Remote quality control via Internet

I am a fan of the show "How it's Made". I am impressed that although robots do much actualy building of mass produced items, the process still often concludes by having the finished items in their multitude stream by a line of humans who do quality control, picking out rejects. Recycled materials are sorted by a similar process. It is hard to beat a human eye for complex pattern recognition.

This work could be farmed out using the internet. It is conditional on each piece inhabiting a specific space on the belt such that it can be individually identified.

I log in. I watch pieces passing by on my screen. Maybe they tumble as they move. If one looks good l right click. If one looks bad I left click. If I have a Mac with a one button mouse I weep and tear my hair. Acceptance or rejection of a piece is done by majority opinion. I am given a credit for participating with the majority in the correct categorization of a piece. A local robot does the work of flipping the reject off the belt.

The credit algorithm could vary. If rejects are in the minority then I might receive more credits for participating in their identifcation. But if I incorrectly (per the majority) note something to be a reject I may be docked a credit or ultimately lose my work slot.

Credits would convert to pay according to # participating at a given time: if you work when everyone else does, your credits are lower than if you work odd hours.

One could cheat the system by logging in with a number of coconspirateurs and systematically marking large numbers as rejects. Pattern recognition would detect that given IP addresses were voting as a bloc, and not in sync with others and kick them off or dock thir pay.

Ultimately as regards cheaters, dilution is the solution to pollution. This system would allow large numbers of people to work from home at odd hours and for short and irregular periods: disabled, elderly, unemployed, Warcraft gold farming Chinese, etc.