ViewFocus: explore places of interests on Google maps using photos with view direction filtering

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a novel system to explore places of interests based on the large amount of photos that are placed on Google Maps. The system, named ViewFocus, estimates the view directions of photos via robust object matching and camera reconstruction techniques, and geo-registers the directions on the map. Thus users are able to select the places they are interested in, and the system automatically returns a set of precise photos of the target places for users to focus their exploration, by filtering out photos that are pointing to other directions.

REFERENCES

• 1: Google Maps, http://maps.google.com/
• 2: Panoramio, http://www.panoramio.com/
• 3: D.G. Lowe, Distinctive Image Features from Scale-Invariant Keypoints", Int. J. Comput. Vision, 60(2), pp. 91--100, 2004
• 4: M.I.A Lourakis and A.A. Argyros, SBA: A software package for generic sparse bundle adjustment", ACM Trans. Math.Softw., 36(1), pp. 1--3, 2009
• 5: M.A. Fischler and R.C. Bolles, \Random sample consensus: a paradigm for model fitting with applications to image analysis and automated cartography", Comm. of ACM, 24(6), pp. 381--395, 1981
• 6: Y.-T Zheng and M. Z and Y. S and H. A and Y. B and A. B and F. Band T.-S Chua and H. N, "Tour the World: building a web-scale landmark recognition engine", CVPR'09, 2009

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Web-based interaction

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Organizational design

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Experimentation

Keywords:
map interface, view direction, world explore