Multimodal Vision Research Laboratory

MVRL

Research Area: Urban and Built Environment

How can overhead imagery, geotagged media, and geospatial AI support understanding of cities and the built environment? We study land use, property and infrastructure patterns, traffic dynamics, and human-centered landscape perception from satellite, aerial, and social data. Recent work includes few-shot land use classification from geo-tagged CLIP representations, multimodal landscape scenicness assessment, active geospatial search for housing outreach, soundscape mapping in urban settings, and traffic modeling from overhead imagery. These projects connect our geospatial AI and representation learning methods to urban planning, public health, and transportation safety applications.

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All Publications

  1. Khanal S, Sastry S, Dhakal A, Ahmad A, Jacobs N. 2026. Sat2Sound: A Unified Framework for Zero-Shot Soundscape Mapping. In: IEEE/ISPRS Workshop: Large Scale Computer Vision for Remote Sensing (EARTHVISION).
    code paper bibtex GenAI GeoAI Urban
  2. Elallaf A, Jacobs N, Ye X, Chen M, Liang G. 2026. Beta Distribution Learning for Reliable Roadway Crash Risk Assessment. In: Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).
    paper bibtex GeoAI Transportation Urban
  3. Favarão Leão AL, Banda B, Xing E, Gudapati S, Ahmad A, Lin J, Sastry S, Jacobs N, Siqueira Reis R. 2025. Applications of artificial intelligence in public health: analyzing the built environment and addressing spatial inequities. Journal of Public Health. DOI: 10.1007/s10389-025-02444-x.
    doi bibtex Urban GeoAI
  4. Sarkar A, DiChristofano A, Das S, Fowler P, Jacobs N, Vorobeychik Y. 2025. Active Geospatial Search for Efficient Tenant Eviction Outreach. In: Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).
    code paper bibtex Reinforcement Learning GeoAI Urban
  5. Thumbnail for PSM: Learning Probabilistic Embeddings for Multi-scale Zero-shot Soundscape Mapping
    Khanal S, Xing E, Sastry S, Dhakal A, Xiong Z, Ahmad A, Jacobs N. 2024. PSM: Learning Probabilistic Embeddings for Multi-scale Zero-shot Soundscape Mapping. In: ACM Multimedia. DOI: 10.1145/3664647.3681620.
    code paper doi bibtex GeoAI Representation Learning Urban
  6. Jain P, Marcos D, Ienco D, Interdonato R, Dhakal A, Jacobs N, Berchoux T. 2024. Aligning Geo-Tagged CLIP Representations and Satellite Imagery for Few-Shot Land Use Classification. In: IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS).
    bibtex GeoAI Representation Learning Urban
  7. Sarkar A, DiChristofano A, Das S, Fowler P, Jacobs N, Vorobeychik Y. 2024. Geospatial Active Search for Preventing Evictions. In: International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS).
    bibtex Reinforcement Learning GeoAI Urban
  8. Liang G, Zulu J, Xing X, Jacobs N. 2023. Unveiling Roadway Hazards: Enhancing Fatal Crash Risk Estimation through Multi-Scale Satellite Imagery and Self-Supervised Cross-Matching. Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing (JSTARS). DOI: 10.1109/JSTARS.2023.3331438.
    doi bibtex Transportation GeoAI Representation Learning Urban
  9. Khanal S, Sastry S, Dhakal A, Jacobs N. 2023. Learning Tri-modal Embeddings for Zero-Shot Soundscape Mapping. In: British Machine Vision Conference (BMVC).
    code paper bibtex Representation Learning GeoAI Urban
  10. Archbold C, Brodie B, Ogholbake AA, Jacobs N. 2023. Fine-grained Property Value Assessment Using Probabilistic Disaggregation. In: IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS).
    paper bibtex GeoAI Urban
  11. Hadzic A, Christie G, Freeman J, Dismer A, Bullard S, Greiner A, Jacobs N, Mukherjee R. 2020. Estimating Displaced Populations from Overhead. In: IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS). DOI: 10.1109/IGARSS39084.2020.9324617.
    paper doi bibtex GeoAI Urban
