SYDNEY: Global technology giants Microsoft, Apple and Adobe were on Monday ordered to appear before a pricing inquiry examining the often-higher cost of tech goods in Australia compared with other economies.
The lower house committee holding the probe, which was launched last May, said it had summoned the trio to appear at a public hearing next month to explain why Australian customers paid more for the same products.
"The committee is looking at the impacts of prices charged to Australian consumers for IT products," it said in a statement.
"Australian consumers often pay much higher prices for hardware and software than people in other countries."
The inquiry was set up to examine claims by consumer advocacy groups of price discrimination for Australians on technology, with music, games, software, and gaming and computer hardware costing substantially more than elsewhere.
According to consumer lobby group Choice, Australians pay on average 73 percent more on iTunes downloads than the United States, 69 percent more on computer products and a staggering 232 percent more on PC game downloads.
Office software was on average 34 percent more expensive in Australia when compared with the United States, Choice said in its submission to the inquiry, with hardware coming in at 41 percent more expensive.
One software package was A$8,665 (US$8,939) more expensive to buy in Australia than the United States -- a gap that Choice described as "particularly unreasonable".
"For this amount, it would be cheaper to employ someone for 46 hours at the price of $21.30 per hour and fly them to the US and back at your expense -- twice," Choice said.
Choice only did comparisons to the United States and Britain; the inquiry is examining discrepancies with these countries as well as with Asia-Pacific economies.
Apple and Microsoft have both made their own submissions to the committee, arguing that prices differed across jurisdictions due to a range of factors including freight, local taxes and duties and foreign exchange rates.
The Australian Information Industry Association, which represents Adobe and other major ICT firms, has submitted to the committee that the "costs of doing business in Australia are higher than in many other countries".
It pointed to retail rent costs and high wages as some of the main factors behind business costs in Australia being "5-10 percent higher than any other country... and these costs are passed onto consumers".
Apple and Microsoft both declined to comment when contacted by AFP while Adobe said it would "cooperate with the committee as we have done since the inquiry began".
NEW: Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant declares a state of emergency in four counties
At least a dozen people are injured; no deaths are reported
"Within seconds, everything changed," says a Hattiesburg, Mississippi resident
iReport: Please send your photos and videos, but stay safe
(CNN) -- A tornado touched down in southern Mississippi on Sunday, injuring more than a dozen people and causing widespread damage.
So far, no one has been reported killed, which authorities hope will remain true.
"We're really blessed because we don't have a fatality that we know of right now, and no major injuries. But we have a number of major damages to our structures around town," said Johnny DuPree, mayor of Hattiesburg, where the tornado hit.
"If there is a good thing about this, it happened on a Sunday when most of these structures were vacant," he said.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency in four counties: Forrest, Lamar, Lawrence and Marion.
iReporter shopping at Target captures video of tornado
Hattiesburg, which straddles Forrest and Lamar counties, is home to the University of Southern Mississippi. It suffered damage to several buildings, but there were no reports of injuries there. University police declared a state of emergency and urged those not on campus to stay away until further notice.
Nearby Oak Grove High School also suffered damage. Randy Wright posted photographs to his Twitter account of the school, showing debris strewn on what looked to be a parking lot and a truck upside down in a baseball diamond.
The Hattiesburg Public School District canceled classes Monday. The university campus will also be closed.
"There's quite a few homes without power at this point. Quite a few trees on houses, on cars, that type of thing," said Forrest County Sheriff Billy McGee.
He said that from 10 to 15 people were taken to the hospital, but that none suffered serious injuries. Another three were reported injured in nearby Marion County.
It was not clear how those people were hurt.
Sarah Lawrence, a Hattiesburg resident, said that the storm sounded like "stuff being thrown."
"Within seconds, everything changed," she said. "I didn't feel like there was much notice. I heard the sirens and everything looked OK outside, so I started making preparations to go into the bathroom. And then, next thing I know, all the lights went out, and it got dark outside."
As the storm system moved east Sunday night, tornado warnings were issued -- then expired -- for parts of southeastern Mississippi and southwestern Alabama.
Northeast begins digging out from major blizzard
The 10 deadliest U.S. tornadoes on record
23 incredible weather photos
CNN's Maggie Schneider, Elwyn Lopez and Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.
