Skip to main content

Software could determine where a video was shot, based on scenery and ambient sound

Sometimes, a posted video is the only clue to the whereabouts of a missing person, or a terrorist group. Unfortunately, unless that video has already been geo-tagged, it can often be very difficult to tell where it was shot. Now, however, scientists have created algorithms that can determine a video's location by comparing its background imagery and audio to that of thousands of other videos.
The researchers, from Spain's Ramón Llull University, utilized the existing MediaEval Placing Task database. It's a collection of videos and photos from known locations, used for developing geolocation software.
Given that the videos being scrutinized presumably wouldn't show well-known landmarks, the algorithms instead look for distinct images in seemingly generic scenes (such as streets or wilderness areas) that have a match in the database.
Random ambient audio also plays a key role. "The acoustic information can be as valid as the visual and, on occasions, even more so when it comes to geolocating a video," said researcher Xavier Sevillano. "In this field we use some physics and mathematical vectors taken from the field of recognition of acoustic sources, because they have already demonstrated positive results."
So far, the system has been tested by comparing sample videos to approximately 10,000 other clips already in the MediaEval database. It was able to geolocate three percent of those samples to within a 10-km (6.2-mile) radius of where they were actually shot, and one percent to within one kilometer (0.6 mile).
While those figures obviously leave a lot of videos still unlocated, the scientists believe that the success rate should be much higher if the database is expanded to include many more clips. Additionally, even in its present form, the technology is claimed to be more accurate than other approaches used on the database.
Source: FECYT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

10 URLs to Find Out What Google Knows About You

Google is much more than just a search giant. It is also home to many of your favorite products: Gmail, YouTube, and Chrome, just to name a few. Apart from that, it also offers many products to help you  keep track of your data . Most of these are  hidden deep  inside the My Account dashboard, which many users don’t really know of. These hidden tools  may reveal interesting details  about your usage of Google’s many services. We’ve compiled a list of important Google URLs of some  hidden tools  that carry information of what you did with Google, mostly from the searches that you have made on their many products, the voice searches and typed out Google searches that you have made. Are you ready to  find out what how Google knows about you ? 1.  Google Dashboard Google Dashboard offers  transparency and control over the personal data stored with your Google Account. You can  view  and  manage the data gener...

Edible water balloons that could get rid of the need for plastic bottles

In case you didn’t know, bottled water is destroying the planet. We know that we need to be drinking plenty of water. It’s important. But the plastic bottles they’re sold in are terrible for the environment. One solution is using reusable bottles that you can fill from any nearby taps instead of buying a new bottle each time. Another solution is much more exciting. A group of engineers from Skipping Rocks Lab have developed a wonderful thing called The Ooho!. It’s a globe filled water that you can pop in your mouth whole. The outer shell is made of algae, so it’s edible and biodegradable. Meaning there’s no need for packaging or plastic – the globes of water are self-contained and ready to consume. Exciting, right? Plus they’re wobbly and they look cool, which is always a bonus. The team have now created a crowdfunding page to make their creation available to the public, with goals of selling The Ooho! at festival and marathons within the next 12 m...

New "Super-Earth" discovered only 22 light years away

An international team of scientists led by Professors Guillem Anglada-Escudé and Paul Butler from the Carnegie Institution for Science in the U.S. has discovered a potentially habitable Super-Earth that's "just" 22 light years away. The new Super-Earth has a mass that is 4.5 times larger than that of our planet and it revolves around its parent star in 28 days - a star that is significantly smaller than ours. This remarkable new discovery suggests that habitable planets could exist in a wider variety of environments than previously believed. Of the 750-odd  exoplanets  (extrasolar planets) discovered so far only very few can be considered " Super-Earths ." This newly discovered example called GJ667Cc is rocky like Earth and is rich in heavy chemical elements such as iron, carbon and silicon. Positioned at a distance from Earth of 22 light years, corresponding to a bit over 129 trillion miles (209 trillion km), the planet can be considered to be on Earth...