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Computers

Millions of public photos used to create seamless time-lapses of iconic landmarks

By Nick Lavars
May 19, 2015
Millions of public photos used to create seamless time-lapses of iconic landmarks
Using powerful algorithms, researchers have been able to compile millions of public photos into stable time-lapses
Using powerful algorithms, researchers have been able to compile millions of public photos into stable time-lapses
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Using powerful algorithms, researchers have been able to compile millions of public photos into stable time-lapses
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Using powerful algorithms, researchers have been able to compile millions of public photos into stable time-lapses
The team's work ended with a pretty decent proof of concept: more than 10,000 time-lapses of 2,942 landmarks, each made up of more than 300 images
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The team's work ended with a pretty decent proof of concept: more than 10,000 time-lapses of 2,942 landmarks, each made up of more than 300 images
The team's work ended with a pretty decent proof of concept: more than 10,000 time-lapses of 2,942 landmarks, each made up of more than 300 images
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The team's work ended with a pretty decent proof of concept: more than 10,000 time-lapses of 2,942 landmarks, each made up of more than 300 images
The more notable time-lapses include a video demonstrating the shrinking of the construction of New York's Goldman Sach's tower
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The more notable time-lapses include a video demonstrating the shrinking of the construction of New York's Goldman Sach's tower
The more notable time-lapses include a video demonstrating the shrinking of Norway's Briksdalbreen Glacier
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The more notable time-lapses include a video demonstrating the shrinking of Norway's Briksdalbreen Glacier
Using powerful algorithms, researchers have been able to compile millions of public photos into stable time-lapses
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Using powerful algorithms, researchers have been able to compile millions of public photos into stable time-lapses
View gallery - 6 images

A team of big picture-thinking researchers has developed a novel way of creating stable time-lapse videos by sewing together millions of public photos taken from the internet. The resulting sequences document everything from retreating glaciers to the construction of Las Vegas skyscrapers, without the team even needing to leave the lab.

Time-lapse photography can be an incredibly powerful way to capture short-term changes in an environment, but it usually requires the photographer to park themselves (or at least there equipment) in the same spot for a while. But with so many similar photos of iconic locations snapped everyday and uploaded to the internet, researchers from Google and the University of Washington figured this is something that could be avoided.

Drawing on a total of 86 million photos, the team first sorted snaps of 120,000 landmarks and common photo angles of those landmarks. The photos were also ordered by date, with each of them warped to appear as if taken from the same viewpoint.

The team then built special algorithms to automate the process and make the differing camera angles unnoticeable when viewed in sequence. This stablization process also compensated for changes in lighting that would have otherwise resulted in flickering in between frames.

This work resulted in a pretty decent proof of concept, with more than 10,000 time-lapse sequences of 2,942 landmarks, each made up of more than 300 images. The more notable ones include a video demonstrating the shrinking of Norway's Briksdalbreen Glacier, the construction of New York's Goldman Sach's tower and shifting sandbars off the coast of Thailand.

With online catalogues of publicly available snaps growing every day, the team says there is huge scope to use them to chronicle geological changes in the planet's most photographed landmarks. The process has been dubbed time-lapse mining, and who knows, maybe some holiday albums of your own are being scoured for gold right now?

The time-lapse mining process is outlined in the team's research paper here and you can check out some of the time-lapses in the video below.

Source: University of Washington

Time-lapse Mining from Internet Photos [SIGGRAPH 2015]

View gallery - 6 images

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2 comments
Nick Lavars
Nick Lavars
Nick has been writing and editing at New Atlas for over six years, where he has covered everything from distant space probes to self-driving cars to oddball animal science. He previously spent time at The Conversation, Mashable and The Santiago Times, earning a Masters degree in communications from Melbourne’s RMIT University along the way.

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Barry Dennis
Consider LifeLog and similar apps as raw Content material for "time travel" applications including law enforcement, facial rec., others. Is privacy an issue? You bet. Are there benefits? Many, particularly in the case of data mining by law enforcement using this cloud-stored content as a database.
Ryan Gibbons
Barry i agree to some point, but you have to be realistic and realize privacy is almost extinct. First these are legal public photos. If you don't want any recording of yourself any where or any surveillance, disconnect your internet, throw away all connected electronics, live in the middle of the nowhere by yourself, and then you still will have eyes in the sky. That's the reality of the world we live in. Granted i am indifferent to this, because it is out of my control and i have nothing to hide at least for now. Look at the bright side, tech is awesome!