Google Maps street view images can be used to detect signs of inequality

Spotting inequality can now be done by a computer using a pre-existing, vast and easily available database of images - Google Maps street view. More than half a million pictures from this catalogue of'on-the-ground' photos were inputted into a deep learning algorithm which unpicked signs of inequality in London. Data collection was done over 156,581 different postcodes and was then applied to Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester. Overview of the street images and outcome data used in the analysis pictured). Esra Suel and colleagues from Imperial College London used deep-learning to train a computer programme designed to detect signs of austerity.