Mapping the World’s Photos

AbstractThis is an investigation in organizing a large collection of geotagged photos and their associated content and structure and presenting the apparent relationships between them. My approach focuses less on content analysis (for which I present a number of resources that explore these algorithmic developments), and more on the strategies of mapping mass quantities of information to convey emergent relationships within the data. My purview in the subject is twofold – it concerns both my interest in furthering skills in diagramming and mapping by exploring the ‘semiology’ of graphics, as well as my interest in the valuable information contained within the billions of publicly accessible images (via the Internet) taken from virtually everywhere on earth.

The first part of the exploration will examine photographs’ metadata, including textual tags, time, and location, and examine a few graphic representations of such data.

The second part of the exploration will address graphic representations of this metadata with respect to time; namely, suggest a simple interface for navigating photos based on apparent relationships between metadata. With specific attention to temporality, I argue that metadata grounded in varying timescales can reveal compelling associations between photograph contents.

Finally, I will explore a few potential mappings that reveal specific emerging systems. These explorations will argue for the role of the mobile camera in tracking emergence at a global scale.

Max Brenner | ARCH 3230 | Assignment 4

CONTENT | STRUCTURE RELATIONSHIP

Content

StructureSummit Lake, CA10:08 AM11.07.11Tag: ‘vacation’

The information associated with many of the Internet’s user-uploaded photos is described in two types: content and structure. The content are the features of the image itself – the textures and colors that compose the image. An image’s structure is all the associated information, including location and time (Crandall, 1). While much research has been done into the relationship between content and structure (by which methods have been developed to infer content from structure and vice versa – see “Mapping the World’s Photos”), we will assume that all associated information is available.

HEAT MAPPING | STRATEGIES FOR THE TWO DIMENSIONAL REPRESENTATION OF THREE DIMENSIONAL DATAGEOLOCATIONDot MapsDot Maps

Equal-sized points: The points, each representing a photograph, are of equal size. There is a dual perception of this mapping: the density (ratio of blue to grey); and the quantity (to the degree that points can be added). To maintain legibility, the size of the points should decrease as density and quantity increase. Dot maps with equal sized points are effective at larger scales, perhaps global scales, where geographic detail is less important than overarching visuals of density.

Graduated-sized points: In this case, each point simultaneously expresses a density and a quantity. We perceive a total quantity and overall density. Not surprisingly, New York’s cities are revealed as the most photographed locations. However, like dot maps with equal-sized points, dot maps with graduated-sized points conceal the geographic detail required in places of hyperdensity, i.e. Manhattan.

Hexa-Binning: While the previous maps can read a sense of quantity and density, they lack the specific reading of location required for mapping a large number and density of geolocated points. Hexagon Binning is one relevant method of representing quantity and density in micromap design for large data sets. While heavy overplotting in dot maps masks any underlying pattern, hexa-binning displays a quantity in each hexagon cell (using varying color scales), and reveals underlying patterns. For more on Hexa-Binning, see “Hexagon Binning: An Overview.”

TIMETime is an essential variable in navigating heat maps that measure point quantity and density. While a heat map’s timescale may simply be representated linearly (as a conventional timetable might), it can also be multifunctioning, presenting an opportunity to view data at varying timescales. Trends that occur over the course of year may be more relevant to a macroeconomist studying GDP trends, whereas trends viewed over the course of twenty four hours may concern an urban planner studying daily traffic flows. The graphic to right suggests one possibility of an interactive time scale that would allow the user to navigate various time scales.

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TEXTUAL TAGGINGIn terms of information legibility, tags are perhaps the most complex of an image’s data structure, for their accuracy is dependant on user inputed information. An image of an emergent weather pattern, for example, may be tagged as ‘stormcloud’, when in fact it is ‘hurricaneirene’. However, if we assume that tags accurately and specifically reflect the subject of the photograph, we can use this information to identify emergence. (For information on tag accuracy, see “Visualizing Tags over Time” - discusses possibility of a tag that evolves over time and therefore increases in accuracy).

“Interestingness” is a measure of a tags relevance in a given period of time. Specifically, a tag can be deemed as interesting if it occurs more frequently within the interval, and less frequently outside of the interval (Visualizing Tags over Time, 3). With this measure of ‘interestingness,’ in conjunction with the other data structures of geolocation and time, we can begin to map emergent behavior.

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INTERFACE PROTOTYPE

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SORT BY

LocationTrending Tags

HEAT MAPPING WITH RESPECT TO TIME

Since photographs are inherently spatial, the graphic to the left provides useful organizing principles for geographically, temporally, and textually tagged photographs. The interface allows the user to sort through the photographs data structures (or any combination thereof), including geolocation, time, and tag (sorted by ‘interestingness’). This is a simple means of representation that could grow to express indefinite amounts of information (as explored in the next section). The complexity of the map, timescale, and sorting indeces would grow with the quantity of information. For example, as the user focuses increasingly on one location, the richness of the map would have to communicate specific quantities of information at specific locations, likely using the hexa-binning method. With this simple prototype, however, the user could begin to make interesting inferences, including the identification of the most photographed subjects in the world. For example, after specifying a timescale and tag, one could identify the most ‘interesting’ landmarks in the world.

3 IMPLICATIONS OF IMAGE MAPPING

By combining geospatial and temporal structure with textual and image content, we can identify ways of organizing mass collections of photographs and reveal interesting properties that exist within them. The explicit connection between image place and data allows us to expose and analyze current events and trending topicsthrough the unedited perspectives of first-hand, user experiences. This user-generated press purposes tocreate a visual and linguistic dialogue to inform global currents across varying scales and dimensions. I explore some schematic mappings below that begin to address the wealth of information that exists within a global collection of photographs, as well as the opportunity to identify emergent, interesting, or relevant connections contained within the organized information.

The cell phone camera presents the universal availability of content and related services, including delivery, distribution, and management. It is a useful tool for amassing user-submitted photographs (Dixit, 2).

Data structure and image content could expose emerging events, such as tropical storms, and could be synthesized in such a way to reveal such weather patterns as they’re occuring,.

Photographs with similar tags, locations, and times could be synthesized and overlayed to create sensorial images of popular locations, such as the Alhambra above.

Mappings could inclue technologies like Microsoft’s photosynth, which, using thousands of photographs taken in the same location, creates three dimensional imagery.

Mappings could be overlayed with census data to reveal the relationship between census data and image structure and content.

THE BOTTOM LINEPhotomapping could harness the vast resources of the Internet to create an organized collective database of information, and could be used to reveal emergent trends at varying geographic and temporal scales.

Bibliography

Bertin, Jacques. Semiology Of Graphics, Diagrams, Networks, Maps. Esri Pr, 2011.

Tufte, Edward. Envisioning Information. 11th ed. Chesire, CT: Graphics Press, 1990. Print.

Dubinko, Micah. "Visualizing Tags Over Time." n. page. Web. 8 Nov. 2011. <http://www2006.org/programme/files/pdf/25.pdf>.

Dixit, Sudhi. Content Networking in the Mobile Internet. 1st ed. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2004. Print.

Flickr.com

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/hundreds-of-tourist-photos