OSINT: How to Discover Where Someone is currently at/was with just ONE Photo
To achieve our mission of today, the arsenal tool we’re going to use is non other than the free available Google lens by mother Google.
Google Lens is a powerful visual search tool developed by Google, which uses advanced image recognition technology to provide users with relevant information about objects in an image.
One of the coolest features of Google Lens is its ability to identify the location of an object in an image. This is particularly useful if you’re gathering intelligence of possible locations where a person e.g is kidnapped or if you’re traveling or exploring new places and don’t know the location. With Google Lens, you can quickly find out the name and location of that object(building,landmark &c.) in the image, and even get directions to it if you want to visit it in person.
Here’s how to use Google Lens to find the location of an object in an image:
On mobile Phone
(i) Open the Google Photos app on your smartphone and select the image you want to analyze.
(ii) Tap the Google Lens icon (it looks like a small square with dots) at the bottom of the screen.
(iii) Google Lens will analyze the image and highlight any objects it recognizes. If the location of the object is available, Google Lens will display a card with information about the object, including its name and location.
(iv) To get directions to the location, tap the “Directions” button on the card, and Google Maps will open with the destination already entered.
On web browser
(i) Open your preferred web browser and go to either www.google.com, or the Google Photos website (photos.google.com).
(ii) Upload the image you want to analyze by clicking on the “Upload” button on the top right corner of the page.
(iii) Once the image is uploaded, click on the image to open it in full view.
(iv) Click on the Google Lens icon on the bottom right corner of the image. It looks like a square with dots in it(You can resize it if you need to search only specific objects of the image as seen on the video above).
(v) Google Lens will analyze the image and provide information about any objects it recognizes. If it recognizes any text, it will also provide an option to copy or search the text e.g the Washington monument seen in the video.
To get more information about an object, click on it, and Google Lens will provide more details about the object, such as its name and related search results, or pick the name discovered of the image object, and search for its coordinates. With the coordinates, you can now head over to google earth, and feed it to view the object and its surroundings.
As seen in my video, we can conclude the former president of the US was at the Washington monument when the picture was taking.
That’s all for today. Now try exploring the features of Google lens with your friends, or solving real world challenges like finding the locations where a person was last seen based on images with the absence of e.g CCTVs, and see what you can find.
Stay tuned, what I’ll publish next will blow up you mind. Until next time, CYA!👋
