How to find a street in 2 minutes [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: How to find a street in 2 minutes [video]

#51

Post by 63 » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 4:38 PM UTC

wds wrote: post #50

jokoon wrote: post #46

Well, this was the easy version, since there were a lot of clues. I really think those tools should be banned, they're such an immense security problem. I know those can be useful, and I understand that information should be free, but they can still do quite a good amount of harm. Lesson: ALWAYS blur anything that could identify a street or anything when you post a picture online.

The tool is banned. Legitimate users no longer have access to it, Bad actors continue to use the software on their own hardware anyways.

But the barrier to entry to being an effective bad actor is much higher, and some harm is prevented even if not all.

I think your point is valid to consider but it uncharitably overlooks the positives of the other side's proposition and reduces it down to all or nothing.

Re: How to find a street in 2 minutes [video]

#52

Post by mk_stjames » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 4:38 PM UTC

I think the real discussion here should be an analysis of his methods of using the various online tools... his toolchain, essentially, and how we're rapidly accelerating processes like these compared to even just 10 years ago.

Openstreetmap data is used in Overpass Turbo -> ask ChatGPT NLP into Overpass Turbo scripted API -> copy paste script into Overpass Turbo -> select Location data from query -> copy/paste coords into Google Street View images -> Matching the original image by eye.

This part of the his search could be collapsed into a single tool. Or, if that is maybe too much of a specific use case, imagine moreso a 'workbench' tool that would put all this in a single place. Every time he switches chrome tabs, or copy/pastes... that could be taking place in a single environment, like a GPT4-plugin for example.

Re: How to find a street in 2 minutes [video]

#53

Post by brmgb » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 4:45 PM UTC

jokoon wrote: post #46

Well, this was the easy version, since there were a lot of clues. I really think those tools should be banned, they're such an immense security problem. I know those can be useful, and I understand that information should be free, but they can still do quite a good amount of harm. Lesson: ALWAYS blur anything that could identify a street or anything when you post a picture online.

Genuine question, what exactly is the security problem here?

It’s a set of basic techniques to find where a photo was taken. I have a hard time envisioning an actual new issue here.

Obviously, people shouldn’t post pictures of things they don’t want other people to see or know (like where you live if you don’t want people to know that) but that was already true before people could easily mine Openstreet map data.

Re: How to find a street in 2 minutes [video]

#54

Post by operator-name » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 4:52 PM UTC

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #14

I wonder how hard it would be to develop/train a machine learning method that ingests a photo of anywhere outside and maps it to corresponding satellite/aerial imagery. We are of course very good at object recognition from still images. We are reasonably good at inferring depth from a single still image (monocular depth estimation [0-2]). Combining these, we should be reasonably good at determining relative positioni…

You may be interested in a lesser scoped project that Rainbolt played against: https://youtu.be/ts5lPDV--cU

Re: How to find a street in 2 minutes [video]

#55

Post by operator-name » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 4:55 PM UTC

jokoon wrote: post #46

Well, this was the easy version, since there were a lot of clues. I really think those tools should be banned, they're such an immense security problem. I know those can be useful, and I understand that information should be free, but they can still do quite a good amount of harm. Lesson: ALWAYS blur anything that could identify a street or anything when you post a picture online.

Is it not the data that is the problem rather than the tool?

Re: How to find a street in 2 minutes [video]

#56

Post by capableweb » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 5:09 PM UTC

iandanforth wrote: post #40

Mordisquitos wrote: post #7

Checking on numberplates and bin logos was hardly groundbreaking, as those are exactly where I would have started too. However, I had never heard of Overpass Turbo [0]. Learning of its existence was the only valuable take from this video for me, but well worth it. [0] https://overpass-turbo.eu/

Also I would not have assumed that ChatGPT could generate code for such a niche tool, so that was useful as well.

I mean, it's probably niche if you consider all software ever, but the tool has been around since 2013 at least (and before that under a different name, OSM Server Side Scripting/OSM3S), with a lot of ecosystem tools and documentation (in multiple languages) existing all over the place, I wouldn't say it's very niche in the mapping community.

Re: How to find a street in 2 minutes [video]

#57

Post by silisili » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 6:19 PM UTC

josefx wrote: post #24

mavili wrote: post #16

Maybe this is common knowledge in the US, but like, you're just supposed to know what Kentucky number plates look like from a blurry image, and you're also supposed to know the logo of a sports club? Cool. Also, picture has to contain all these clues of course, conveniently, including a couple of street numbers.

The main clue is knowing that Jack Harlow is from Louisville Kentucky, so he is basically guessing that the picture was also taken there and just confirming it by checking if the license plates and logos match those he can find for that area.

I wish he'd have done a harder one. This one felt too easy, because you can just Google where he's from, and just Google search '1948 address louisville ky'.

Re: How to find a street in 2 minutes [video]

#58

Post by teddyh » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 6:43 PM UTC

netsharc wrote: post #31

raldi wrote: post #18

I once saw a Johnny Long talk about how to do this for interior photos, where something like an electrical outlet or carton of milk can make all the difference in the world.

Switzerland has a different electrical outlet to the rest of Europe (Type J), and an easy way to spot fake apartment listings is when the pictures of the apparent apartment show "EU" outlets (Type F). https://www.worldstandards.eu/electricity/plugs-and-sockets/

I prefer this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets>, since it gives more information, especially the proper names for the connectors, not just the IEC type code. If you want a more official list, use this one: https://www.iec.ch/world-plugs>.

Re: How to find a street in 2 minutes [video]

#59

Post by jader201 » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 7:01 PM UTC

pests wrote: post #44

Mordisquitos wrote: post #7

Checking on numberplates and bin logos was hardly groundbreaking, as those are exactly where I would have started too. However, I had never heard of Overpass Turbo [0]. Learning of its existence was the only valuable take from this video for me, but well worth it. [0] https://overpass-turbo.eu/

This comment has no valuable take.

I think it does: It saves watching the video by providing a link to a tool that he mentions that many might not have heard of.

Re: How to find a street in 2 minutes [video]

#60

Post by ragebol » Sun, Jul 30, 2023, 7:06 PM UTC

Mordisquitos wrote: post #7

Checking on numberplates and bin logos was hardly groundbreaking, as those are exactly where I would have started too. However, I had never heard of Overpass Turbo [0]. Learning of its existence was the only valuable take from this video for me, but well worth it. [0] https://overpass-turbo.eu/

I'm thinking of a new game: write the shortest Overpass Turbo query that yields, say, 1 result for eg. your country.