▲ 653 ▼ "Hey Google, find the nearest Burger King" - "Sure, here is one on the other side of the globe!" (feddit.it) submitted 2 years ago by Moonrise2473@feddit.it to c/mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world 94 comments fedilink hide all child comments I swear that with each update they're adding more and more artificial stupidity
[–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it [S] 1 point 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children) WTF???? How did you extract that even if I censored it I'm surprised 🤯 😂 permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 6 child comments replies: [–] isildun@sh.itjust.works 18 points 2 years ago* (1 child) I'm not the person who found it originally, but I understand how they did it. We have three useful data points: you are 2.6 km from Burger King in Italy, that BK is on a street called "Via " and you are 9792 km from Burger King in Malaysia. The upper BK in Malaysia is not censored, so we have its exact location. Find a place in Italy that is 9792 km away using the Measure Distance tool on something like Google Maps. Even though there are potentially multiple valid locations in Italy, we know you're within 2.6 km of another BK. Florence is sensible because there are BKs near the 9792 km mark. Once we do that, we can find a spot that is both 9792 km from Malaysia BK and 2.6 km from a nearby BK on a street called "Via", effectively finding where the image was taken. It's not perfect but it works well! This is the principle of how your GPS works. It's called triangulation. We only had distance to two points and one of them doesn't tell us the sub-kilometer distance. If we had distance to three points, we could find your EXACT location, within some error depending on how detailed the distance information was. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] MMauro@feddit.it 6 points 2 years ago (1 child) Good explanation. Just a tiny detail: "via" in Italian literally means "street", so not much info there. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] isildun@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago (1 child) Oops. Good to know... I guess the main thing was simply that there was a BK in the right place relative to the 9792 km arc then. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] dlok@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 child) Isn't the 9792 street distance though rather than a straight line? permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] VonReposti@feddit.dk 5 points 2 years ago I'm not sure Italy and Malaysia is connected by road permalink fedilink source parent [+] Dewe@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago [deleted] permalink fedilink source parent [–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 1 point 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) Can also make guesses as to where you're from as well bc not too many languages spell it Malesia edit: looks like Finland, for example, spells it like that, plus the Italia lines up as well permalink fedilink source parent
[–] isildun@sh.itjust.works 18 points 2 years ago* (1 child) I'm not the person who found it originally, but I understand how they did it. We have three useful data points: you are 2.6 km from Burger King in Italy, that BK is on a street called "Via " and you are 9792 km from Burger King in Malaysia. The upper BK in Malaysia is not censored, so we have its exact location. Find a place in Italy that is 9792 km away using the Measure Distance tool on something like Google Maps. Even though there are potentially multiple valid locations in Italy, we know you're within 2.6 km of another BK. Florence is sensible because there are BKs near the 9792 km mark. Once we do that, we can find a spot that is both 9792 km from Malaysia BK and 2.6 km from a nearby BK on a street called "Via", effectively finding where the image was taken. It's not perfect but it works well! This is the principle of how your GPS works. It's called triangulation. We only had distance to two points and one of them doesn't tell us the sub-kilometer distance. If we had distance to three points, we could find your EXACT location, within some error depending on how detailed the distance information was. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] MMauro@feddit.it 6 points 2 years ago (1 child) Good explanation. Just a tiny detail: "via" in Italian literally means "street", so not much info there. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] isildun@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago (1 child) Oops. Good to know... I guess the main thing was simply that there was a BK in the right place relative to the 9792 km arc then. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] dlok@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 child) Isn't the 9792 street distance though rather than a straight line? permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] VonReposti@feddit.dk 5 points 2 years ago I'm not sure Italy and Malaysia is connected by road permalink fedilink source parent
[–] MMauro@feddit.it 6 points 2 years ago (1 child) Good explanation. Just a tiny detail: "via" in Italian literally means "street", so not much info there. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] isildun@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago (1 child) Oops. Good to know... I guess the main thing was simply that there was a BK in the right place relative to the 9792 km arc then. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] dlok@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 child) Isn't the 9792 street distance though rather than a straight line? permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] VonReposti@feddit.dk 5 points 2 years ago I'm not sure Italy and Malaysia is connected by road permalink fedilink source parent
[–] isildun@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago (1 child) Oops. Good to know... I guess the main thing was simply that there was a BK in the right place relative to the 9792 km arc then. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] dlok@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 child) Isn't the 9792 street distance though rather than a straight line? permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] VonReposti@feddit.dk 5 points 2 years ago I'm not sure Italy and Malaysia is connected by road permalink fedilink source parent
[–] dlok@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 child) Isn't the 9792 street distance though rather than a straight line? permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] VonReposti@feddit.dk 5 points 2 years ago I'm not sure Italy and Malaysia is connected by road permalink fedilink source parent
[–] VonReposti@feddit.dk 5 points 2 years ago I'm not sure Italy and Malaysia is connected by road permalink fedilink source parent
[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 1 point 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) Can also make guesses as to where you're from as well bc not too many languages spell it Malesia edit: looks like Finland, for example, spells it like that, plus the Italia lines up as well permalink fedilink source parent