Using cameraphones to know exactly where you are

Rather than use GPS to find your way around town, a couple of researchers at Cambridge University are working on a program that can match up a photograph of a building taken with a cameraphone with a database of images and tell you,
to within one meter, exactly where you are (regular GPS is only accurate to within about ten meters). Since the program could tell from the photograph you sent it not only where you were but also your orientation, it could give you directions like "turn left" rather than "go east." We're way skeptical of this for a lot of reasons. The resolution of photos taken with cameraphones will have to get a lot better for this to work.
And besides which, whoever is offering the service will have to create a massive database with information and images of every building on every street in every city and then constantly update it to make sure it's accurate. How expensive and labor-intensive is that going to be?

[Via TechDirt]