Creating a social sensor network for monitoring the environment.

This paper presents a technology capable of enabling the creation of a diffuse, calibrated vision-sensor network from the wealth of socially generated geo-referenced imagery, freely available on the Internet. Through the implementation of an accurate image registration system, based on image processing, terrain modelling and subsequent correlation, we will demonstrate how images taken by the public can potentially be used as a means to gather environmental information from a unique, ground-level viewpoint normally denied non-terrestrial sensors (consider vertical or overhanging cliffs). Moreover, we will also show how the same registration technology can be used to visualize geo-referenced environmental content (such as mountain names, tracks, GIS layers, etc.) `inside` photos, offering scientists and public alike a novel tool to `see` how the environment is changing around them.