[helsinkiandrew]

> The overlap in the locations of Pokemon Go Player data and any active Drone heavy theaters of war is a tiny sliver (or zero?).

But presumably the images/models at ground level can be used to train/improve the general performance of Vantor's aerial (satelite based) navigation system so it works better elsewhere?

[pj_mukh]

No the tech doesn’t work like that AFAIK. The most common use case is exactly localization (think “HD maps” for autonomous cars).

It almost 1-1 data correlation, n-phone Pokémon go scans of a location helping a drone locate itself in the same location in correlation with Maxar’s satellite data.

There maybe some hyper corner case uses. Maybe the billion scans in New York City help them generalize across different phone lenses characteristics, but phone and drone lenses are so different.

Would love to hear some specifics if I’m wrong here.

[KaiserPro]

Your hypothesis is correct.

there was a startup that pitched the idea of using Satellite data to do ground based navigation. (https://sturfee.com/vps) they didn't get bought out by either google, niantic or facebook, so it can't of worked that well.

Niantic's stuff is a pre-built map that the client will reference to get a position. Its essentially a massive feature matching exercise. The problem with using airborn photos is that you miss a bunch of features you can't see. (samy thing trying to match ground features from the air.)

THe lens calibration issue isn't actually that much of a problem _for the client_. if you have a rough idea of the lens (exif data really helps there) then you can still get meter accurate (and a few degrees heading) its a bit more of a problem for generating the initial map, but Structure from motion with good motion priors goes a long way to make it less of a problem

Now, Niantic are proposing that you can train a model that can relocalize generally without a detailed map, I think thats a bit far fetch, especially to do at any large scale. (ie bigger than a cubic kilometer)

[win311fwg]

> It almost 1-1 data correlation, n-phone Pokémon go scans of a location helping a drone locate itself in the same location in correlation with Maxar’s satellite data.

The headline, which I do understand is in question, talks about training, not using the scans as a database. It is likely that you are right that the scans are not being used to provide localization data, but that is also not what the headline is pointing to.

The headline specifically speaks to using the scans for training. While I do not have any inside baseball, the problem space is often solved using neural nets and other machine learning algorithms. On the surface it seems likely that they would benefit from training data that doesn't necessarily need to be from where the conflict is actually taking place. A base world model, for example, can be developed from data collected anywhere in the world. Its is not an entirely different universe when you step into another country.

But you are suggesting that the algorithms used are entirely classical (i.e. no AI/ML)?

[NorwegianDude]

You are creating a 3D model when you scan using Pokémon Go. Difference in lenses doesn't matter, that only matters for the scanning step.

[sysguest]

well the article writes AS IF the whole intention was to:

"get data for drone warfare" ...in 2021 (before the russian invasion...)

but did we even EXPECT drone warfare to influence the war THIS MUCH back then?

well not me -- I actually thought russia would beat the crap out of ukraine within a month (even after the failed spetsnaz attack on zelensky)

the article's assumptions only makes sense IF some people had time machines, or if CIA has some know-everything future prophet

(not to mention: drones need TOP TO BOTTOM view, not bottom-to-top view)

anyway, my verdict: sensational yellow journal article, nothing more/less

[dgellow]

Drone warfare has been discussed publicly since more than a decade, what Ukraine proved was just how effective that really is, but it was already known and understood. In any case mapping the world doesn’t only benefit drones, it’s something always valuable to the military. Drone navigation is just one use case

[sysguest]

yeah if the article was about "helping the infantry", then I would have 100% agreed.

but... drones? that's just yellow journalism optimized for SEO keyword (and anyone who clicks an article with 'drone')

[roywiggins]

Well, define "drone warfare"- the CIA and the Pentagon has been operating Predators and friends for a long while.

[sysguest]

those predators and friends are really high-altitude drones, and for them these low-altitude (human) level pics don't give them any advantage

[roywiggins]

Very likely. I'm just saying, people in the CIA seeing where the tech might be going and hedging their bets is not that unlikely.