NEWPORT, R.I. Travel eased and life slowly returned to normal for most New Englanders after a massive blizzard, but many remained without power in cold and darkened homes and a forecast of rain brought a new worry: Weight piling up dangerously on roofs already burdened by heavy snow.
61 Photos
Powerful blizzard descends on Northeast
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Northeast sees record snow fall
The storm that slammed into the region with up to 3 feet of snow was blamed for at least 14 deaths in the Northeast and Canada, and brought some of the highest accumulations ever recorded. Still, coastal areas were largely spared catastrophic damage despite being lashed by strong waves and hurricane-force wind gusts at the height of the storm.
President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency for Connecticut, allowing federal aid to be used in recovery, and utilities in some hard-hit New England states predicted that the storm could leave some customers in the dark for days.
CBS News correspondent Miguel Bojorquez reports that Hamden, Conn., about 80 miles from New York City, experienced the deepest snow: 40 inches. The blizzard had dumped five inches of snow per hour.
Hundreds of people, their homes without heat or electricity, were forced to take refuge in emergency shelters set up in schools or other places.
"For all the complaining everyone does, people really came through," said Rich Dinsmore, 65, of Newport, R.I., who was staying at a Red Cross shelter set up in a middle school in Middletown after the power went out in his home on Friday.
Dinsmore, who has emphysema, was first brought by ambulance to a hospital after the medical equipment he relies on failed when the power went out and he had difficulty breathing.
"The police, the fire department, the state, the Red Cross, the volunteers, it really worked well," said the retired radio broadcaster and Army veteran.
Utility crews, some brought in from as far away as Georgia, Oklahoma and Quebec, raced to restore power to more than 300,000 customers -- down from 650,000 in eight states at the height of the storm. In hardest-hit Massachusetts, where some 234,000 customers remained without power on Sunday, officials said some of the outages might linger until Tuesday.
Driving bans were lifted and flights resumed at major airports in the region that had closed during the storm, though many flights were still canceled Sunday.
Boston recorded 24.9 inches of snow, making it the fifth-largest storm in the city since records were kept.
On eastern Long Island, which was slammed with as much as 30 inches of snow, hundreds of snowplows and other heavy equipment were sent in Sunday to clear ice- and drift-covered highways where hundreds of people and cars were abandoned during the height of the storm.
More than a third of all the state's snow-removal equipment was sent to the area, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, including more than 400 plow trucks and more than 100 snow blowers, loaders and backhoes.
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Snow leaves Long Island Expressway commuters stranded
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Mass. town powerless after record snow storm
The National Weather Service was forecasting rain and warmer temperatures in the region on Monday -- which could begin melting some snow but also add considerable weight to snow already piled on roofs, posing the danger of collapse. Of greatest concern were flat or gently-sloped roofs and officials said people should try to clear them -- but only if they could do so safely.
"We don't recommend that people, unless they're young and experienced, go up on roofs," said Peter Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.
Officials also continued to warn of carbon monoxide dangers in the wake of the storm.
In Boston, two people died Saturday after being overcome by carbon monoxide while sitting in running cars, including a teenager who went into the family car to stay warm while his father shoveled snow. The boy's name was not made public. In a third incident, two children were hospitalized but expected to recover.
A fire department spokesman said in each case, the tailpipes of the cars were clogged by snow.
Authorities also reminded homeowners to clear snow from heating vents to prevent carbon monoxide from seeping back into houses.
In Maine, the Penobscot County Sheriff's office said it recovered the body of a 75-year-old man who died after the pickup he was driving struck a tree and plunged into the Penobscot River during the storm. Investigators said Gerald Crommett apparently became disoriented while driving in the blinding snow.
Christopher Mahood, 23, of Germantown, N.Y., died after his tractor went off his driveway while he was plowing snow Friday night and rolled down a 15-foot embankment.
A Northridge, Calif., home improvement store was evacuated tonight because of a possible sighting of suspected cop-killer Christopher Dorner, just hours after police announced a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
As helicopters hovered overhead and a command center was established, police searched the Lowe's store and eventually told shoppers they could leave, but could not take their cars out of the parking lot.
LAPD spokesman Gus Villanueva said the major response to the possible sighting was a precaution, but couldn't say whether Dorner was in the area.
