Papers › Geolocation Estimation of Photos using a Hierarchical Model and Scene Classification

Geolocation Estimation of Photos using a Hierarchical Model and Scene Classification

1 Sep 2018ECCV 2018 9archive 2025-07-28

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.

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TIBHannover/GeoEstimation officialmentioned in papertf report

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Tasks

General ClassificationImage ClassificationImage RetrievalPhoto geolocation estimationRetrievalScene Classification

Results from the paper archive 2025-07-28

TaskDatasetModelMetricValueRank at snapshotLeaderboardReport
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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