Visual localization

A method of visual localization which utilizes one or more query images from a mobile device to determine location and orientation of the mobile device, the method comprising:

• obtaining one or more real reference images of an environment, wherein each of the reference images is associated with a viewpoint;
• for a first reference image, creating a depth map, from a first viewpoint of the first reference image, corresponding to a first plurality of 3D points within the environment;
• simulating at least one view of at least a subset of the first plurality of 3D points from at least one secondary viewpoint spaced from the first viewpoint of the first reference image;
• computing, using image based rendering, a plurality of novel views based on the at least one simulated view;
• extracting features from the plurality of novel views;
• extracting features from the one or more query images;
• and,
• determining the location and the orientation of the mobile device based on the features extracted from the plurality of novel views and the features extracted from the one or more query images.