Visual and Object Geo-localization: A Comprehensive Survey
Not on the map. Why?
Abstract (arXiv)
The concept of geo-localization refers to the process of determining where on earth some `entity' is located, typically using Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates. The entity of interest may be an image, sequence of images, a video, satellite image, or even objects visible within the image. As massive datasets of GPS tagged media have rapidly become available due to smartphones and the internet, and deep learning has risen to enhance the performance capabilities of machine learning models, the fields of visual and object geo-localization have emerged due to its significant impact on a wide range of applications such as augmented reality, robotics, self-driving vehicles, road maintenance, and 3D reconstruction. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of geo-localization involving images, which involves either determining from where an image has been captured (Image geo-localization) or geo-locating objects within an image (Object geo-localization). We will provide an in-depth study, including a summary of popular algorithms, a description of proposed datasets, and an analysis of performance results to illustrate the current state of each field.
Key facts. Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 57 of its 162 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 30 Dec 2021.
Builds on
57 of 162 references.
References · 57
- 2017Attention Is All You Needcited by 60,361
- 2014Very Deep Convolutional Networks for Large-Scale Image Recognitioncited by 15,364
- 2016Grad-CAM: Visual Explanations from Deep Networks via Gradient-based Localizationcited by 6,733
- 2018A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 6,013
- 2015Rethinking the Inception Architecture for Computer Visioncited by 5,475
- 2020Training data-efficient image transformers & distillation through attentioncited by 4,586
- 2016Image-to-Image Translation with Conditional Adversarial Networkscited by 4,527
- 2019nuScenes: A multimodal dataset for autonomous drivingcited by 4,523
- 2016The Cityscapes Dataset for Semantic Urban Scene Understandingcited by 4,444
- 2015Fast R-CNNcited by 2,933
- 2015FaceNet: A Unified Embedding for Face Recognition and Clusteringcited by 2,849
- 2018Large Scale GAN Training for High Fidelity Natural Image Synthesiscited by 2,626
38 more
- 2018CBAM: Convolutional Block Attention Modulecited by 2,477
- 2013Sinkhorn Distances: Lightspeed Computation of Optimal Transportation Distancescited by 2,316
- 2014Conditional Generative Adversarial Netscited by 2,162
- 2016Photo-Realistic Single Image Super-Resolution Using a Generative Adversarial Networkcited by 1,908
- 2018ESRGAN: Enhanced Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 1,254
- 2015NetVLAD: CNN architecture for weakly supervised place recognitioncited by 941
- 2015Accurate Image Super-Resolution Using Very Deep Convolutional Networkscited by 903
- 2017DOTA: A Large-scale Dataset for Object Detection in Aerial Imagescited by 623
- 2019Object Detection in Optical Remote Sensing Images: A Survey and A New Benchmarkcited by 340
- 2017DualGAN: Unsupervised Dual Learning for Image-to-Image Translationcited by 310
- 2017Toward Multimodal Image-to-Image Translationcited by 296
- 2020VIGOR: Cross-View Image Geo-localization beyond One-to-one Retrievalcited by 189
- 2015Wide-Area Image Geolocalization with Aerial Reference Imagerycited by 186
- 2019Lending Orientation to Neural Networks for Cross-view Geo-localizationcited by 180
- 2018GANimation: Anatomically-aware Facial Animation from a Single Imagecited by 161
- 2020University-1652: A Multi-view Multi-source Benchmark for Drone-based Geo-localizationcited by 157
- 2018xView: Objects in Context in Overhead Imagerycited by 146
- 2015Modelling Uncertainty in Deep Learning for Camera Relocalizationcited by 134
- 2020Where am I looking at? Joint Location and Orientation Estimation by Cross-View Matchingcited by 126
- 2016PlaNet - Photo Geolocation with Convolutional Neural Networkscited by 115
- 2021Coming Down to Earth: Satellite-to-Street View Synthesis for Geo-Localizationcited by 113
- 2017Fast Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search With The Navigating Spreading-out Graphcited by 104
- 2019Multi-Channel Attention Selection GAN with Cascaded Semantic Guidance for Cross-View Image Translationcited by 97
- 2020Each Part Matters: Local Patterns Facilitate Cross-view Geo-localizationcited by 97
- 2019Bridging the Domain Gap for Ground-to-Aerial Image Matchingcited by 95
- 2016Localizing and Orienting Street Views Using Overhead Imagerycited by 94
- 2019Optimal Feature Transport for Cross-View Image Geo-Localizationcited by 91
- 2016Predicting Ground-Level Scene Layout from Aerial Imagerycited by 90
- 2017Revisiting IM2GPS in the Deep Learning Eracited by 80
- 2019AttentionGAN: Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation using Attention-Guided Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 77
- 2017Cross-View Image Matching for Geo-localization in Urban Environmentscited by 69
- 2018Cross-View Image Synthesis using Conditional GANscited by 69
- 2018CPlaNet: Enhancing Image Geolocalization by Combinatorial Partitioning of Mapscited by 68
- 2016SIFT Meets CNN: A Decade Survey of Instance Retrievalcited by 67
- 2018The Effects of Super-Resolution on Object Detection Performance in Satellite Imagerycited by 58
- 2021Geometry-Guided Street-View Panorama Synthesis from Satellite Imagerycited by 41
- 2020Revisiting Street-to-Aerial View Image Geo-localization and Orientation Estimationcited by 36
- 2021Single Image Depth Estimation: An Overviewcited by 35
50 most cited of 57 All 57 (JSON)
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2022: 3; 2023: 3; 2024: 2; 2025: 4; 2026: 1.