The announcement of the $1 million reward today came as authorities in Big Bear, Calif., scaled back their search for Dorner, the disgruntled ex-cop who is suspected in three revenge killings.
"This is the largest local reward ever offered, to our knowledge," Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said at a news conference today. "This is an act of domestic terrorism. This is a man who has targeted those that we entrust to protect the public. His actions cannot go unanswered."
The money for the reward was pooled by businesses, government, local law enforcement leaders and individual donors, Beck said.
PHOTOS: Former LAPD Officer Suspected in Shootings
The reward comes on the fourth day of a manhunt for Dorner, who has left Southern California on edge after he allegedly went on a killing spree last week to avenge his firing from the police force. Dorner outlined his grievances in a 6,000 word so-called "manifesto" and said he will keep killing until the truth is known about his case.
Irvine Police Department/AP Photo
Manhunt for Alleged Cop Killer Heads to California Mountains Watch Video
Christopher Dorner Search: Officials Search for Ex-officer in the Mountains Watch Video
Dorner's threats have prompted the LAPD to provide more than 50 law enforcement families with security and surveillance detail, Beck said.
Authorities are chasing leads, however they declined to say where in order to not impede the investigation.
Dorner's burned-out truck was found Thursday near Big Bear Lake, a popular skiing destination located 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Investigators found two AR-15 assault rifles in the burned-out truck Dorner abandoned, sources told ABC News.
The truck had a broken axle, which may be the reason he decided to set fire to it, the police sources said.
Full Coverage: Christopher Jordan Dorner
Officers have spent the past couple of days going door-to-door and searching vacant cabins. The manhunt was scaled back to 25 officers and one helicopter in the resort town today, according to the San Bernadino Sheriff's Office.
On Saturday, Beck announced he would reopen the investigation into Dorner's firing but said the decision was not made to "appease" the fugitive ex-cop.
"I feel we need to also publicly address Dorner's allegations regarding his termination of employment, and to do so I have directed our Professionals Standards Bureau and my Special Assistant for Constitutional Policing to completely review the Dorner complaint of 2007; To include a re-examination of all evidence and a re-interview of witnesses," Beck said. "We will also investigate any allegations made in his manifesto which were not included in his original complaint."
Quan's father, Randal Quan, was a retired captain with the LAPD and attorney who represented Dorner before a police review board that led to Dorner's dismissal from the force in 2008.
On Wednesday, after Dorner was identified as a suspect in the double murder, police believe he ambushed two Riverside police officers, killing one and wounding the other.
The next day, Randal Quan reported he received a taunting call from a man claiming to be Dorner who told him that he "should have done a better job of protecting his daughter," according to court documents documents.
Anyone with information leading to the arrest of Christopher Dorner is asked to call the LAPD task force at 213-486-6860.
ABC News' Dean Schabner, Jack Date, Pierre Thomas, Jason Ryan and Clayton Sandell and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
GEOENGINEERING is being tested - albeit inadvertently - in the north Pacific. Soot from oil-burning ships is dumping about 1000 tonnes of soluble iron per year across 6 million square kilometres of ocean, new research has revealed.
Fertilising the world's oceans with iron has been controversially proposed as a way of sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to curb global warming. Some geoengineers claim releasing iron into the sea will stimulate plankton blooms, which absorb carbon, but ocean processes are complex and difficult to monitor in tests.
"Experiments suggest you change the population of algae, causing a shift from fish-dominated to jellyfish-dominated ecosystems," says Alex Baker of the University of East Anglia, UK. Such concerns led the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to impose a moratorium on geoengineering experiments in 2010.
The annual ship deposition is much larger, if less concentrated, than the iron released in field tests carried out before the moratorium was in place. Yet because ship emissions are not intended to alter ocean chemistry, they do not violate the moratorium, says Jim Thomas of the ETC Group, a think tank that consults for the CBD. "If you intentionally drove oil-burning ships back and forth as a geoengineering experiment, that would contravene it."
The new study, by Akinori Ito of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, is the first to quantify how shipping deposits iron in parts of the ocean normally deficient in it. Earlier models had assumed that only 1 to 2 per cent of the iron contained in aerosols, including shipping emissions, is soluble in seawater, so the remaining 98 to 99 percent would sink to the bottom without affecting ocean life. But Ito found that up to 80 per cent of the iron in shipping soot is soluble (Global Biogeochemical Cycles, doi.org/kdj). As this soot rapidly falls to the sea surface, it is likely to be fertilising the oceans.
