Learn how, even without special equipment or professional training, you can analyze photos, find landmarks, and determine their exact location. In our article, we tell you how to get started with GEOINT, give simple examples and share useful tips for beginners. Start developing your geospatial intelligence skills today! Read more in our article on how to become a true expert in geographic coordinates and geodata analysis.
Geospatial intelligence, or GEOINT, is a technique for collecting and analyzing images and geospatial data to describe, evaluate, and visualize the physical characteristics of objects or terrain, and to determine their geographic location.
The basis of GEOINT is:
analysis of the content of images and video materials;
processing of geospatial data.
This process, while seemingly complicated, in practice often boils down to analyzing images or videos along with their context to determine where they were created. Such information is critically important during military conflicts, public or private investigations. The effective application of GEOINT usually requires specialized technical means and professional knowledge.
Everything is much simpler than it might seem at first glance. All the necessary resources are publicly available, and skills are built through practice. Even the most complex tasks are often accomplished using commonly available tools.
Where should you start if this direction seems completely new? The best approach is to start with simple steps:
It is probably really Big Ben, and services like Google Images confirm this assumption. They index the images and provide a guess as to what exactly is depicted in them.
Maybe not, as google images accurately identifies it as “Pointer Rock” near Honey Falls. This illustrates well how sometimes the GEOINT intelligence cycle can end already at the stage of using images in search engines. They allow you to find the original image, which often contains information about the place and circumstances of the photo or video.
At the same time, the best approach is to try all available search engines. For example, the Duplichecker service offers a convenient functionality that integrates several search platforms, including Google and a number of other interesting tools.
However, it should be taken into account that this approach does not always work. If everything were decided only by search engines, the need for the entire discipline of intelligence would disappear. Search results are often incomplete or inaccurate. Therefore, it is important to return to the basic tools of geospatial intelligence, such as, for example, Google Earth. This is the real foundation for the work of a geospatial analyst.
For the effective selection of landmarks, it is necessary to use a translated table that allows you to clearly identify key elements. This is an important stage in the process, although not always easy, because correctly defined landmarks help in the accurate execution of the task.
Now let’s apply the knowledge we have gained in practice!
The first great clue is the car number; if you type it, you can find an angry Facebook post. All photos in the group were taken in Singapore.
The second clue is orange paint. Almost all such houses in Singapore are painted in different colors, we need orange.
The third clue is a combination of the environment, a table with a yellow base, road markings, plants in the background, and a distinctive sign. It is this combination that will point us to the place!
The next step was to remove the car from the image, which can be important for the accuracy of further analysis. Removing such objects allows you to focus on the main landmarks and ensure clarity in recognizing important elements in the photo. This is, of course, not always an easy task, as context and accuracy must be considered when working with images.
Once the car was removed, it was possible to continue working with the rest of the image to obtain correct results.
The Clean Up Pictures tool was used to remove the car, but it did not have the desired result, as even after editing, Google still returned different parking options. An in-depth study of the panoramas of Singapore showed that most often these are closed courtyards, and therefore it is necessary to manually check such places for an accurate determination.
This requires additional effort to find similar locations and verify them, because automatic tools cannot always recognize such specific image details.
This approach might work if a large number of people were searching, but for one person the process would become long and tedious. The mistake was that they tried to solve the problem by brute force, without using specialized tools.
The right approach is to choose tools specifically designed for specific tasks. One of my subscribers, for example, used the 4.map service. He noticed that some of the buildings were tinted and decided to investigate colors similar to orange. This method allowed him to pay attention to a specific area, which was probably important for solving the problem.
In words, everything seems quite simple, but in practice the whole process took about a week. All of these steps can theoretically be performed by anyone, but to achieve the desired result requires patience, attention to detail and the correct use of tools. As with any complex task, it is important not only to have the knowledge, but also to have the experience to choose the most effective methods and approaches.
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