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MIT Globe Genie (Random Street View)

web.mit.edu

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Re: MIT Globe Genie (Random Street View)

#11

Post by bd »

Groxx wrote: post #6

Looks like they're randomly dropping the viewer until they get a hit (I've gone over "searching (600)"). I wonder if there's a faster way to do that with their API?

Completely random drop would fare really bad (street view is very rare compared to Earth's surface).

What I would do is a sort of "computer vision". Map has well defined colors for features, so you just need to check pixels with proper shading.

This should be quite easy as street view availability seems like a transparent overlay image, so you even wouldn't need to distinguish it from other map features.

And even if it's composited with the map image server-side, it should be still quite easy to extract it, just look for pixel diff compared to normal map image.

Re: MIT Globe Genie (Random Street View)

#14

Post by healthyhippo »

Groxx wrote: post #6

Looks like they're randomly dropping the viewer until they get a hit (I've gone over "searching (600)"). I wonder if there's a faster way to do that with their API?

There must be a faster way. I sit around waiting for 10 seconds for it to reload, and I've got the attention span of a goldfish

Re: MIT Globe Genie (Random Street View)

#16

Post by Groxx »

bd wrote: post #11
Groxx wrote: post #6

Looks like they're randomly dropping the viewer until they get a hit (I've gone over "searching (600)"). I wonder if there's a faster way to do that with their API?

Completely random drop would fare really bad (street view is very rare compared to Earth's surface). What I would do is a sort of "computer vision". Map has well defined colors for features, so you just need to check pixels with proper shading. This should be quite easy as street view availability seems like a transparent overlay image, so you even wouldn't need to distinguish it from other map features. And even if…

I'd assume it only attempts drops on streets. In which case, as badly as one in a few hundred drops on only streets? I bet it'd be pretty close. They've street-viewed an absolutely ridiculous amount of roads.

Re: MIT Globe Genie (Random Street View)

#17

Post by Groxx »

ugh wrote: post #3
dangoldin wrote: post #2

Makes you realize how rural the world actually is. You lose sight of that living in a big city.

You might think that trees rule this world.

Agreed. They're already using squirrels for reproduction / child rearing / getting them young 'uns out of the house. And once you control the squirrels, you're not far from controlling everything....

Re: MIT Globe Genie (Random Street View)

#19

Post by swombat »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #9
Estragon wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might choose more interesting places if it sampled from the human population distribution.

I find the rural places more interesting. I live in a megacity, it's nice to see some countryside.

I don't know... I clicked a few times... the first time was a beautiful, picturesque spot in the Lake District in England. Every stop after that was some kind of inter-state or major road in the US, with basically nothing around but trees and a road. It got boring pretty quickly.

This would have been much more interesting if they'd allowed people to vote places that they were parachuted in up or down, and then displayed the distribution of interesting places around the world.

Also would have been nice if the "search" wasn't so slow.

Re: MIT Globe Genie (Random Street View)

#20

Post by roedog »

Groxx wrote: post #6

Looks like they're randomly dropping the viewer until they get a hit (I've gone over "searching (600)"). I wonder if there's a faster way to do that with their API?

While I wait for the page to reload I pretend I'm being teleported randomly from place to place. I spend a few moments figuring out how I would survive in this new environment or move down the street to see what is around the next corner before I'm moved again.
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