Using Street View to Identify Cities

What Makes Paris Look Like Paris? is an interesting summary of research carried out using Google Maps Street View to automatically find visual elements in images, e.g. windows, balconies, and street signs, that are most distinctive for a certain geo-spatial area, for example the city of Paris.

Make sure you check out the Additional Materials section near the end of the summary and, if you wnat to test your familiarity with Paris, Take the Paris-NonParis test!. This test presents 100 random Street View images and you have to guess which ones come from Paris.