4 ms·

I was hoping to get a summary of how the guy guessed! “Well, by the angle of the sun he had to be in an n-mile radius of his car. In that area, there are only

I was hoping to get a summary of how the guy guessed! “Well, by the angle of the sun he had to be in an n-mile radius of his car. In that area, there are only 4 cliffs with sufficient height to be in that photo with wildfire burn areas in between. And the plants had to be of the genus whateverae due to the shape of their spikes, and those _obviosuly_ only grow on the north face of sedimentary rocks... so it had to be X”

ed25519FUUU 6y ago
> "I have a very weird hobby, which is I love taking a look at photos and figuring out where they're taken." Sometimes you have the right person in the right place at the right time. I'm also really interested in learning more about how this person pinpointed the hiker.
- aaron-santos 6y ago
  If you want to approximate it, play GeoGuessr with the self-imposed restrictions of no movement, no rotations. Obvs GeoGuessr primarily has road shots, but if you spend enough time at it, you will find it is a skill that can be improved.
  - redler 6y ago
    There's also a subreddit for this sort of thing — r/whereisthis.
  - schoen 6y ago
    For non-players, the "self-imposed restrictions" are actively enforced by the UI if you choose to request them. The most restrictive category is "no moving, panning, or zooming", abbreviated "NMPZ", in which you must guess your location from a single still Street View image. If you search for "NMPZ" on YouTube, you'll see that some people have become very very good at this (!).
  - flycaliguy 6y ago
    You can also sit on the couch while your spouse watches House Hunter’s International and try to find the apartments as they go.
- ytpete 6y ago
  It's a surprisingly fun "game"! I've been on a quest to geotag all my older photos, from digital cameras without GPS. It's a great combination of a trip down memory lane – what do I remember about where I was when I took some photo on a trip, or back in college? – plus playing the role of a satellite spy-photo analyst.
- alfiedotwtf 6y ago
  You could imagine that skill would be prized at somewhere like the CIA
  - bellyfullofbac 6y ago
    If I were CIA I'd just ask for (or I already have) all street view imagery from Google and run an image search. Even if it's Yandex (Russian) Street View, the CIA should have the resources to download them..
    - alfiedotwtf 6y ago
      Lol... I don't think they'd have all cliff face imagery :)
    - CamperBob2 6y ago
      It's not about the ability to identify an address, it's about the talent that makes you much better at that than most people are.
- jonah 6y ago
  Ben explains his methods here: https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382371967618097157 https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382371967618097157 https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382781121407029253 https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382781121407029253
mparlane 6y ago
Twitter thread here is the person explaining their method: https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382375691233103874 https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382375691233103874
- est31 6y ago
  https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1382375691233103874.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1382375691233103874.html
  - alisonkisk 6y ago
    > If someone is lost along the Angeles Crest, ... > they are either NORTH of the Angeles Crest Highway > or SOUTH of the Angeles Crest Freeway. I understand why people get lost.
- markdown 6y ago
  Apparently he used Sentinel-Hub, which is a service I'd never heard of. I just signed up to try their service but apparently the free plan advertised on their pricing page is a scam. There's no such thing. It seems you can't use the service without paying.
  - adamjb 6y ago
    While you might need an account to access the underlying data, you don't need an account to view the imagery https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentinel-playground/ https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentinel-playground/ https://www.sentinel-hub.com/explore/eobrowser/ https://www.sentinel-hub.com/explore/eobrowser/
    - Balgair 6y ago
      Holy shit, it gives you near-IR and visual spectra every ~60 hours. This is amazing. I feel like a spy in a late cold-war novel.
      - 6y ago
m463 6y ago
"I looked at a multitude of clues from the terrain, the type of foliage, the angle of the sun, the moss on trees and together with the EXIF info from the hiker's photo, I was able to deduce the location of the missing hiker!"
- ce4 6y ago
  His Twitter explanation doesnt mention exif data, but rather the time his friend had called the police/rescue station.

ed25519FUUU 6y ago

> "I have a very weird hobby, which is I love taking a look at photos and figuring out where they're taken." Sometimes you have the right person in the right place at the right time. I'm also really interested in learning more about how this person pinpointed the hiker.

aaron-santos 6y ago
If you want to approximate it, play GeoGuessr with the self-imposed restrictions of no movement, no rotations. Obvs GeoGuessr primarily has road shots, but if you spend enough time at it, you will find it is a skill that can be improved.
- redler 6y ago
  There's also a subreddit for this sort of thing — r/whereisthis.
- schoen 6y ago
  For non-players, the "self-imposed restrictions" are actively enforced by the UI if you choose to request them. The most restrictive category is "no moving, panning, or zooming", abbreviated "NMPZ", in which you must guess your location from a single still Street View image. If you search for "NMPZ" on YouTube, you'll see that some people have become very very good at this (!).
- flycaliguy 6y ago
  You can also sit on the couch while your spouse watches House Hunter’s International and try to find the apartments as they go.
ytpete 6y ago
It's a surprisingly fun "game"! I've been on a quest to geotag all my older photos, from digital cameras without GPS. It's a great combination of a trip down memory lane – what do I remember about where I was when I took some photo on a trip, or back in college? – plus playing the role of a satellite spy-photo analyst.
alfiedotwtf 6y ago
You could imagine that skill would be prized at somewhere like the CIA
- bellyfullofbac 6y ago
  If I were CIA I'd just ask for (or I already have) all street view imagery from Google and run an image search. Even if it's Yandex (Russian) Street View, the CIA should have the resources to download them..
  - alfiedotwtf 6y ago
    Lol... I don't think they'd have all cliff face imagery :)
  - CamperBob2 6y ago
    It's not about the ability to identify an address, it's about the talent that makes you much better at that than most people are.
jonah 6y ago
Ben explains his methods here: https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382371967618097157 https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382371967618097157 https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382781121407029253 https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382781121407029253

mparlane 6y ago

Twitter thread here is the person explaining their method: https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382375691233103874 https://twitter.com/ai6yrham/status/1382375691233103874

est31 6y ago
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1382375691233103874.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1382375691233103874.html
- alisonkisk 6y ago
  > If someone is lost along the Angeles Crest, ... > they are either NORTH of the Angeles Crest Highway > or SOUTH of the Angeles Crest Freeway. I understand why people get lost.
markdown 6y ago
Apparently he used Sentinel-Hub, which is a service I'd never heard of. I just signed up to try their service but apparently the free plan advertised on their pricing page is a scam. There's no such thing. It seems you can't use the service without paying.
- adamjb 6y ago
  While you might need an account to access the underlying data, you don't need an account to view the imagery https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentinel-playground/ https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentinel-playground/ https://www.sentinel-hub.com/explore/eobrowser/ https://www.sentinel-hub.com/explore/eobrowser/
  - Balgair 6y ago
    Holy shit, it gives you near-IR and visual spectra every ~60 hours. This is amazing. I feel like a spy in a late cold-war novel.
    - 6y ago

m463 6y ago

"I looked at a multitude of clues from the terrain, the type of foliage, the angle of the sun, the moss on trees and together with the EXIF info from the hiker's photo, I was able to deduce the location of the missing hiker!"

ce4 6y ago
His Twitter explanation doesnt mention exif data, but rather the time his friend had called the police/rescue station.