Crowdsourced image analysis platform

1. A crowdsourced search and locate platform, comprising:

a network-connected application server computer comprising a memory and a processor, and

further comprising program code stored in the memory and operating on the processor, the code adapted to:

(a) receive a plurality of connections from a plurality of client devices;

(b) send a satellite image corresponding to a geospatial location associated with a crowdsourced image analysis campaign to a first client device via the network;

(c) receive tagging data from the first client device via the network, the tagging data corresponding to a plurality of physical objects present at a location shown by the satellite image and locations of the physical objects; and

(d) execute, using the processor, a crowdrank algorithm, wherein the crowdrank algorithm takes as input a large number of object tags and associated locations received from the plurality of client devices and determines a most likely distribution of actual locations of physical objects of interest;

wherein the crowdrank algorithm performs the steps of:

computing a vector of agreement and disagreement values for each of the plurality of retrieved tags, wherein each agreement or disagreement value is determined by comparing a distance between a first location associated with a first retrieved tag with which a first vector is associated and a second location associated with a second retrieved tag; and

automatically performs an expectation-maximization or expectation-minimization process iteratively until a configured maximum number of iterations is performed or until an indicia of rate of change between iterations falls below a configured threshold; and

wherein the plurality of client devices each comprises, at least, a memory, a processor, and programmable instructions stored in the memory and operating on the processor, the instructions configured to:

(e) display a high resolution satellite image of a first geographical location associated with the crowdsourced image analysis campaign for which crowdsourced object tagging is needed;

(f) display a plurality of tagging icons corresponding to physical objects that may be tagged within the first geographical location;

(g) display a navigation minimap showing a second geographical region associated with the crowdsourced image analysis campaign of which the first geographical region is a subset, and adapted to allow a user to navigate from the first geographical region to a further geographical region within the second geographical region; and

(h) upon a selection of a cursor location at which to place a new tag corresponding to a specific object type, display a shape surrounding the cursor location, the effective radius of which is configurable and is adapted to define a region about the cursor location within which other tags by other client devices, of the plurality of client devices, are considered to be in agreement with the new tag.