Raven AI locates homes from interior photos

A photo taken inside a room can now point to the home it came from. Raven is an AI tool that matches fixtures, fittings and decor in a picture with data pulled from sites that list short-term rentals. It cross-references those details with information scraped, or automatically collected, from Airbnb, Zillow and Vrbo, and can pinpoint the home on a map. The tool was first called GeoSpy and was originally meant to locate places from landmarks.

How it locates interiors

Police in Florida and California already use Raven to investigate crimes. The Los Angeles Police Department and the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office have applied it in human-trafficking cases. Investigators can turn a photo or video taken inside a property into a location lead, which can then be checked and verified. The developers say the tool is "purpose-built AI for the people working to find answers and protect lives."

Using data from rental sites raises privacy and legal questions. Zillow has said that scraping its data goes against its terms of service, and Airbnb is reviewing the situation. Some of the sites that supply the data have voiced concern about how their images and details are used. For Raven to be adopted by more police departments, it would need to address regional privacy laws and build partnerships with the sites it uses.

TechRadar says there is nothing to worry about if a home has not been used for criminal activity and no photos of its interior are online. The tool works only when a matching image with an address already exists online. As the technology develops, its success will depend on whether data providers allow its use.