DARPA Shredder Challenge solved via crowd-sourcing

It was clever computer vision stitching algorithms with a human verification step.

It was a hybrid and it was a successful exploitation of the synergy between CV and crowds, which is why it triumphed over those taking just one path or the other.

This relevent link is also on HN right now: http://www.darpa.mil/NewsEvents/Releases/2011/12/02_.aspx http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3305613