In the high-latitude north Pacific - a region that is naturally iron-poor and therefore likely to be most affected by human deposits - ship emissions now account for 70 per cent of soluble iron from human activity, with the burning of biomass and coal accounting for the rest. Shipping's share will rise as traffic continues to grow and regulations restrict coal and biomass emissions.
Can we learn anything from this unintentional experiment? Baker thinks not. "The process isn't scientifically useful," he says, because the uncontrolled nature of the iron makes it difficult to draw meaningful comparisons.
The depositions are unlikely to be harmful at current levels, he says, but "given the uncertainties, I just don't know how much these iron emissions would have to increase before there was demonstrable harm to an ecosystem, or benefit in terms of carbon uptake, for that matter".
This article appeared in print under the headline "Ships inadvertently fertilise the oceans"
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TOKYO: Four Chinese ships were spotted Sunday in disputed East China Sea waters, Japanese officials said, as Tokyo considered disclosing video footage and pictures as evidence of a Chinese frigate's alleged radar-lock incident.
For the first time after Tokyo made the allegation last week, China sent maritime surveillance vessels near Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea, known as Senkaku in Tokyo and Diaoyu by Beijing, which also claims them.
They were seen sailing in the contiguous waters near one of the outcrops as of 0000 GMT, the Japan Coast Guard said.
Tokyo accused a Chinese frigate of locking its weapons-tracking radar on a Japanese destroyer -- the first time the two nations' navies have locked horns in the territorial dispute that has provoked fears of armed conflict breaking out between the two.
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday demanded Beijing apologise and admit to the incident, which occurred late January, after Chinese authorities flatly denied Tokyo's accusation.
Japan's Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said on Fuji TV on Sunday that Tokyo was carefully studying whether or how to disclose military data as evidence.
However, he also said he did not think China would "admit to it even if Japan discloses a variety of evidence, because it is trying to protect its national interest".
Onodera on Saturday told the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper that Tokyo had "evidence to show the fire-control radar chased after the ship (of Japan's Self-Defence Forces) for some time. The visual evidence would convince many of those who watch it".
The long-running row over the islands intensified in September when Tokyo nationalised part of the chain, triggering fury in Beijing and huge anti-Japan demonstrations across China.
Beijing has repeatedly sent ships and aircraft near the islands and both sides have scrambled fighter jets, though there have been no clashes.
FARMINGVILLE, N.Y. Stranded for hours on a snow-covered road, Priscilla Arena prayed, took out a sheet of loose-leaf paper and wrote what she thought might be her last words to her husband and children.
She told her 9 1/2-year-old daughter, Sophia, she was "picture-perfect beautiful." And she advised her 5 ?-year-old son, John: "Remember all the things that mommy taught you. Never say you hate someone you love. Take pride in the things you do, especially your family. ... Don't get angry at the small things; it's a waste of precious time and energy. Realize that all people are different, but most people are good. "
"My love will never die — remember, always," she added.
Arena, who was rescued in an Army canvas truck after about 12 hours, was one of hundreds of drivers who spent a fearful, chilly night stuck on highways in a blizzard that plastered New York's Long Island with more than 30 inches of snow, its ferocity taking many by surprise despite warnings to stay off the roads.
Even plows were mired in the snow or blocked by stuck cars, so emergency workers had to resort to snowmobiles to try to reach motorists. Four-wheel-drive vehicles, tractor-trailers and a couple of ambulances could be seen stranded along the roadway and ramps of the Long Island Expressway. Stuck drivers peeked out from time to time, running their cars intermittently to warm up as they waited for help.
With many still stranded hours after the snow stopped, Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged other communities to send plows to help dig out in eastern Long Island, which took the state's hardest hit by far in the massive Northeast storm.
In Connecticut, where the storm dumped more than 3 feet of snow in some places, the National Guard rescued about 90 stranded motorists, taking a few to hospitals with hypothermia.
