How geointelligence helped to find a location by photo

In this article, we will explore the confusing but extremely interesting story behind the identification of a place with a mysterious “VM” logo on a private panorama in Bolivia. Based on clues and search tools, we will discover where exactly the photo was taken.

Let’s start

The photo immediately brings to mind Latin America, but the exact country remains unclear. The first thing that catches the eye is the logo with the letters VM. Various search methods are used: through the lens, by the letters themselves in Google or on the map, but this does not bring results. The image shows a car without wheels, and behind the fence – another one, obviously under repair, which may indicate the presence of a car repair shop. In the background you can see a building with lighted windows that is open at night – possibly a hotel. The car was identified as a Daewoo Tico, which, according to Wikipedia, was popular in Latin America.

The Daewoo Tico was also exported to Latin America, where it was renamed the Daewoo Fino for certain markets. It was especially popular in Peru, where it became one of the most popular cars used for taxis.

So, the first guess is Peru. However, the car does not look like a local taxi, because in Peru they are usually yellow. Therefore, we return to the starting point.

It was decided to take a closer look at the Daewoo license plate and find a similar one among Latin American countries. The number from the Guayas region in Ecuador turned out to be the most similar.

However, this assumption remained only a hypothesis and did not receive further confirmation. Then there was an idea with a Brazilian number, but it did not justify itself either – Brazil turned out to be inappropriate for this case.

All that remained was to jokingly admit that this is Kazakhstan, close the task and relax. However, we decided not to give up and started the solution. So, it was decided to complete this task. After the task was solved, it became clear that both places are in the same country — Bolivia.

So, we decided to once again collect all the signs and search in Overpass or try to find it through the name in Google Maps. But even this did not bring results.

With renewed energy, they began to analyze the original image and noticed gluing defects. This indicated a private panorama, as companies usually do not shoot at night.

We go to Google Maps again and look at private panoramas of Bolivia. Someone’s roof is already falling and he is laying hands on himself. So another 10 days pass and we get a new clue.

And so the hint

• This is Bolivia

• This is the Store

• The full name of the logo does not consist only of 2 letters VM

• The language is Spanish

Panoramas are rechecked, focusing on finding stores in Bolivia with names beginning with “VM” and containing additional items. Almost all of Bolivia is visually surveyed.

However, this process was extremely time-consuming and inefficient, and it was thought that automatic loading of panoramas by region would significantly speed up the search. Fortunately, I managed to find someone who was able to set up the automatic download of panoramas, and the process went much faster.

A total of 52,793 panoramas were uploaded, but for efficiency we decided to filter out only night shots. The sample was reduced to approximately 1000 night and another 1000 border. Full of hope for quick success, the participants successively reviewed night, then border, and after that the rest of the 50,000 panoramas, but it did not give the expected results.

Next hint:

• A Google car hasn’t even driven in this city yet, and in fact only points with panoramas are private

Since the download algorithm was still being debugged, it was decided to add the ability to ignore private panoramas near streets from Street View and re-download all of Bolivia. About 20,000 more panoramas have been downloaded, reviewing them in case the target panorama is not found, but something nearby is found. However, this time too there was no success.

New tip:

• Clothing store

Overpass and Google were tormented once again, as well as the yellow pages of Bolivia in search of a store with the abbreviation VM. But again nothing.

Hint:

• It is located in Brazil

After receiving confirmation, it was decided to download almost 300 thousand panoramas from Brazil, which is well covered by panoramas. Of them, 8,000 night ones were selected, but the border ones have not been taken yet, because they have already collected about 40,000.

After numerous experiments with queries, it became obvious that this approach would not allow finding the desired image.

It was decided to collect panoramas from all over South America, but to select only those located far from the areas with the presence of Street View. There was hope for the author’s visual memory. As a result, about 45,000 panoramas were collected, of which only 727 were night, and another 6,000 were dark border panoramas.

And what happened? All this time, we were all led down the wrong path, and the sought-after place was finally found… in Paraguay.

It turned out that this is not a clothing store at all, but a glass workshop. The name Vidriera Mavi consists of only these two words and is not found anywhere else. Thus, the task was solved not thanks to, but against the hints. At least not having Street View nearby helped reduce the number of panoramas to an acceptable level for viewing.