

What makes Paris look like Paris? - showerst
http://graphics.cs.cmu.edu/projects/whatMakesParis/

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demallien
Hmmm, yup, that's definately a hard problem. I live in Paris (9 years!), and I
still couldn't get a 100% score (91% if anyone is interested)

In terms of architectural style, Paris has got to be one of the most unified
cities in the world, and even so there is a wide range of architecture
possible, ranging from the classical Haussmanian apartment buildings, to Le
Corbusier inspired art-deco. Whilst some of those styles are unique to Paris
(the Haussmanian apartments in particular), many are fairly standard the world
over, which means that unless you can see the street signs / parking metres /
hous numbers / street lamps etc that are all uniquely parisian, you aren't
going to be able to tell where a photo was taken. Still, it will be
interesting to see if their software manages to pick up on things that I
don't: maybe the width of sidewalks, or the hight of the first floor of an
apartment building, or somthing along those lines can be used to distinguish
cities, but I don't pay enough attention to see it.

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GFischer
91% is pretty respectable for that test at the bottom, among a few clearly
distinguishable photos, I got some generic photos of windows and parks, how
can I tell if they're in Paris or not?? Edit: the 3rd picture shows pitch
black for me.

I got 63%, I despaired at the end but I wouldn't have gone above 70% in any
case (only went twice to Paris).

Edit2: they're not random? For example, for the 16th, 17th, 18th or 20th
pictures, I can't make out if they're in Paris or not.

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demallien
16 yes - street lamp is classic Paris. 17 too dark to be sure, I'd guess no 18
yes, architectural style plus street house numbers / street lamp 20 hard to be
sure, I'd probably say no, because the balcony railing is unusual for Paris

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Stratego
Born and lived in Paris 23 years. Score 90% on the test.

Paris is a mish mash of styles that was pushed into the heavily predefined
"Haussman" style which too many idiotic Parisians try to preserve. There are
specific cues you can look for: building numbers, park meters, road signs,
street lights, trees, post boxes, metro entrances, intersection styles,
colors, window styles, roof styles, cars, doorways, construction, trash cans,
lighting, street lamps, even the style of graffitis depending on the era.

I'm actually surprised I managed to get such a high score, but I think this
test is skewed by having a default answer. I feel like a great majority of the
photos presented are from Paris, too. And that seems like poor methodology
since you can discover a certain coherence from the quantity.

I've been living outside of Paris for the last 3 years and the more I see
images of it, the more I realize why foreigners think it's so special. It's
just so different from anything else out there.

That said, I see almost as much conformity and repetition in Paris as I do in
the cloned strip malls of suburban America.

~~~
swah
I thought it was a city that got more of "A pattern language" right and that
is why people feel good there.

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babuskov
The test is questionable. I've never been to Paris, haven't seen many pictures
of it, except for Eiffel tower. I only looked at text found on the pictures
(i.e. "Public transportation of Barcelona" ;) and some other clues. With this
simple logic reasoning, I got 81%. If you compare this with guys living in
Paris who report 90% here, it does not make much sense.

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hokkos
Yeah they should have removed the texts, but as a long time parisian I can
recognise Paris with only a gutter or a window frame, it would have made the
test more meaningfull.

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tejaswiy
Fascinating. I wonder if this can be applied to sounds as well ? What makes it
more interesting with sound is we can "time travel" so to speak, and sample
across hundreds of years of music where as with imagery, you're just stuck
with what Google streetview can show right now..

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akandiah
Work on music (not necessary sounds) is carried out by the Music Genome
Project (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_Genome_Project>). It's the engine
behind Pandora. There's an incomplete list of attributes used in this
classification here:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Music_Genome_Project_at...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Music_Genome_Project_attributes).

They still use manpower to classify all those tracks which makes it very hard
to scale.

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l0nk
Hi,

I'm French and lived in Paris since 12 years (and 13 years in the suburb
before that) and made... 95% percent! (well I think it helps to read French).
Anyway it's interesting, even for a French. So thanks.

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FrancescoRizzi
Gonna try the test next, but I think I answered this very question a while ago
( <http://blog.rizzif.com/2012/07/10/parisian-profile/> ). Intriguing topic
though!

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saint-loup
As far as I can tell, lots of the pictures from Paris look like they have been
shot in the 5th, 4th districts and around (Quartier latin, Marais, Notre-Dame,
etc.).

EDIT: Just finished the test. 86%.

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graeme
Is the second picture at the top Paris? I'm would have said no, but I really
can't be sure now.

~~~
demallien
Yes it is Paris. You can tell be the street sign to the left on the fence.

