Last Saturday I said I would publish a random business idea from my list every Saturday and today (Saturday) I’m starting to regret expecting that kind of consistency from myself. I should know better by now. Today’s idea is number 13 out of 18 on my 2018 list.
Idea 2018-13: Instagram filter reversal app
In 2018 one of the main ways to edit images was putting a simple Instagram filter on top of it.
The Filter Reversal App idea was to be able to screenshot someone’s Instagram picture and feed it into an app that has the algorithm of the different filters, detects them, and reverses them, showing the original image (or something close to it).
Say I find this photo on Instagram:
I load it into the app and it detects that it has the “Tokyo” filter and removes it, outputting the original:
Jump to 2024: Reverse FaceApp
Of course, today we have many more easily accessible filters and layers going into editing images and ubiquitous AI editing, auch as the infamous FaceApp. Simply reversing a filter like in the example above will often be much harder.
What will work is an “approximation” of the original photo using machine learning.
With a “Reverse FaceApp” cases like those featured in “Instagram vs reality” subreddits and Instagram collections could be fed in, and the reality behind the digital face/bodylift would be revealed. This can be useful for anyone using Tinder and similar dating apps.
I’m not a fan of this idea
This “Reverse FaceApp” idea can be made into an entertaining product (worth millions), but I think a sound implementation would be challenging. If we fed the app a photo without any manipulation, knowing current AI apps, it would likely still try to reverse some imaginary photoshopping (entertaining but otherwise useless). I bet it would be hard to teach it to detect non-modified photos as non-modified and vice versa.
Lastly, the power to modify your looks is a positive of the digital age in my opinion, so I don’t feel much of a need to “unfilter”, just to find a potentially bleaker physical form behind the just as real digital form.