Papers › Geolocation Estimation of Photos using a Hierarchical Model and Scene Classification
Geolocation Estimation of Photos using a Hierarchical Model and Scene Classification
Eric Muller-Budack, Kader Pustu-Iren, Ralph Ewerth
While the successful estimation of a photo's geolocation enables a number of interesting applications, it is also a very challenging task. Due to the complexity of the problem, most existing approaches are restricted to specific areas, imagery, or worldwide landmarks. Only a few proposals predict GPS coordinates without any limitations. In this paper, we introduce several deep learning methods, which pursue the latter approach and treat geolocalization as a classification problem where the earth is subdivided into geographical cells. We propose to exploit hierarchical knowledge of multiple partitionings and additionally extract and take the photo's scene content into account, i.e., indoor, natural, or urban setting etc. As a result, contextual information at different spatial resolutions as well as more specific features for various environmental settings are incorporated in the learning process of the convolutional neural network. Experimental results on two benchmarks demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach outperforming the state of the art while using a significant lower number of training images and without relying on retrieval methods that require an appropriate reference dataset.
Code
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Tasks
Results from the paper archive 2025-07-28
| Task | Dataset | Model | Metric | Value | Rank at snapshot | Leaderboard | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photo geolocation estimation | GWS15k | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | City level (25 km) | 0.6 | #5 of 5 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | GWS15k | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Continent level (2500 km) | 38.5 | #5 of 5 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | GWS15k | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Country level (750 km) | 15.5 | #5 of 5 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | GWS15k | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Region level (200 km) | 4.2 | #5 of 5 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | GWS15k | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Street level (1 km) | 0.05 | #5 of 5 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | City level (25 km) | 43.0 | #2 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Continent level (2500 km) | 80.2 | #2 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Country level (750 km) | 66.7 | #2 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Reference images | 0 | #2 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Region level (200 km) | 51.9 | #2 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Street level (1 km) | 16.9 | #2 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Training images | 4.7M | #2 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | base (M, f*) | City level (25 km) | 40.9 | #4 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | base (M, f*) | Continent level (2500 km) | 78.5 | #4 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | base (M, f*) | Country level (750 km) | 65.4 | #4 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | base (M, f*) | Reference images | 0 | #4 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | base (M, f*) | Region level (200 km) | 51.5 | #4 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | base (M, f*) | Street level (1 km) | 15.2 | #4 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | base (M, f*) | Training images | 4.7M | #4 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | base (L, m) | City level (25 km) | 35.0 | #6 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | base (L, m) | Continent level (2500 km) | 79.7 | #6 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | base (L, m) | Country level (750 km) | 64.1 | #6 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | base (L, m) | Reference images | 0 | #6 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | base (L, m) | Region level (200 km) | 49.8 | #6 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | base (L, m) | Street level (1 km) | 13.5 | #6 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS | base (L, m) | Training images | 4.7M | #6 of 11 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | City level (25 km) | 28.0 | #7 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Continent level (2500 km) | 66.0 | #7 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Country level (750 km) | 49.7 | #7 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Region level (200 km) | 36.6 | #7 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Street level (1 km) | 10.5 | #7 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Training Images | 4.7M | #7 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | base (M, f*) | City level (25 km) | 27.0 | #9 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | base (M, f*) | Continent level (2500 km) | 66.0 | #9 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | base (M, f*) | Country level (750 km) | 49.2 | #9 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | base (M, f*) | Region level (200 km) | 35.6 | #9 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | base (M, f*) | Street level (1 km) | 9.7 | #9 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | base (M, f*) | Training Images | 4.7M | #9 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | base (L, m) | City level (25 km) | 24.9 | #10 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | base (L, m) | Continent level (2500 km) | 65.8 | #10 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | base (L, m) | Country level (750 km) | 48.8 | #10 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | base (L, m) | Region level (200 km) | 34.0 | #10 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | base (L, m) | Street level (1 km) | 8.3 | #10 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | Im2GPS3k | base (L, m) | Training Images | 4.7M | #10 of 14 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | YFCC26k | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | City level (25 km) | 12.3 | #5 of 6 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | YFCC26k | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Continent level (2500 km) | 50.7 | #5 of 6 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | YFCC26k | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Country level (750 km) | 31.9 | #5 of 6 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | YFCC26k | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Region level (200 km) | 19.0 | #5 of 6 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | YFCC26k | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Street level (1 km) | 5.3 | #5 of 6 | Archive leaderboard | report |
| Photo geolocation estimation | YFCC26k | ISNs (M, f*, S3) | Training Images | 4.7M | #5 of 6 | Archive leaderboard | report |
Ranks are positions in the archive's leaderboards as they stood at the 2025-07-28 snapshot. Results published since then are not among these rows, so a rank here is not a current standing.
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