2023/12/23 by Tavis Shore, Shore, Tavis, Simon Hadfield +3
Computer Science · Engineering · #Advanced Image and Video Retrieval Techniques #Advanced Neural Network Applications #Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Machine Learning (cs.LG) #Robotics and Sensor-Based Localization
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2312.15363
openalex publication_date 2023/12/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Cross-view image matching for geo-localisation is a challenging problem due to the significant visual difference between aerial and ground-level viewpoints. The method provides localisation capabilities from geo-referenced images, eliminating the need for external devices or costly equipment. This enhances the capacity of agents to autonomously determine their position, navigate, and operate effectively in GNSS-denied environments. Current research employs a variety of techniques to reduce the domain gap such as applying polar transforms to aerial images or synthesising between perspectives. However, these approaches generally rely on having a 360° field of view, limiting real-world feasibility. We propose BEV-CV, an approach introducing two key novelties with a focus on improving the real-world viability of cross-view geo-localisation. Firstly bringing ground-level images into a semantic Birds-Eye-View before matching embeddings, allowing for direct comparison with aerial image representations. Secondly, we adapt datasets into application realistic format - limited Field-of-View images aligned to vehicle direction. BEV-CV achieves state-of-the-art recall accuracies, improving Top-1 rates of 70° crops of CVUSA and CVACT by 23% and 24% respectively. Also decreasing computational requirements by reducing floating point operations to below previous works, and decreasing embedding dimensionality by 33% - together allowing for faster localisation capabilities.