New algorithm predicts popularity of your Instagram photo

WASHINGTON: An Indian-origin scientist at MIT has developed a new algorithm that predicts how popular your Instagram photo will be even before you have uploaded it.

Aditya Khosla, a PhD candidate at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)'s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, analysed 2.3 million Flickr photos to isolate the factors that make a photo popular. According to Khosla, his algorithm allows him to predict how many views your photo will get on a photo sharing website before you even upload it.

The algorithm takes into consideration social factors such as how many followers a user has, the number of tags on the photo, and the length of the title, 'The Verge' reported. It also measures content factors such as texture, colour, gradient, and objects present in the photo. The algorithm measures the potential popularity on a relative scale from one to 10, the report said. Khosla also plans to create a tool that can automatically edit a photo to make it more popular.