This article is reproduced from Programmer Geek Lab, author Pineapple
Foreign netizen Doxsor launched the Quiztime image positioning challenge project and released this photo, which involved an unidentified military vehicle.
Question: Where is this military vehicle? Which military base was the closest to the shooting location?
This Quiztime Image Positioning Challenge has only one photo without any additional information prompt. However, a data analysis expert named Nixintel managed to figure out the location of the photographer and the military base where the military vehicle will go in the photo.
How did he do it? Let's uncover the mysteries behind the photos.
Picture search is the easiest and quickest method, but in general, no effective picture information can be found. Several methods can be found to solve this problem by carefully analyzing the photos:
Start with the license plate on the photo.
The 6-digit letter combination of the truck license plate with blue background and white text on the left side and black text on the right side on the yellow background is more similar to the European region. The two are filtered through the world license plate resource query website http://www.worldlicenseplates.com/ Countries that are very close: the Netherlands and Denmark.
Therefore, if you can find images of vehicles used by the Dutch and Danish forces, you can determine the type of vehicle, and then determine the military unit using the vehicle, and finally determine the military base where these military units are stationed.
But how to identify the military vehicle on the truck? To most people, it looks like a tank with tracked turrets, but this is not entirely true. Tanks are usually larger in size, more armored, lower in body, and there is no rear tailgate, and there is no room inside to carry additional soldiers.
Leopard 2 tank used by the Danish army
The military vehicle in the photo is similar to a tank, but has a rear door, indicating that it is an armored infantry fighting vehicle. The military unit using this vehicle is most likely an armored infantry battalion.
Judging from the photos, the military vehicle on the trailer looks more like an armored infantry fighting vehicle CV90
According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org), it is found that the Dutch army and the Danish army are equipped with some infantry fighting vehicles CV90.
Dutch CV90 from Wikipedia
Danish CV90 from Wikipedia
Facts have proved that the CV90 has been equipped in many different countries. So how to determine which country the CV90 in the photo belongs to? I noticed that the vehicle number on the Danish CV90 shown in the picture above is the same as the vehicle number in the photo. The yellow circle sign with a sequence of five numbers is very similar:
With the same symbol and similar number sequence (7 5 1 XX), it can be basically confirmed that this CV90 belongs to the Danish army.
If this CV90 is equipped by the Danish army, can you find out where it was filmed and where the military vehicle might go? Fortunately, the Danish army is very small, and its main combat units are located at only two different bases. There are some other bases for the support force, but infantry fighting vehicles like CV90 belong to the frontline combat force.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Danish_Army
armyvehicles：http://www.armyvehicles.dk/cv9035.htm
Some information about the Danish army can be found on these two websites
According to the information retrieved, it seems that there are only two possible targets: the Royal Danish Life Guard in Holstebro and the Hussar Regiment in Slagelse . Although there are other military units around Denmark, only these two garrisons are equipped with CV90 infantry fighting vehicles.
According to a detail on the back of the military vehicle in the photo, it is known that the CV90 may be related to the Guard Hussar Regiment. The logo on the back of the CV90 is very similar to the official badge of the Guard Hussar Regiment.
Logo on the back of CV90
Insignia of the Danish Guard Hussars
Therefore, this CV90 should be an infantry fighting vehicle of the Hussar regiment stationed in Slagelse. However, military vehicles often move and are deployed anytime and anywhere. How to judge where this vehicle was filmed?
Next, decide to focus on the only visible road signs on the left side of the photo. But it was a wrong decision, and I didn't know it at the time.
There are two lines of words written on the road sign on the left side of the photo, but the text is not clear when enlarged. I don’t know much about Danish geography, so I can only search *derup + Denmark on Google to try to find place names. Find Jyderup, about 35 minutes drive from Slagelse. The only major road near Jyderup is Route 23, but no matter how you look at it, you can’t find a suitable location. Highway 23 is a one-lane highway, but the highway in the photo looks like a multi-lane highway. The signs are also very different. This is the road sign for Jyderup from the exit of Highway 23:
This road sign has red text on a white background, but the road sign you are looking for is a standard highway road sign with white text on a blue background. In this way, Highway 23 is definitely not a highway, but a large-scale main road. In addition, there is obviously another letter before d in drup/derup, which is not y. This result means that Jyderup is not in the correct location. To find the location by transferring directions, you need to find the highway first.
After the search target left Jyderup, he went back to the photo itself to see what other available information could be found. turn out:
1. Red box: This is the shadow of the vehicle. From the trees next to it, I learned that the image must have been taken in summer. Denmark is located in the northern hemisphere, so the sun always goes south, not north. Therefore, the fact that the shadow of the vehicle is on the right side of the image indicates that the sun is on the left, so it is inferred that the vehicle is traveling west and the highway is going east-west.
2. Green frame: It shows the top of the electric mast, like the one used in trains. It should be a railway parallel to the highway, and I found a very similar railway photo.
3. Blue box: the signpost exit on the first line ending with -drup, and the signpost exit on the second line ending with -ov or -on. There seemed to be other gray things behind the road signs, maybe roads or bridges.
Putting everything together, you can summarize the following points:
1. The vehicle should be located on an east-west highway, driving westward.
2. The highway is parallel to the electric railway.
3. The railway must be on the north side of the highway.
4. This location is adjacent to the highway exit, which ends in -drup / -derup and the other ends in -ov / -on.
5. Very close to the military base of Slagelse.
By strictly applying these conditions, the search range can be narrowed down quickly. Check out the map of Denmark below, which shows all major highways.
Denmark highway map
The above five conditions can exclude the E39, E45, E47 and E55 north-south highways. Finally, the east-west E20 meets the requirements and is very close to the military base of Slagelse. Next, find out which part of the E20 highway has a parallel electric railway on the north side.
Use Google Maps satellite mode to find whether there is a parallel railway on the north side of the highway. Of course, you can drive along E20 in street view mode, but it will take a long time.
There is a railway on the north side of the east-west highway
After more than ten minutes of searching, I saw the exit sign Vemmedrup on E20 and exit 33 on Bjaerskov. In line with point 4 above: This exit ends with -drup / -derup, and the other ends with -ov / -on.
The location where the photo was taken is farther away from the road sign, which does not match the exit road sign photo. So Google Street View went further and reached the same location.
Comparing Google Street View with the original photo, it looks almost the same. It’s just the angle of view taken by Google Street View in lane 1 of the highway, but Doxsor took his photo from lane 2, so it can explain the slight difference between the angle of street view and the original photo.
Through a series of speculations, the correct location for the photo to be taken was Exit 33 of E20 near Vemmedrup , and the CV90 might go to the Antvorskov military base in Slagelse .
Following the logic of the Great God all the way down, I never thought that we could find out the garrison situation of the army directly through the Internet. And even if it is a blurry picture, useful information can be interpreted from it. I think you must also understand that posting photos of military vehicles on the Internet will pose a major safety hazard.