Geolocating a random island using geometry and CUDA programming

cecinuga

I read all the process, literally awesome, i don't do OSINT (i know only what is this) and i think that's very cool

piterrro

really impressive, could that be the way to locate yourself without GPS? assuming we know more/less where we are

lexlambda

OpenStreetMap data really is a godsend for such OSINT purposes. Works much better in populated areas too, with more features like roads, shops, electric lines that can be used to search.

hhh

great blog and great writeup

ohyoutravel

> NOTE: this is a genuine human work, didnt use LLM generation. A million upvotes from me.

bmurray7jhu

For drones and missiles, this technique is known as Terrain Contour Matching . If terrain contour are measured optically, navigation is independent of RF jamming, unlike GNSS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TERCOM

bitcurious

It’s interesting that most top contenders don’t pass the eyeball halo check, seems like there’s room to optimize that filter in code.

NKosmatos

Excellent write up and an enjoyable read! Reminds me of the “good old times” where posts on HN were written by humans and with a specific writing style like yours. You could’ve used a little bit more of geoguessing to narrow down results, or do a brute force visual check on the last hundred or so ;-)

phalanxx

What do you mean by no LLM generation if an LLM did all the coding based on reading through the .py files? Pangram isn't kind to "your" text either.

ape4

What about tides? Would the outline of the island be different based on the time of day.

hno8a34nwn

This is the real takeaway

o4c

Really great article! OP, you did an awesome job breaking down a complex problem into manageable chunks and synthesizing the solution.

dwa3592

This is awesome. I worked on something similar a few months ago. It is a general purpose navigation system based on TERCOM and dead reckoning - https://github.com/deepanwadhwa/anumaan

ImJasonH

Excellent read, I loved it. Incidentally, the image seems to be the one the resort uses on their website! https://oanresort.wixsite.com/chuuk

num42

Good article! Off-topic, Is Palantir doing the same thing with its internal software to geolocate?

naniel

this is really cool. fun little problem turned into great write-up, and i love that you included the code snippets. thanks for sharing

ligarota

All of this to not use Google images

aquafox

Nice, but Rainbolt would do it in under a minute ;)