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What’s More Accurate Than GPS? Photographs

So how do we get to millimeter accuracy? To find out, we followed up with Liebhold for a video interview. He said the most promising technique is to build model of the world using photographs, some of them geo-coded automatically, and the rest of them mapped using an understanding of where they are by comparing them to other images. So a photograph of vacationers in front of the Golden Gate bridge could be pinpointed in position using the precise angle of the orange arches in the background. Google Goggles is embarking on this very project, building a point cloud reference database using publicly available images like the ones from Flickr, said Liebhold, referencing remarks made by a member of the Goggles team at the recent Where 2.0 conference. (As is Microsoft, with its Photosynth product.)

The Google project is scary, said Liebhold. Scary because of the privacy implications, I asked? No, he said, because if Google wants to do this, it will, and it will be hard to compete. Everyone wanting to use the most accurate location data will have to depend on Google.

via GigaOm