Reverse layer encoding
 

Would one of the pro's please explain what this is ? I was reading an article about the FaceAche IPO that will rival the Tulip Bubble IMHO in a while :hmm:, and someone mentioned how the known tactics of data-mining would be enhanced by the technology of Instagram (that was recently purchased) and their reverse layer encoding..... I tried Googley, but alas, no joy. Ta!



SHJ

SpringHeeledJack,

Suspect said article was written in true journalistic style, trying to sound clever but written by someone with no knowledge of the subject.

"reverse layer encoding" doesn't mean much to me, but then I don't know much about Instagram and even less about FB.

A "layer" in relation to an image is a concept found in professional programs such as Photoshop. Think of it a bit like tracing paper, it enables you to layer on additional elements onto your base image, generally speaking these elements are usually graphical in format.

"reverse" in the context of technology is used in terms such as "reverse engineering", where you don't have the source code to a program, and so you take the end-product program and make an educated guess about its internal algorithms and functions based upon how it operates.

So I guess one could extrapolate that "reverse layer encoding" in the context of FB using Instagram would be that they would be encoding additional layer data onto the original image data, with the source of the layer data being based on the content of the original image.

In other words..... facial-recognition, geo-tagging.... or something along those lines.

Thankyou mr mixture, the piece was more about how the IPO price was mad due to FB having 'nothing but data to sell' and 'nobody clicks on the adverts' so the position was about pump and dump by the big investment banks etc. The writer was saying how by buying various companies in the last while for crazy prices, FB had produced a far reaching tool to reveal 'customers' to other firms for money. Somehow I'm glad that I never signed up to the whole social networking thing...


SHJ

I suspect the answer is in facial recognition. Its clear the Instagram company is about social networking using photos and I suspect facial recognition is a larger part of that
FB already have strong abilities in that direction. Buying the company stops rival technology going to Google or Microsoft, and adds a new arm to the FB empire

Instagram has used the Foursquare database for geotagging. Now it will use Facebook's. Not bothering to find the original quote, I'm guessing they're simply talking about adding Facebook's metadata to images.