Puzzles and Challenges
Can you solve the photo interpretation challenge?
Do you see a hospital, university, shopping mall, apartment complex, hotel or prison?

Figured it out? Check your answer
It's an apartment complex.
The process of identification for this image is based on the geospatial intelligence tradecraft of signature recognition. This process involves developing signatures – things we would expect to see that indicate the function of the feature – and evaluating them to determine if what we see could support the function we believe it performs. While each of the listed options is feasible based on signatures in the image, many can be ruled out based on signatures that are missing.
In this image, each of the following facilities can be ruled out based on missing signatures:
- hospital
- ambulance entry
- central heating and cooling
- backup power
- covered walkways linking buildings
- helipad
- over-sized lift wells
- university
- lecture halls
- sporting fields
- shopping mall
- central heating and cooling
- more parking
- more accessible layout
- less residential proximity
- hotel
- main entrance
- central heating and cooling
- less residential proximity
- less dispersed parking
- prison
- larger fences
- guard towers
- external parking
- less residential proximity
The correct answer is 'apartment complex'. While an apartment complex shares many of its signature with the above facilities, there are key differences. In this case, the following signatures are present that help us determine the function of the facility:
- dispersed parking to support individual access to each building
- central reception areas for each building
- individual heating and cooling units on balconies
- proximity to other residential areas