Terrapattern search engine finds patterns in the Google Earth landscape ZDNet

You can spend a long time searching satellite images for interesting locations. Now imagine a tool that can not only show you the location, but scans large geographical areas to find specific features that are similar, and then it presents these results in a pattern-like format. In 2002, Carnegie Mellon's (CMU) School of Computer Science launched what it calls the world's "first PhD program in Machine Learning". It attempted to learn how to program systems to automatically learn and use its experience to improve its results. A group of CMU professors and students have now created a visual search tool for satellite imagery called Terrapattern. In a landmark project, Google Earth has teamed up with locals to provide a fully immersive experience of the Sherpa community and their mountain home in the Sagarmatha region in Nepal, home to the tallest mountain in the world, Everest.