it provides accountability and could be the key to a conviction. However, those contributions are about to enter a gray area. Axon (the brand formerly known as Taser) has confirmed that it's working on a "Public Evidence Product" that would let you submit photos and videos to Evidence.com, its cloud platform normally used for police footage. That doesn't sound so bad on the surface, but the handling and potential motivations are raising concerns that this amounts to excessive privatization of the justice system.
Citizen scientists find a failed star in the Sun's neighborhood
Citizen scientists may not have the time and equipment of their pro counterparts, but their dedication can sometimes lead to discoveries that would otherwise be impractical. Case in point: a NASA-backed citizen science initiative, Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, has found a brown dwarf (effectively, a failed star) relatively close to the Sun at 110 light years away. Rosa Castro and three other amateur observers combed through a "flipbook" of images from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer to spot the dwarf as it traversed through space. The discovery is notable for a few reasons, and not just because dedicated astronomers didn't catch it.
Waze sends real-time accident data to drivers and first responders
Earlier this month, Waze teamed up with the Emergency Number Association to help emergency responders react more quickly to incidents across Europe. Now, that feature is debuting in the United States: Today, Waze announced that it has partnered with RapidSOS, an emergency tech company, to provide both drivers and first responders real-time data about accidents.
YouTube wants you to translate video descriptions
YouTube has had community-sourced subtitle translations since 2015, but they're only useful if people can find the videos in the first place... what about labeling the videos? You now have a chance to help. The internet video service has expanded its Community Contributions to let you translate video titles and descriptions, not just captions. If you think a video in your preferred language would be helpful elsewhere in the world, you don't have to ask the clip creator to do you a favor.
Crowdsourced research predicts what molecules smell like
As of now, the only way to tell how something smells is to actually take a sniff. That is to say, there's no observable, scientific measure we know of that can predict how we'll perceive a specific odor. In comparison, things are a little more cut and dried with sights and sounds; because humans use wavelengths to process what they see and hear, we generally agree on, say, how we expect a specific color to look. But scientists now seem to be making progress on the olfactory front: New crowdsourced research has brought scientists closer to predicting a molecule's smell based solely on its chemical properties.
Archaeologists want you to spot ancient sites from your PC
Checking Twitter can get pretty traumatic these days, so why not use your time making a groundbreaking discovery instead? That's now possible using GlobalXplorer, a "citizen science" platform that lets you check high-res satellite images for signs of ancient civilizations. The site was conceived by National Geographic Fellow and "Space Archaeologist" Dr. Sarah Parcak, and won the $1 million TED Prize last year.
CBS and Paramount settle lawsuit with 'Star Trek' fan film
It's been a wild ride for the folks behind the Axanar Star Trek fan film, but it's finally over -- the fan production group has settled its lawsuit with CBS and Paramount. The terms of the agreement aren't completely clear, but both parties have announced that the deal will allow Axanar productions to finish and release its fan film for free as long as a certain number of undisclosed "substantial changes" are made. Even better? According to Ars Technica, the settlement doesn't require the fan group to pay damages, either.
ZTE's crowdsouced phone will pack dual cameras
ZTE has already confirmed that its crowdsourced Hawkeye phone will include showstopping features like eye tracking and a sticky case, but what about the nuts and bolts? Well, it's finally spilling the beans... and Hawkeye is a fairly powerful device for the money. The Snapdragon 625 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage and 5.5-inch 1080p screen are good, though not mind-blowing. However, you'll also get a dual rear camera system -- 12-megapixel and 13-megapixel sensors will deliver iPhone 7 Plus-style zooming at a price where that feature is relatively rare.
ZTE's crowdsourced phone gets a name and a Kickstarter campaign
It's only been a few months since ZTE tapped the wisdom of the masses and started work on its first crowdsourced device: an eye-tracking, self-adhesive phone. No, seriously. A surprising number of people thought we should be able to stick our phones onto walls and navigate through websites and menus just by glancing all over the place. While the phone itself is far from finished, ZTE did give us a few new details here at CES: it's called the Hawkeye, and you'll be able to pre-order one on Kickstarter starting today for $199.
