unilad homepage
  • News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Man who can pinpoint exact locations from tiny details in photos explains how he does it

Home> Technology

Published 16:21 26 Apr 2023 GMT+1

Man who can pinpoint exact locations from tiny details in photos explains how he does it

This is so impressive but so creepy.

Ali Condon

Ali Condon

google discoverFollow us on Google Discover

If you've ever heard of the online game GeoGuessr, there's a chance you might have come across player Trevor Rainbolt.

Trevor has earned millions of followers by being able to pinpoint an exact location anywhere in the world, just be looking at a short video or screenshot, and now he's showing people how he does it.

A game like GeoGuessr challenges players to identify a location based on a scene from Google Street View, and Trevor can usually get it spot on in a matter of seconds.

But, if you give him a little more time, he can take almost any video or photo and pinpoint to the exact location it was taken - whether it's where Lizzo shot the music video for her song '2 Be Loved', or the exact location of *that* scary car commercial.

Advert

Understandably, people are pretty blown away by Trevor's unusual, and slightly terrifying, skill.

So he decided to sit down and show his fans exactly how he does it.

In one clip, he shows how he's able to narrow down the exact location of a random video of a capybara riding passenger-side.

By the architecture of houses and street signs in the background, the driver sitting on the right-hand side of the car, he's able to narrow the video down to the US.

As if that wasn't already impressive, he can then narrow down the state based on the licence plate of a car in one frame of the video, and the route the driver is taking based on the direction of a shadow. A shadow!

This guy can pinpoint the exact location of any photo or video.
Instagram/@georainbolt

In another clip, he's able to narrow down the exact location of a Captcha photo - you know, they kind you have to investigate to prove you're not a robot.

The Captcha task asks a user to click on all the frames that have bicycles in them. But by zooming in on those same bikes, Trevor is able to determine in a matter of seconds that they come from Lille, France.

By looking up hundreds of public records and filtering through co-ordinates, he's eventually able to find the exact bike-stop in Lille where that Captcha was taken.

It's pretty methodical, painstaking work that Trevor is doing, but with millions of followers tuning in to watch him investigate, he has been able to make a living out of it.

After watching the YouTuber unpack his bizarre skill, Redditors were blown away - if not a little creeped out.

"Damn. That is both fascinating and frightening at the same time," commented one viewer.

"You can watch him do it in real time. It’s muuuuuch more creepy," noted a second.

Impressive or absolutely terrifying? You decide.
Rainbolt

"Bro is some kind of machine," raved a third.

Some pointed out that Trevor could probably use his skills to solve missing persons cases or assist the FBI.

But for others, it was an absolutely chilling reminder that anything you post online can give away more information about you than you probably think.

"Cool cool cool. Just a casual reminder that any pictures you post online can give someone you don’t know your exact location," commented one concerned Redditor. "All it takes is someone determined enough. But don't worry, keep uploading those pics to the internet."

Well... time to delete Instagram.

Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@georainbolt

Topics: TikTok, Twitch, YouTube

Ali Condon
Ali Condon

Ali is a journalist for LADbible Group, writing on all things film, music, and entertainment across Tyla, LADbible and UNILAD. You can contact Ali at [email protected].

X

@alicondon

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

a day ago
2 days ago
4 days ago
  • Getty Stock Images
    a day ago

    FBI reveals three signs your smart device has been secretly hacked

    We use many devices in our homes, and some are open to exploitation

    Technology
  • Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images
    a day ago

    Jury rules against Elon Musk in major Twitter lawsuit that could cost him billions

    The class-action lawsuit was filed shortly before the multibillionaire took control of Twitter (now known as X)

    Technology
  • Matthew Staver/Bloomberg via Getty Images
    2 days ago

    Jeff Bezos joins Elon Musk in fueling Kessler syndrome fears with proposal to launch 51,600 satellites in AI space race

    Blue Origin is one of the latest companies to propose an orbital data center system

    Technology
  • Shawn Ryan Show via YouTube
    4 days ago

    'Stranded' NASA astronaut recalls moment he thought he was going to die in space

    Barry Wilmore was stuck in space for a period of nine months before returning to Earth

    Technology
  • YouTuber legally dies in order to get $50 refund from airline and explains how he did it
  • Man who was declared dead for 28 minutes explains how what he saw changed his life
  • Woman who died for 24 minutes before being brought back to life details exactly how it felt
  • Man who did 50 pull ups and 100 pushups every day for 30 days reveals how it changed his body