51 Photos
Powerful blizzard descends on Northeast
The scenes came almost exactly two years after a blizzard marooned at least 1,500 cars and buses on Chicago's iconic Lake Shore Drive, leaving hundreds of people shivering in their vehicles for as long as 12 hours and questioning why the city didn't close the crucial thoroughfare earlier.
Cuomo and other officials were similarly asked why they didn't act to shut down major highways in Long Island in advance of the storm, especially given the sprawling area's reputation for gridlock. The expressway is often called "the world's longest parking lot."
"The snow just swallowed them up. It came down so hard and so fast," explained Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone.
"That's not an easy call," added Cuomo, who noted that people wanted to get home and that officials had warned them to take precautions because the worst of the snow could start by the evening rush hour. Flashing highway signs underscored the message ahead of time: "Heavy Snow Expected. Avoid PM Travel!"
"People need to act responsibly in these situations," Cuomo said.
But many workers didn't have the option of taking off early Friday, Arena noted. The 41-year-old sales account manager headed home from an optical supply business in Ronkonkoma around 4 p.m. She soon found her SUV stuck along a road in nearby Farmingville.
"Even though we would dig ourselves out and push forward, the snow kept piling, and therefore we all got stuck, all of us," she recalled later at Brookhaven Town Hall, where several dozen stranded motorists were taken after being rescued. Many others opted to stay with their cars.
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Getting travel back to normal after blizzard
Richard Ebbrecht left his Brooklyn chiropractic office around 3 p.m. for his home in Middle Island, about 60 miles away, calculating that he could make the drive home before the worst of the blizzard set in. He was wrong.
As the snow came rushing down faster than he'd foreseen, he got stuck six or seven times on the expressway and on other roads. Drivers began helping each other shovel and push, he said, but to no avail. He finally gave up and spent the night in his car on a local thoroughfare, only about two miles from his home.
"I could run my car and keep the heat on and listen to the radio a little bit," he said.
He walked home around at 8 a.m., leaving his car.
Late-shifters including Wayne Jingo had little choice but to risk it if they wanted to get home. By early afternoon, he'd been stuck in his pickup truck alongside the Long Island Expressway for nearly 12 hours.
He'd left his job around midnight as a postal worker at Kennedy Airport and headed home to Medford, about 50 miles east. He was at an exit in Ronkonkoma — almost home — around 1:45 a.m. when another driver came barreling at him westbound, the wrong way, he said. Jingo swerved to avoid the oncoming car, missed the exit and ended up stuck on the highway's grass shoulder.
He rocked the truck back and forth to try to free it, but it only sank down deeper into the snow and shredded one of his tires. He called 911. A police officer came by at 9:30 a.m. and said he would send a tow truck.
At 1 p.m. Saturday, Jingo was still waiting.
"I would have been fine if I didn't have to swerve," he said.
In Middle Island, a Wal-Mart remained unofficially open long past midnight to accommodate more than two dozen motorists who were stranded on nearby roads.
"We're here to mind the store, but we can't let people freeze out there," manager Jerry Greek told Newsday.
Officials weren't aware of any deaths among the stranded drivers, Cuomo said. Suffolk County police said no serious injuries had been reported among stuck motorists, but officers were still systematically checking stranded vehicles late Saturday afternoon.
While the expressway eventually opened Saturday, about 30 miles of the highway was to be closed again Sunday for snow removal.
Susan Cassara left her job at a Middle Island day care center around 6:30 p.m., after driving some of the children home because their parents couldn't get there to pick them up.
She got stuck on one road until about 2:30 a.m. Then a plow helped her get out — but she got stuck again, she said. Finally, an Army National Guardsman got to her on a snowmobile after 4 a.m.
"It was so cool. Strapped on, held on and came all the way here" to the makeshift shelter at the Brookhaven Town Hall, she said. "Something for my bucket list."
The Los Angeles Police Department announced today it will reopen the case of the firing of Christopher Dorner, but said the decision was not made to "appease" the fugitive former cop suspected of killing three people.
Dorner, a fired and disgruntled former Los Angeles police officer, said in the so-called "manifesto" he released that he was targeting LAPD officials and their families and will keep killing until the truth is known about his case.
"I have no doubt that the law enforcement community will bring to an end the reign of terror perpetrated on our region by Christopher Jordan Dorner and he will be held accountable for his evil actions," LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said in a statement released tonight.