  12. Hadzic A, Blanton H, Song W, Chen M, Workman S, Jacobs N. 2020. RasterNet: Modeling Free-Flow Speed using LiDAR and Overhead Imagery. In: IEEE/ISPRS Workshop: Large Scale Computer Vision for Remote Sensing (EARTHVISION). DOI: 10.1109/CVPRW50498.2020.00112.
    website paper doi bibtex Transportation GeoAI Urban
  13. Thumbnail for Dynamic Traffic Modeling from Overhead Imagery
    Workman S, Jacobs N. 2020. Dynamic Traffic Modeling from Overhead Imagery. In: IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR). DOI: 10.1109/CVPR42600.2020.01233.
    website paper doi bibtex Transportation GeoAI Urban
  14. Thumbnail for Implicit Land Use Mapping Using Social Media Imagery
    Greenwell C, Workman S, Jacobs N. 2019. Implicit Land Use Mapping Using Social Media Imagery. In: IEEE Applied Imagery and Pattern Recognition (AIPR). DOI: 10.1109/AIPR47015.2019.9174570.
    paper doi bibtex GeoAI Urban
  15. Salem T, Greenwell C, Blanton H, Jacobs N. 2019. Learning to Map Nearly Anything. In: IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS). DOI: 10.1109/IGARSS.2019.8900646.
    paper doi bibtex GeoAI Urban
  16. Thumbnail for Remote Estimation of Free-Flow Speeds
    Song W, Salem T, Blanton H, Jacobs N. 2019. Remote Estimation of Free-Flow Speeds. In: IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS). DOI: 10.1109/IGARSS.2019.8900286.
    paper doi bibtex Transportation GeoAI Urban
  17. Thumbnail for Weakly Supervised Building Segmentation from Aerial Images
    Rafique MU, Jacobs N. 2019. Weakly Supervised Building Segmentation from Aerial Images. In: IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS). DOI: 10.1109/IGARSS.2019.8898812.
    paper doi bibtex GeoAI Urban
  18. Rafique MU, Blanton H, Jacobs N. 2019. Weakly Supervised Fusion of Multiple Overhead Images. In: IEEE/ISPRS Workshop: Large Scale Computer Vision for Remote Sensing (EARTHVISION). DOI: 10.1109/CVPRW.2019.00189.
    paper doi bibtex GeoAI Urban
  19. Thumbnail for A Weakly Supervised Approach for Estimating Spatial Density Functions from High-Resolution Satellite Imagery
    Jacobs N, Kraft A, Rafique MU, Sharma RD. 2018. A Weakly Supervised Approach for Estimating Spatial Density Functions from High-Resolution Satellite Imagery. In: ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems (ACM SIGSPATIAL). DOI: 10.1145/3274895.3274934.
    code paper doi bibtex GeoAI Urban
  20. Greenwell C, Workman S, Jacobs N. 2018. What Goes Where: Predicting Object Distributions from Above. In: IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS). DOI: 10.1109/IGARSS.2018.8519251.
    website paper doi bibtex GeoAI Urban
  21. Thumbnail for A Multimodal Approach to Mapping Soundscapes
    Salem T, Zhai M, Workman S, Jacobs N. 2018. A Multimodal Approach to Mapping Soundscapes. In: IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS). DOI: 10.1109/IGARSS.2018.8517977.
    website paper doi bibtex GeoAI Urban
  22. Thumbnail for FARSA: Fully Automated Roadway Safety Assessment
    Song W, Workman S, Hadzic A, Souleyrette R, Green E, Chen M, Zhang X, Jacobs N. 2018. FARSA: Fully Automated Roadway Safety Assessment. In: IEEE Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV). DOI: 10.1109/WACV.2018.00063.
    paper doi bibtex Transportation GeoAI Urban
  23. Vo N, Jacobs N, Hays J. 2017. Revisiting IM2GPS in the Deep Learning Era. In: IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV). DOI: 10.1109/ICCV.2017.286.
    website paper doi bibtex Localization GeoAI Urban
  24. Thumbnail for A Unified Model for Near and Remote Sensing
    Workman S, Zhai M, Crandall D, Jacobs N. 2017. A Unified Model for Near and Remote Sensing. In: IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV). DOI: 10.1109/ICCV.2017.293.
    website paper doi bibtex GeoAI Urban
  25. Thumbnail for Understanding and Mapping Natural Beauty
    Workman S, Souvenir R, Jacobs N. 2017. Understanding and Mapping Natural Beauty. In: IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV). DOI: 10.1109/ICCV.2017.596.
