Geolocating a random island using geometry and CUDA programming

(yassa9.github.io)

61 points | by yassa9 1 hour ago

9 comments

  • bmurray7jhu 13 minutes ago
    For drones and missiles, this technique is known as Terrain Contour Matching. If terrain contour are measured optically, navigation is independent of RF jamming, unlike GNSS.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TERCOM

    • yassa9 4 minutes ago
      oh, wow, I didnt know that existed, thank u, sure gonna look into it
  • bitcurious 13 minutes ago
    It’s interesting that most top contenders don’t pass the eyeball halo check, seems like there’s room to optimize that filter in code.
    • yassa9 5 minutes ago
      yea, good observation, my guess is its the data more than the filter. OSM coastline polygons are generalized to different degrees depending on who traced them and from what imagery, so the fine shape detail a halo check would key on often is not in the geometry at all.

      I observed that at the end, didnt push on it further though. It already passed and I was super exhausted

  • cecinuga 53 minutes ago
    I read all the process, literally awesome, i don't do OSINT (i know only what is this) and i think that's very cool
    • yassa9 48 minutes ago
      thaaank you !! Its my first ever challenge to do, and yea, I really found my passion
  • lexlambda 40 minutes ago
    OpenStreetMap data really is a godsend for such OSINT purposes. Works much better in populated areas too, with more features like roads, shops, electric lines that can be used to search.
    • yassa9 29 minutes ago
      yea , heard about them before, but didnt know that whole treasure till I really used it , impressive
  • ohyoutravel 30 minutes ago
    > NOTE: this is a genuine human work, didnt use LLM generation.

    A million upvotes from me.

    • yassa9 18 minutes ago
      haha, thanks :D I was hesitant to whether write it or not, but I really really despise llm generated posts and blogs and im glad someone appreciated it
  • piterrro 43 minutes ago
    really impressive, could that be the way to locate yourself without GPS? assuming we know more/less where we are
    • yassa9 25 minutes ago
      yea, search about geoguessing on youtube, people like Rainbolt, https://www.youtube.com/@georainbolt

      they literally memorize and get patterns of every possible road, place, map of any area (scanned by google earth), getting exact coordinated from single image, and play competitions and world cup based on that

      they do really nice videos about finding places in old photos people ask for

  • hhh 38 minutes ago
    great blog and great writeup
    • yassa9 30 minutes ago
      thannks, really grateful :D
  • grodes 32 minutes ago
    impressive
  • fenestella 36 minutes ago
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