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Geolocating a random island using geometry and CUDA programming

yassa9.github.io

11–20 of 92 posts

Re: Geolocating a random island using geometry and CUDA programming

#11

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.

yea , heard about them before, but didnt know that whole treasure till I really used it , impressive

Re: Geolocating a random island using geometry and CUDA programming

#12
post #4

really impressive, could that be the way to locate yourself without GPS? assuming we know more/less where we are

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 coordinates 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

Re: Geolocating a random island using geometry and CUDA programming

#13

> NOTE: this is a genuine human work, didnt use LLM generation. A million upvotes from me.

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

Re: Geolocating a random island using geometry and CUDA programming

#16

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.

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

Re: Geolocating a random island using geometry and CUDA programming

#17

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

oh, wow, I didnt know that existed, thank u, sure gonna look into it

Re: Geolocating a random island using geometry and CUDA programming

#18
Excellent write up and an enjoyable read! Reminds me of the “good old times” where posts on HN were written by humans and with a specific writing style like yours. You could’ve used a little bit more of geoguessing to narrow down results, or do a brute force visual check on the last hundred or so ;-)

Re: Geolocating a random island using geometry and CUDA programming

#20

Excellent write up and an enjoyable read! Reminds me of the “good old times” where posts on HN were written by humans and with a specific writing style like yours. You could’ve used a little bit more of geoguessing to narrow down results, or do a brute force visual check on the last hundred or so ;-)

yea, thanks :D , I used a tiny idea from geoguessing, that I banded the search on islands only in latitude between -30 to +30 deg. based on the sky and the tropical vibes in the img , and it worked !
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