He spoke of the "tremendous strides" the LAPD has made in regaining public trust after numerous scandals, but added: "I am aware of the ghosts of the LAPD's past and one of my biggest concerns is that they will be resurrected by Dorner's allegations of racism within the Department."
To do that, he said, full re-investigation of the case that led to Dorner's firing is necessary.
"I feel we need to also publicly address Dorner's allegations regarding his termination of employment, and to do so I have directed our Professionals Standards Bureau and my Special Assistant for Constitutional Policing to completely review the Dorner complaint of 2007; To include a re-examination of all evidence and a re-interview of witnesses," he said. "We will also investigate any allegations made in his manifesto which were not included in his original complaint.
Irvine Police Department/AP Photo
Christopher Dorner Search: Officials Search for Ex-officer in the Mountains Watch Video
Hundreds of Officers on Hunt for Alleged Cop Killer Watch Video
"I do this not to appease a murderer. I do it to reassure the public that their police department is transparent and fair in all the things we do."
PHOTOS: Former LAPD Officer Suspected in Shootings
As police searched for Dorner today in the San Bernardino Mountains, sources told ABC News that investigators found two AR-15 assault rifles in the burned-out truck Dorner abandoned.
The truck had a broken axle, which may be the reason he decided to set fire to it, the police sources said.
A man identifying himself as Dorner taunted the father of Monica Quan four days after the former LAPD officer allegedly killed her and just 11 hours after he allegedly killed a police officer in Riverside, Calif., according to court documents obtained by ABC News
A man claiming to be Dorner called Randall Quan and told him that that he "should have done a better job of protecting his daughter," according to the documents.
In his 6,000-word "manifesto," Dorner named Randal Quan, a retired LAPD captain and attorney who represented him before a police review board that led to Dorner's dismissal from the force.
"I never had an opportunity to have a family of my own, I'm terminating yours," Dorner wrote, and directed Quan and other officials to "[l]ook your wives/husbands and surviving children directly in the face and tell them the truth as to why your children are dead."
The call, according to court records, was traced to Vancouver, Wash., but law enforcement officials do not believe Dorner was there at the time at the call.
Dorner is believed to have made the call early Thursday afternoon, less than half a day after he is suspected of killing a police officer and wounding two others early that morning, sparking an unprecedented man hunt involving more than a thousand police officers and federal agents spanning hundreds of miles.
POTHOLES, cracks, gnarly tree roots - the streets are full of nasty obstacles when they fall into disrepair. But an army of online workers could soon fix that, by whizzing virtually through neighbourhoods and earmarking encumbrances for a quick response from the local council.
Jon Froehlich and colleagues at the University of Maryland in College Park have developed software that allows untrained crowdsourced workers from Amazon's Mechanical Turk service (AMT) to zoom through the streets using Google Street View and find and label the potholes, obstructed pathways, broken kerbs and missing ramps that can stymie street access, particularly for those using a wheelchair or a walking aid. A report that includes images of highlighted problem areas can then be generated for the local council's road-mending crews to act on.
The researchers built a prototype following interest in the idea from officials at the US Department of Transportation, who said that the project could save municipalities precious time and resources by telling repair teams the precise nature of the problem before they head into the field. This would aid scheduling and ensure that crews take the right amount of materials - such as concrete or flagstones - to the site.
The team tested the labelling software using six volunteers - three members of the research team and three wheelchair users - and then set the task to 400 AMT workers. After viewing a short instructional video, which showed how to identify problem areas by labelling them with coloured shapes, the workers accurately spotted access issues 93 per cent of the time. Froehlich will present the work in April at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Paris, France.
In the next version of the system, the team wants to automate the process using computer vision algorithms. The researchers also hope to access the precise laser range-finding data that the Street View camera cars acquire as they comb the streets. Such information would increase accuracy when assessing the sizes and shapes of obstructions.
"It sounds like this project has a lot of parallels with FixMyStreet," says Myfanwy Nixon of mySociety, a non-profit organisation in London that runs FixMyStreet.com, where people can report street problems. "Online technologies are very good for people with limited mobility or a disability that prevents them from getting their voice out via other means."
This article appeared in print under the headline "Online eyes see the way to an easier amble"
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