find image location without gps data

[ianrr]

Hi, I have thousands of images take years ago in my collection  .. is there any program that can look at the image(s) on the internet and try and find the GPS location of files ?

Thanks,  Ian

[Mario]

You mean a software which analyzes the content of your files and tries to figure out where they were taken?

Pretty hard to do. The Google Vision API may be successful if your files contain some known landmarks etc. But you must upload your files to Google, and Google will remember and their A.I. will learn about where you've been, who you know etc.

Unless you have taken your files on thousands of locations, the Map Panel in IMatch should help you to quickly add GPS coordinates to your files.
If you enable automatic reverse-geocoding before, IMatch will also lookup the country, city and location based on the GPS coordinates you set and fill out the metadata for you.

[ianrr]

Thanks Mario. I researched this before emailing and found this link  ... very close to an eventual answer ... maybe, but the problems with privacy and Google you noted are there.

https://thenextweb.com/google/2016/02/25/googles-new-ai-can-determine-image-location-without-geotags/

Is there a video tutorial anywhere on using reverse geotaging  .. ?

[Mario]

Reverse geo-coding is explained in the IMatch help. It's pretty simple. You enable it and it works.
To get used to it you can also manually reverse geo-code files (if they have GPS coordinates) via the Tools > Reverse geo-code command. Press <F1> in that dialog to open the help.


Don't let the advertisement blurb foo you. The Google vision API is good when it comes to known landmarks and typical tourist areas. A 50/50 chance perhaps. If things go well.

You can try it here:

https://cloud.google.com/vision/

And here is the same from Microsoft:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-services/computer-vision/

Both pages allow you to upload images to see what they can do. Mind the privacy issues, though.
If you don't want Google  / MS to know where you spent your last vacation etc. use private browsing mode and plug-ins which disable canvas fingerprinting and the other subtle ways Google tracks you without using cookies.

I will add services like this to future IMatch versions. But on a optional bases and I will support multiple services to give users the choice. And users who want to use these services will have to pay - Google / Microsoft and all other Vision A.I. vendors charge about 1.50 US$ for analyzing 1000 images. I cannot pay for that.