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Have you ever seen a picture on the Internet and wondered where it was taken? Perhaps you saw an idyllic beach scene on Pinterest and wanted to visit there soon. Or maybe you saw a photo on Instagram of mountain retreat and want to plan your next vacation there. If a photo is tagged with its location your search ends immediately, but not all photos are tagged.
PlaNet, a new software program developed by Google, that is designed to figure out where in the world a photo was taken. PlaNet is better than humans at guessing the location of a photo.
If you’ve ever played the game GeoGuessr, you know how tough it can be to figure out where in the world a photo is from. You look for clues such as street signs, license plates, store names, vegetation, landmarks and animals. PlaNet does all that and more to determine the location of a photo.
[note] => Don’t miss GeoGuessr – How Well Do You Know the World? [/note]
To develop superhuman capabilities for PlaNet, the developers wrote a software program to analyze more than 126 million photos available on the Internet to learn geographic locations. The photos were not only analyzed individually but also in context with other photos taken at a similar time.
The developers gave the example of a photo of a croissant, which could be taken at many locations around the world. But if the photo were taken at a similar time to a photo of the Eiffel Tower, chances are that croissant photo was taken in Paris.
In organizing the information from the millions of photos, the developers divided the globe into 26,263 cells. These cells helped the developers isolate and organize data in the photos to locate where they were taken.
PlaNet is able to eliminate cells where a photo could not have been taken to narrow the possibilities. The developers said that by using this approach, “PlaNet is able to localize 3.6% of the images at street-level accuracy and 10.1% at city-level accuracy. 28.4% of the photos are correctly localized at country level and 48.0% at continent level.”
The software works best in areas where many photos have been taken. In places where few photos exist, such as the bottom of the ocean, mountaintops and other remote sites, PlaNet’s accuracy is reduced.
PlaNet can be fooled. Many places may look similar, such as replicas of the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas and Tokyo. This photo illustrates some of PlaNet’s wrong guesses:
Testing PlaNet Using GeoGuessr
To test the accuracy of PlaNet, the developers had the program play the Internet game GeoGuessr against 10 well-traveled humans. The game was played 5 times against each person in Challenge mode where each player sees the same scene and has to guess where it is in the world.
Unlike a normal GeoGuessr game, players did not zoom out or move the scene to see additional clues about the location. Instead, both PlaNet and humans had to guess locations based on a single scene.
PlaNet earned superhuman status by beating humans 28 out of 50 times in the game. The median localization area for PlaNet was 1131.7 km, while humans had a median localization area of 2320.75 km.
To learn more, check out the PlaNet report.
Possible Future Uses for PlaNet
While you may think that PlaNet needs supercomputer resources to achieve superhuman results, the program is only 377 MB, making it small enough for a smartphone app. The developers did not reveal what uses or availability PlaNet will have, but many possibilities exist for such a tool.
One can imagine PlaNet being used to solve missing person cases or crimes where a location must be pinpointed. People could plan travel to enticing destinations without knowing the location where an inspirational photo was taken. PlaNet could be used as an educational tool in classrooms where geography is taught.
Your Thoughts
Do you think you could guess better than PlaNet where a photo was taken? Have you played GeoGuessr recently? Are you ever curious where a photo has been taken? What would you use PlaNet for?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
*Northern Lights image courtesy of Terje Nestus via Flickr and Creative Commons
Hi Carolyn,
Happy Monday 🙂
Interesting post indeed! Trust you to come up with great stuff each time! Honestly speaking, I’ve never heard of GeoGuessr, leave alone play it, so I wouldn’t really know. But yes, one is always curious about where a photo was taken. I think you’d shared another app or software that could do the same long back if I am not mistaken (I forget the name now though).
PlaNet seems to fit in so well with that, especially if it’s used as an educational tool where Geography is concerned. Yes, it could solve missing person cases or crimes where a location must be pinpointed. People could plan their best of travel destinations by seeing the locations through PlaNet. Lot’s one can do for sure.
Thanks for sharing it all with us. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, this technology could be very useful. It will be interesting to see what Google does with PlaNet. PlaNet could become an app or incorporated into an existing Google service.
GeoGuessr is a fun Internet game that helps you learn about geography. When you’re dropped somewhere on Earth and have to guess where you are, you have to consider many clues. Playing GeoGuessr even once will give you a strong appreciation for the brilliance that went into developing PlaNet.
But do be careful. GeoGuessr can be very addictive!
Hey Carolyn,
Well that’s pretty cool, I have seen some photos that I’m curious as to where the photo could have possibly been taken. I have no clue so to know there is some software that might be able to do that is cool.
I’d never heard of GeoGuessr but I’m sure you’re not surprised. I can imagine though that they’re not always accurate so I still might never know whether it’s spot on or not.
I think I might have to test it out just to see how it works. Something to definitely have some fun with.
Thanks for sharing this, you’re always giving us the goodies.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Yes, I wrote about GeoGuessr nearly three years ago and it continues to be a popular article. The game is so much fun, you don’t even realize you’re learning geography.
Good point, we’ve all seen a picture and wondered where it was taken. Even if we’ll never get there, it’s fun to travel in our imaginations! But figuring out the location takes a lot of brain power.
As humans, we can look for road signs, language, plant life and famous landmarks but computers may have a tougher time. Yet PlaNet does better than humans at figuring out location information. Pretty impressive!
I hope you do have a chance to give GeoGuessr a try, Adrienne. Prepare for fun!
Hello Carolyn Nicander Mohr,
That is something new to learn. One is always curious were the photos was taken.
This had increased due to influence of social media sites.
Great to know that, it could be determined by using a software, that’s something cool.
GeoUser is something new to learn here. Probably would be trying this new stuff soon.
Have a great week ahead.
Thank you.
Shantanu sinha
Hi Shantanu, Good point, we see so many more photos now that we use social media. Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and more are all filled with photos of stunning scenery. With PlaNet we soon may not have to wonder where they were taken.
I hope you do try GeoGuessr, Shatanu. I think you’ll have a lot of fun playing the game!
They could easily cheat by examining that GPS coordinates in the photograph’s metadata, assuming that the photo had that data and it wasn’t stripped out if it originally had it. It would take the fun out of it though.
Hi Carolyn,
I’m going to use PlaNet to better my research skills and perfect my travel plans (as I love traveling a ton).
Usually, I see a photo online and just wonder where in the world that would be…clearly, it appears the days of the wild guesses are clearly over 🙂
Once again, it appears that Google is committed to being ahead and championing the ‘online course’.
I appreciate this update, Carolyn…I’ll be checking the details of this program and how I can start using it in a moment.
Do enjoy the day.
Always,
Akaahan Terungwa
Hi Carolyn,
This is so cool!
Yes, you could use PlaNet (love the name) to place old photographs – locations long forgotten.
But you could also use for more undercover purposes too – figuring out where people are that don’t want to be found. There really is no privacy anymore!
Parents of teens might appreciate this too – but the teens, not so much. 😉
I will be on the lookout for more news about this software.