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Italiano台美史料中心-加州台裔科技人扮演「柯南」 精准定位救迷路登山客
来源 – 转载自:台美史料中心，文章内容并不代表本网立场和观点。
792. 加州台裔科技人扮演「柯南」 精准定位救迷路登山客/A hiker was lost and desperate. A stranger with an unusual hobby saved him/04/2021
April 29, 2021 Admin3 My Stories
加州台裔科技人扮演「柯南」 精准定位救迷路登山客
April 28, 2021
（中央社记者周世惠旧金山27日专电）当垂在岩壁上的「毛毛脚」照片是救难队唯一的线索并上网求救时；台裔工程师郭斐品运用科技在21分钟内比对出登山客的座标，协助束手无策的救难队完成了不可能的搜救任务。
第二代台裔科技人郭斐品（Benjamin Kuo）今天接受中央社记者访问，重述4月13日当天他如何扮演「柯南」，凭着一张网路上的「毛毛脚」照片，帮助加州的救援单位定位座标、成功找到一名迷途一夜的登山客，完成救援任务。
洛杉矶郡警长办公室13日早上，透过社群媒体脸书和推特发布一则求救讯息，模糊的照片是一双男性的双脚垂在安吉利斯国家森林（Angeles National Forest）的岩壁上。这位登山客在手机没电前，送出一则简讯和两张照片给朋友，一张照片没传成功，另一张就是「毛毛脚」。
服务於科技业、47岁的郭斐品当时正在南加州的家里工作，看到这则推文後，热心的他转推讯息，并跟自己打赌「我可以找到这位置」。
同样爱好户外运动的郭斐品发挥「柯南」精神，从照片中的岩壁大胆研判，「这人在南边，因为北边没有绿色山谷」。这项资讯让他缩小了搜寻区域。
郭斐品接着利用卫星地图和科技工具，包括谷歌地球（Google Earth）与欧盟的两个卫星哨兵2号（Sentinel-2），交叉比对全景图和原始照片的特定细节，确认这位迷路登山客的经纬度座标，过程仅花21分钟。
「令我讶异地，他们真的接受我的建议，决定去那个地点找人」。搜救队就在郭斐品建议座标的不到3/4英里处找到人。由於这位登山客为了让别人看到他，稍微移动了位置，所以郭斐品原来的判读可能几乎百分之百正确。
搜救队差点束手无策，因为他们从没有仅凭一张照片进行搜救的经验。郭斐品说：「真的很幸运，很高兴他获救。能拥有帮助别人的讯息，那很值得分享。」
郭斐品的父母於1960年代从台湾到美国求学，之後就地成家立业，郭斐品在成长过程中，印象深刻的是台湾美食、夜市和到庙里拜拜，以及回到母亲故乡芦洲的种种。
华盛顿邮报（Washington Post）4月22日以「迷路绝望的登山客，靠着陌生人不寻常的爱好救了他」（A hiker was lost and desperate. A stranger with an unusual hobby saved him）为标题，报导郭斐品科技助人的善举。
经验老道的登山客科裴恩（Rene Compean）得救後，在视讯通话时感恩地对郭斐品说，「我的命是你救的」，相约有机会两人一起爬山。
除了科技专业，47岁的郭斐品还是一位业余的无线电玩家，他的推特帐号就是他的无线电呼号。他善用此兴趣，曾参与救援波多黎各的风灾，经常在社群媒体提供加州野火相关消息。
正因为要正确判读野火的讯息，郭斐品发现许多卫星资料和影像免费对外界开放，相关资源更是他这次找出迷踪登山客座标时的重要工具。
从科技的角度，郭斐品建议从事户外活动的人们善用手机内建的罗盘定位功能，另外他推荐免费网站及应用程式FindMeSAR，即使在没有网路的深山也能使用，因为「送出有经纬度的座标求救，远胜於脚的照片」。（编辑：韦枢／高照芬）1100428
台裔科技人郭斐品接受中央社记者专访，分享他运用卫星资讯和科技工具协助加州的救援单位，从一张「毛毛脚」照片，经精准定位後，找到迷路一夜的登山客。中央社记者周世惠旧金山摄 110年4月28日
Source from 台湾公义报
A hiker was lost and desperate. A stranger with an unusual hobby saved him.
By Sydney Page
April 22, 2021 at 5:00 a.m. CDT
When Rene Compean snapped a photo of his soot-stained legs hanging over a steep cascade of rocks, he feared it was the last picture he’d ever take. Hopelessly lost while hiking in Southern California, he thought he might die.
“I’m not ready,” the 45-year-old man told himself as he repeatedly yelled for help and used charred sticks to write SOS on any open surfaces he could find.
Compean had trekked through the Angeles National Forest trails more times than he could count, he said, but after venturing along a new path April 12 — for what he intended to be a two-hour outing — he lost his way.
Several hours into the solo hike, after many failed attempts at getting his bearings, he was scared. The temperature was dropping fast in the remote, rugged terrain, and the winds were whipping.
Compean grabbed his cellphone, which had less than 10 percent battery remaining, and climbed to a spot where he was able to get at least one bar of signal.
“SOS. My phone is going to die. I’m lost,” Compean texted a friend, along with two photos showing where he was — though only one went through. It was the picture of his legs.
The photo offered minimal information and, given Compean’s lack of cellphone signal, the resolution was very low. More importantly, though, Compean didn’t realize his location settings were disabled on his phone.
Still, the grainy image was somehow detailed enough for a total stranger to decipher the hiker’s exact location.
Ben Kuo was working at his home about 60 miles away in Ventura County, Calif., when he stumbled upon a tweet from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, along with the photo of Compean’s legs.
