The problem
How many times have you been left frustrated when walking past a monument without knowing its name nor its history ? This happens very often when visiting a new city or even when going for a stroll around your own city.
The solution
We offer a solution which makes this frustration a thing of the past !
"Monument Searcher" is an application based on artificial intelligence which instantly identifies the monument you are interested in. Take a picture of that monument and the application gives you access to key historical informations about it. If the monument is open to visitors, the application will propose a link to the monument's official website.
Let's take an example. The monument on the following picture interests you. Take a picture of the monument with the application and the following result will appear :
Monument :
Arc de Triomphe
Presentation :
The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, France, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly named Place de l'Étoile—the étoile or "star" of the juncture formed by its twelve radiating avenues. The location of the arc and the plaza is shared between three arrondissements, 16th (south and west), 17th (north) and 8th (east). The Arc de Triomphe honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.
As the central cohesive element of the Axe historique (historic axis, a sequence of monuments and grand thoroughfares on a route running from the courtyard of the Louvre to the Grande Arche de la Défense), the Arc de Triomphe was designed by Jean Chalgrin in 1806; its iconographic programme pits heroically nude French youths against bearded Germanic warriors in chain mail. It set the tone for public monuments with triumphant patriotic messages. Inspired by the Arch of Titus in Rome, Italy, the Arc de Triomphe has an overall height of 50 metres (164 ft), width of 45 m (148 ft) and depth of 22 m (72 ft), while its large vault is 29.19 m (95.8 ft) high and 14.62 m (48.0 ft) wide. The smaller transverse vaults are 18.68 m (61.3 ft) high and 8.44 m (27.7 ft) wide. Three weeks after the Paris victory parade in 1919 (marking the end of hostilities in World War I), Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport biplane under the arch's primary vault, with the event captured on newsreel.
Paris's Arc de Triomphe was the tallest triumphal arch until the completion of the Monumento a la Revolución in Mexico City in 1938, which is 67 metres (220 ft) high. The Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang, completed in 1982, is modelled on the Arc de Triomphe and is slightly taller at 60 m (197 ft). La Grande Arche in La Defense near Paris is 110 metres high. Although it is not named an Arc de Triomphe, it has been designed on the same model and in the perspective of the Arc de Triomphe. It qualifies as the world's tallest arch.
(Source : Wikipedia "Arc de Triomphe" introduction)
Official Website link :
How would we code it ?
This application is based on artificial intelligence, and more precisely on machine learning.
The artificial intelligence used in this application will come from ml5.js, which is a JS library providing access to machine learning algorithms and models in the browser. This library uses an image classification function "imageClassifier()" which could be used to recognize a monument. The following link should help to get started with ml5.js :
Intro to AI
The JS code used in the video is the following :
The previous video gives us an idea on using ml5.js with a static image. It could be interesting to use a video to identify a monument (as our application is made for mobile phones). The following link should help to understand how to classify real time images coming from a phone :
Webcam image classification with ml5.js
The following links should also be helpful to create the "Monument Searcher" application :
Google's Landmarks' improves its ability to recognize sites
GitHub - Google Landmarks Dataset v2