13 papers.
Sort:
By area:
- 2022Cross-view Geo-localization via Learning Disentangled Geometric Layout Correspondencecited by 70
- 2023PIGEON: Predicting Image Geolocationscited by 56
- 2022Cross-View Image Sequence Geo-localizationcited by 31
- 2023GeoDTR+: Toward generic cross-view geolocalization via geometric disentanglementcited by 28
- 2025GeoRanker: Distance-Aware Ranking for Worldwide Image Geolocalizationcited by 19
- 2024Cross-view geo-localization: a surveycited by 15
- 2024GOMAA-Geo: GOal Modality Agnostic Active Geo-localizationcited by 11
- 2025GeoArena: Evaluating Open-World Geographic Reasoning in Large Vision-Language Modelscited by 5
- 2022Aerial View Localization with Reinforcement Learning: Towards Emulating Search-and-Rescuecited by 4
- 2025C3Po: Cross-View Cross-Modality Correspondence by Pointmap Predictioncited by 4
- 2023Are Labels Needed for Incremental Instance Learning?cited by 2
- 2025Efficient Spike-driven Transformer for High-performance Drone-View Geo-Localizationcited by 2
1 more
- 2026GeoRouter: Dynamic Paradigm Routing for Worldwide Image Geolocalization25 Mar 2026
- 2025Efficient Spike-driven Transformer for High-performance Drone-View Geo-Localization22 Dec 2025
- 2025C3Po: Cross-View Cross-Modality Correspondence by Pointmap Prediction23 Nov 2025
- 2025GeoArena: Evaluating Open-World Geographic Reasoning in Large Vision-Language Models4 Sep 2025
- 2025GeoRanker: Distance-Aware Ranking for Worldwide Image Geolocalization19 May 2025
- 2024Cross-view geo-localization: a survey14 Jun 2024
- 2024GOMAA-Geo: GOal Modality Agnostic Active Geo-localization4 Jun 2024
- 2023GeoDTR+: Toward generic cross-view geolocalization via geometric disentanglement18 Aug 2023
- 2023PIGEON: Predicting Image Geolocations11 Jul 2023
- 2023Are Labels Needed for Incremental Instance Learning?26 Jan 2023
- 2022Cross-view Geo-localization via Learning Disentangled Geometric Layout Correspondence8 Dec 2022
- 2022Cross-View Image Sequence Geo-localization25 Oct 2022
- 2022Cross-view Geo-localization via Learning Disentangled Geometric Layout Correspondencecited by 70
- 2023PIGEON: Predicting Image Geolocationscited by 56
- 2022Cross-View Image Sequence Geo-localizationcited by 31
- 2023GeoDTR+: Toward generic cross-view geolocalization via geometric disentanglementcited by 28
- 2025GeoRanker: Distance-Aware Ranking for Worldwide Image Geolocalizationcited by 19
- 2024Cross-view geo-localization: a surveycited by 15
- 2024GOMAA-Geo: GOal Modality Agnostic Active Geo-localizationcited by 11
- 2022Aerial View Localization with Reinforcement Learning: Towards Emulating Search-and-Rescuecited by 4
- 2025C3Po: Cross-View Cross-Modality Correspondence by Pointmap Predictioncited by 4
- 2023Are Labels Needed for Incremental Instance Learning?cited by 2
- 2025Efficient Spike-driven Transformer for High-performance Drone-View Geo-Localizationcited by 2
- 2026GeoRouter: Dynamic Paradigm Routing for Worldwide Image Geolocalizationcited by 0
- 2026GeoRouter: Dynamic Paradigm Routing for Worldwide Image Geolocalization25 Mar 2026
- 2025Efficient Spike-driven Transformer for High-performance Drone-View Geo-Localization22 Dec 2025
- 2025C3Po: Cross-View Cross-Modality Correspondence by Pointmap Prediction23 Nov 2025
- 2025GeoRanker: Distance-Aware Ranking for Worldwide Image Geolocalization19 May 2025
- 2024Cross-view geo-localization: a survey14 Jun 2024
- 2024GOMAA-Geo: GOal Modality Agnostic Active Geo-localization4 Jun 2024
- 2023GeoDTR+: Toward generic cross-view geolocalization via geometric disentanglement18 Aug 2023
- 2023PIGEON: Predicting Image Geolocations11 Jul 2023
- 2023Are Labels Needed for Incremental Instance Learning?26 Jan 2023
- 2022Cross-view Geo-localization via Learning Disentangled Geometric Layout Correspondence8 Dec 2022
- 2022Cross-View Image Sequence Geo-localization25 Oct 2022
- 2022Aerial View Localization with Reinforcement Learning: Towards Emulating Search-and-Rescue8 Sep 2022