    website paper doi bibtex GeoAI Urban
  26. Thumbnail for Predicting Ground-Level Scene Layout from Aerial Imagery
    Zhai M, Bessinger Z, Workman S, Jacobs N. 2017. Predicting Ground-Level Scene Layout from Aerial Imagery. In: IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR). DOI: 10.1109/CVPR.2017.440.
    code paper doi bibtex GenAI Localization GeoAI Urban
  27. Bessinger Z, Stauffer C, Jacobs N. 2016. Who Goes There? Approaches to Mapping Facial Appearance Diversity. In: ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems (ACM SIGSPATIAL). DOI: 10.1145/2996913.2996997.
    paper doi bibtex Urban
  28. Jacobs N, Workman S, Zhai M. 2016. Crossview Convolutional Networks. In: IEEE Applied Imagery and Pattern Recognition (AIPR). DOI: 10.1109/AIPR.2016.8010593.
    paper doi bibtex GeoAI Urban
  29. Bessinger Z, Jacobs N. 2016. Quantifying Curb Appeal. In: IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP). DOI: 10.1109/ICIP.2016.7533189.
    website paper doi bibtex Urban
  30. Thumbnail for Wide-Area Image Geolocalization with Aerial Reference Imagery
    Workman S, Souvenir R, Jacobs N. 2015. Wide-Area Image Geolocalization with Aerial Reference Imagery. In: IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV). 1–9. DOI: 10.1109/ICCV.2015.451.
    code website paper doi bibtex Localization Urban
  31. Thumbnail for Face2GPS: Estimating Geographic Location from Facial Features
    Islam MT, Workman S, Jacobs N. 2015. Face2GPS: Estimating Geographic Location from Facial Features. In: IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP). DOI: 10.1109/ICIP.2015.7351072.
    website paper doi bibtex Localization Urban
  32. Greenwell C, Spurlock S, Souvenir R, Jacobs N. 2014. GeoFaceExplorer: Exploring the Geo-Dependence of Facial Attributes. In: ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on Crowdsourced and Volunteered Geographic Information (GEOCROWD). 32–37. DOI: 10.1145/2676440.2676443.
    paper doi bibtex Urban
  33. Thumbnail for The Global Network of Outdoor Webcams: Properties and Applications
    Jacobs N, Burgin W, Fridrich N, Abrams A, Miskell K, Braswell BH, Richardson AD, Pless R. 2009. The Global Network of Outdoor Webcams: Properties and Applications. In: ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems (ACM SIGSPATIAL). 111–120. DOI: 10.1145/1653771.1653789.
    paper doi bibtex Calibration Urban
  34. Pless R, Jacobs N, Dixon M, Hartley R, Baker P, Brock D, Cassimatis N, Perzanowski D. 2009. Persistence and Tracking: Putting Vehicles and Trajectories in Context. In: IEEE Applied Imagery and Pattern Recognition (AIPR). DOI: 10.1109/AIPR.2009.5466307.
    doi bibtex Urban
  35. Jacobs N, Souvenir R, Pless R. 2009. Passive Vision: The Global Webcam Imaging Network. In: IEEE Applied Imagery and Pattern Recognition (AIPR). 1–8. DOI: 10.1109/AIPR.2009.5466314.
    doi bibtex Calibration Urban
  36. Jacobs N, Dixon M, Satkin S, Pless R. 2009. Efficient Tracking of Many Objects in Structured Environments. In: IEEE ICCV Workshop on Visual Surveillance. 1161–1168. DOI: 10.1109/ICCVW.2009.5457477.
    doi bibtex Urban
  37. Jacobs N, Pless R. 2009. Calibrating and Using the Global Network of Outdoor Webcams. In: ACM/IEEE International Conference on Distributed Smart Cameras (ICDSC). 1–2. DOI: 10.1109/ICDSC.2009.5289404.
    doi bibtex Calibration Urban
  38. Dixon M, Jacobs N, Pless R. 2009. An Efficient System for Vehicle Tracking in Multi-Camera Networks. In: ACM/IEEE International Conference on Distributed Smart Cameras (ICDSC). 1–8. DOI: 10.1109/ICDSC.2009.5289383.
    paper doi bibtex Urban
  39. Jacobs N, Burgin W, Speyer R, Ross D, Pless R. 2009. Adventures in Archiving and Using Three Years of Webcam Images. In: IEEE CVPR Workshop on Internet Vision. 39–46. DOI: 10.1109/CVPRW.2009.5204185.
    paper doi bibtex Calibration Urban