The sheriff’s search-and-rescue teams had already spent the previous night unsuccessfully looking for Compean, so they released the photograph to the public hoping someone could help.
Sgt. John Gilbert said they figured Compean was on the mountain at about 7,000 feet elevation, and the blasts of wind were “definitely a concern.”
“We didn’t have any information that he was adequately prepared to spend the night out in the wilderness,” Gilbert said.
The department tweeted: “Are You an Avid Hiker in the Mt. Waterman Area? #LASD SAR Teams need help locating a #missing hiker.”
Kuo, 47, inspected the image and thought, “I bet I could find that spot,” he recalled.
Kuo works in the tech industry, but he is also an amateur radio operator. For several years, as a hobby, he has used his Twitter account to alert the public about natural disasters. He regularly examines satellite imagery to identify and track local wildfires.
Plus, he has another unusual pastime: “I have always loved looking for where photos are taken,” Kuo said. He frequently tries to identify where movie scenes, television shows or commercials were filmed. He’s often successful.
So when he came across the blurry image of Compean’s legs surrounded by an endless landscape of rocks and vegetation, he instinctively pulled up a satellite map. Since the sheriff’s department said Compean’s car was found near Buckhorn Campground, he narrowed his search to the surrounding area.
“There’s an amazing amount of information you can get from satellites,” said Kuo, who is also a hiker, though he has never visited the area where Compean was lost.
The first thing he noticed in the picture were patches of greenery. “I realized he’s got to be on the south side because there’s not really any green valleys on the north side,” he explained.
That finding tightened his search considerably and helped him zero in on one area that closely resembled the terrain in the image.
The final step was cross-referencing the original photo with Google Earth and comparing specific details.
“By punching in the time and date that the photo was taken, you can compare the view in Google Earth,” said Kuo. “They matched.”
He shared a screenshot of the satellite imagery on Twitter and called the sheriff’s department to notify officials of the coordinates he uncovered.
After vetting the findings in relation to the information they were able to glean about Compean’s whereabouts, “we felt pretty confident that Ben’s information was good,” Gilbert said. A search-and-rescue team swiftly boarded a helicopter and flew to the area.
Fortunately for Compean, Kuo was spot on.
More than a full day after he went missing, the rescuers found him less than a mile from Kuo’s predicted coordinates.
“It was very gratifying that he was saved,” Kuo said. “If you have information that could help save somebody, that’s something worth sharing.”
“Ben’s help allowed us to get to that location much sooner than we probably would have,” Gilbert said. “It made a gigantic difference in us finding him.”
For Compean, who had spent more than 27 hours alone in the wilderness, hearing the vibrating helicopter hovering above him left him in tears. He was overwhelmed with relief, he said.
“I’m safe!” Compean, who sustained just a few minor cuts and scrapes, yelled repeatedly to no one in particular.
As an experienced hiker, he said it was never his intention to veer off the trails, emphasizing that there were no signs indicating that he had entered a potentially dangerous or closed-off zone. He later wondered whether signage blocking the area had been scorched by wildfires.
A fallen sign near where Compean was hiking that was scorched in a recent wildfire. Within a few hours of setting off on his hike, Compean found no other signage in the area and lost his sense of direction. (Rene Compean)
“I stay away from areas that are blocked or have signs that prohibit entry,” Compean said, adding that Angeles National Forest officials are reportedly investigating whether he entered a fire closure zone, though no one has contacted him directly.
He described his time alone in the mountains — with no flashlight and only a liter of water and a power bar in his backpack — as terrifying.
“I didn’t want to give up,” Compean said, adding that he kept trying to climb higher to make himself more visible. “I didn’t know if I would have made it another day there because I probably would have fallen trying to get to a higher peak.”
He yelled for help over and over, even as it seemed futile.
“It would just echo into the mountains, and I wouldn’t get anything in return,” said Compean, who eventually lost his voice.
He spent the night on high alert after spotting two mountain lions and a bear, he said, keeping a big stick and some sharp rocks beside him in case an animal came close.
Dressed in a tank top, shorts and a hoodie, Compean was chilled to the bone. He hugged himself into a tight ball, using his backpack to shield his bare legs from the frigid gusts that pounded him.
Gilbert said calls about lost hikers “is a common problem for our department,” adding that his team responded to 162 incidents last year.
To avoid running into potentially life-threatening problems, Gilbert encourages hikers to plan their route in advance and let someone know the trail they intend to take. He also suggests bringing a paper map since cellphone battery is finite, and investing in a personal locator beacon — which works in remote regions where cell service does not.
Compean’s story probably would have ended very differently, Gilbert said, had a total stranger with strong satellite skills and a sharp eye for detail not taken immediate action.
In fact, when Compean was finally pulled safely into the hovering helicopter, one rescuer wrote on a piece of paper, “You are so lucky.”
After the crew touched down and the hiker notified his family and friends that he was safe, the rescuers told him that Kuo was instrumental in helping to pinpoint his precise location.
Compean, who works as a mechanic, asked for the stranger’s contact information and set up a virtual meeting the next day to express his gratitude.
“I owe you my life,” Compean told Kuo during the Zoom call.
The two are hoping to meet in person next week for a celebratory meal.
“Maybe we’ll even go on a hike,” said Compean, adding that despite his near-death experience, he intends to revisit Angeles National Forest, his favorite hiking destination. But going forward, he vowed to be better prepared.
“I love the outdoors. I won’t let anything deter me from doing what I love,” he said
Above all, though, “I’m so lucky that Ben did what he did,” Compean said. “I’m thankful to be alive.”
