Mrs. OSINT Challenge 6

Hello everyone! Today’s blog is really special. This is the first time I actively participate in a challenge and submitted my responses within 48 hours of launch to see how well I do against other researchers. The experience has been both exhilarating and nerve-wracking, as I pushed myself to think critically and creatively under time constraints.

This is also the first time Mrs. OSINT challenged us with a video instead of the usual images, which added an intriguing twist to the task. The video content not only demanded a different analytical approach but also tested my ability to extract meaningful insights from a dynamic medium. I’m excited to share my findings and reflect on the learning process throughout this challenge!

Challenge 6

Tasks:

1. Can you determine the exact location where this video was captured?

Bonus Tasks:

1. What city is visible in the distance?
2. What body of water is featured in the clip?
3. Name one notable feature or landmark that helped you identify the location.
4. Based on the lighting and shadows, what time of day was this likely filmed?
5. Given the location, and time….what is the name of the company offering this route?

Needless to say, during this challenge, time was of the essence. I started my research by watching the video a couple of times since it’s only ten seconds long. While watching the video, I was looking for the most unique landmark I could find. I decided to start by taking a screenshot of the mountain seen in the background.

Using the screenshot above, I conducted a reverse image search and found out that this was no ordinary mountain. This is one of Hawaii’s most recognized landmarks, a very famous volcanic tuff cone known for its beautiful views and hiking trails—Diamond Head.

After getting such a close location estimate, I proceeded to look for the buildings seen in the distance and match them with Google Earth.

To the left are the video clues and to the right is Google Earth’s match. With this, my estimated location is around 21°16’28″N 157°50’22″W. Main question out of the way. Let’s now have a go at our bonus questions.

Based on the building matches I found, the city in the background is Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii. The coordinates from before were close to Turtle Canyon in the Pacific Ocean. I already shared how Diamond Head helped me geolocate this challenge. The last two bonus questions made the challenge much more involved.

The only clue I had to identify the boat and possibly the company offering the route was just the handrail. I first searched for “Waikiki boat tours,” hoping I would see a possible match for our boat, but I could not find one… or maybe the time pressure made me miss it.

I took the screenshot above of the handrail and used it for another reverse image search. I found quite a few matches from people’s Instagram that I will leave out of this post. But one of them gave me a different view of the boat that I was able to reverse image search with.

The other side had pretty much the same handrail and a single post with two flags seen in the screenshot below. This is when I found this Yelp post that had a matching image. I consider this to be the biggest lead in this investigation.

“On the boat, on the way to the submarine!” Now that I knew the boat was taking people to a submarine, I was able to refine my search. In fact, I moved my research to YouTube and came across a channel—Elmo Kami Adventures—and found a perfect match for our rail.

The first two pictures from left to right are screenshots from the original video, and the last picture on the right is a screenshot from Elmo Kami’s video. After further inspecting the video, I also found the boat name to be “Discovery” from Atlantis Adventures. I even found this on dreamstime.com.

This also confirmed our previous findings of Discovery belonging to Atlantis Adventures in Waikiki.

Tasks:

1. Can you determine the exact location where this video was captured?
   • 21°16’28″N 157°50’22″W

Bonus Tasks:

1. What city is visible in the distance?
   • Waikiki
2. What body of water is featured in the clip?
   • Pacific Ocean
3. Name one notable feature or landmark that helped you identify the location.
   • Diamond Head
4. Based on the lighting and shadows, what time of day was this likely filmed?
   • Between 11am-2pm. Based on the reservations options: 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm.
5. Given the location, and time….what is the name of the company offering this route?
   • Atlantis Adventures: Discovery

Although my coordinates were close to the location, other participants were able to drop closer to the correct coordinates. I ended up getting third place during this event, but given the timeframe and other circumstances I had to overcome in my day-to-day life, I feel more than happy with my results.

This challenge was not only fun and engaging but also offered a unique opportunity for personal growth and creativity. It pushed the boundaries of my skills, allowing me trust in my techniques and take approaches that I hadn’t considered before.

Once again, I invite you to try it for yourself and share your methodology in the comments section. Better yet, do a write-up and share it with me. I hope you enjoyed this exercise as much as I did. See you next time!

Resources

• https://www.mrsosint.com/challenge-6-signal-overboard/
• https://www.dreamstime.com/editorial-stock-photo-atlantis-discovery-boat-moored-s-private-tour-jetty-belongs-to-submarines-waikiki-underwater-charter-image68952698
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwjZi8OcZHU
• https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/atlantis-submarines-waikiki-honolulu-2?select=eWUzROLIT-JCma3gWaAFHA