Flow is a wearable that helps you avoid nasty air pollution
While humanity has made strides to cut down its greenhouse emissions, the fact remains: We produce a lot of harmful gases every day. If you live in a city, however, it's easy to forget the quality of the air around you and the impact it might be having on your health. Flow, by Plume Labs, could change that. The tiny air-quality sensor looks like a portable thumb drive with a leather strap that lets you hang it from bags and clothing. It can measure dust, exhaust fumes and other harmful gases, as well as the household chemicals you might encounter indoors.
Flow tracks air quality for crowdsourced pollution maps
You might not have heard of Plume Labs, but you can probably recall their pollution monitoring pigeons that flew over London earlier this year. The part research project, part publicity stunt was designed to drum up interest in a new air quality sensor the company has been working on for two years. Now, it's ready to unveil the final version. The device is called Flow, and it looks like a small thumb drive from a few years back. Inside its grey, aluminium shell you'll find a bunch of sensors for measuring dust, exhaust fumes and other harmful gases, as well as temperature and humidity.
ZTE crowns its crowd-sourced Project CSX winner
Since the start of September, phone manufacturer ZTE has been running a crowd-sourced contest slash internet brainstorming session to figure out what features its customers want most in their next phone. Well, the results are in and ZTE has announced the grand prize project of that contest: it's an "eye-tracking, self-adhesive phone". Sure, why the heck not.
Ofcom wants your help mapping Britain's mobile networks
Ofcom already has a handy online tool for checking mobile and broadband coverage across the UK, but sometimes the bigger picture can hide the little differences. In addition to the regulator's own data and that supplied by providers, Ofcom wants to build a more detailed map of mobile network and WiFi performance using crowdsourced, user data. To that end, it's launched the Ofcom Mobile Research Android app, which runs in the background and collects data on call reliability, signal strength, connection speeds, app use, and of course, location.
Gamers beat scientists to making a protein discovery
It's no great shock to see citizen scientists make discoveries that professionals miss, but making it through a video game? That's different. Gamers playing Foldit, a puzzle title that has teams trying to fold the best protein, have identified the shape of a protein before scientists (including two trained experts and 61 University of Michigan undergrads) could manage the feat. And it's not as if there were legions of contributors, either, as it took a relatively modest 469 players to help out.
ZTE wants your help bringing crowdsourced ideas to life
When ZTE launched its Project CSX challenge to crowdsource ideas for a mobile device, it was hard not to wonder which of those grandiose visions would make the cut. Well, now we know: ZTE has unveiled the three ideas that made it to phase two of the competition, where people will submit product concepts that translate those ideas to reality. Each of the winners is rather unusual, but just realistic enough that ZTE could put it into production.
Paramount and CBS are still suing the 'Star Trek' fan film
Although J.J. Abrams and Star Trek: Beyond director Justin Lin lobbied hard for the movie studio to drop their lawsuit against the crowdfunded Star Trek fan flick Axanar, Paramount is apparently ready to engage their lawyers once again. As the Hollywood Reporter notes, Paramount and CBS have told a California federal judge that their legal action against the makers of Axanar is still pending despite earlier statements indicating the two groups were close to reaching a settlement and guidelines for future fan films.
France creates a meteor-tracking camera network
It's difficult to track where meteors go when showers are both relatively common and rain down loads of space rocks. However, France thinks it has the answer. It recently launched FRIPON, a meteor detection network. The system uses a country-wide camera system (currently 68, scaling up to 100) to track where meteors fly -- if two or more cameras spot something, scientists get an alert. Eventually, that camera data will help narrow down likely impact areas (as small as 1 kilometer, or 0.6 miles) and send thousands of volunteers out to recover meteorites.
