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Instance segmentation
Instance segmentation is a computer vision method that detects each individual object in an image and assigns it a pixel-level mask, class label, and confidence score.
Instant camera
An instant camera, also known as a Polaroid camera, develops its own film into a finished print minutes after the shot, a process Edwin Land introduced in 1948.
Instant center of rotation
The instant center of rotation, also called the instantaneous center of zero velocity, is the point in a planar-moving body with zero velocity, about which the body appears to rotate.
Instant coffee
Instant coffee (soluble coffee) is a dried water-soluble powder made exclusively from roasted coffee by brewing, extraction, and spray- or freeze-drying. Key facts: Nescafé launched 1938, yields 40–55%, freeze-drying costs 35% more, Asia-Pacific buys half the volume.
Instant customary international law
Instant customary international law is Bin Cheng's 1965 thesis that custom can form without prolonged usage if opinio juris is widespread, a claim the International Law Commission rejects.
Instant Family
Instant Family is a 2018 Paramount comedy-drama directed by Sean Anders, co-written with John Morris, starring Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne as foster-adoptive parents, inspired by Anders adopting three siblings.
Instant film
Instant film is self-developing photographic film that produces a visible print minutes after exposure, without external processing; Polaroid makes it at its Enschede, Netherlands plant.
Instant Holograms on Metal Film
Instant Holograms on Metal Film is Stereolab's 2025 studio album on Duophonic UHF Disks/Warp, their first in 15 years since Not Music: 13 tracks by Laetitia Sadier and Tim Gane with new producer Cooper Crain and added male vocals.
Instant Hotel
Instant Hotel is an Australian reality competition series on Seven Network (2017–2019, 2 seasons, 18 episodes) where homeowner teams stay in and score each other's short-term rentals; streamed on Netflix 2018–2023.
Instant Information, Inc.
Instant Information, Inc. was a New York provider of cloud-based information management and discovery software, founded in 2004 by Multex veterans Isaak Karaev and John Mahoney.
Instant Karma!
Instant Karma! (We All Shine On), John Lennon's third solo single with the Plastic Ono Band, written and recorded 27 January 1970, released 6 February 1970, produced by Phil Spector with George Harrison; UK #5, US top-3 hit.
Instant messaging
Instant messaging (IM), or IMing, is the real-time exchange of text messages over the internet through client apps, distinct from SMS; IRC began it in 1988 and ICQ followed in 1996.
Instant messaging interview
An instant messaging interview is a qualitative research interview conducted by typing back and forth with a participant in real time, suited to sensitive subjects and producing a live transcript.
Instant Mom
Instant Mom is an American family sitcom starring Tia Mowry-Hardrict as a young party woman who becomes stepmother to three children, which ran from 2013 to 2015.
Instant noodles
Instant noodles are precooked, dried wheat noodles prepared with hot water, invented as Chicken Ramen by Momofuku Ando in Japan in 1958. Global demand reached 124.21 billion servings in 2025; China/Hong Kong, Indonesia, and India lead.
Instant photography
Instant photography is a process where film develops itself inside or after leaving the camera, producing a finished print in about a minute without a darkroom.
Instant Pot
Instant Pot is a brand of electric multi-cookers invented by Robert Wang, launched on Amazon in 2010, famous for pressure cooking plus slow cook, sauté, steam, rice, and yogurt functions; owned by Centre Lane Partners since the 2023 Instant Brands bankruptcy.
Instant Star
Instant Star is a Canadian teen musical drama (CTV, 2004-2008) created by Linda Schuyler, starring Alexz Johnson as Jude Harrison, a contest-winning singer; four seasons, soundtracks on Orange Record Label.
Instant-runoff voting
Instant-runoff voting (IRV), also called ranked-choice voting or the alternative vote, is a single-winner ranked-ballot system eliminating the lowest candidate each round until a majority winner; used in Australia, Maine, Alaska, and dozens of US cities.
Instantaneous center of rotation
The instantaneous center of rotation, also called the instantaneous center of zero velocity, is the point of a rigid body in planar motion with zero velocity at a given instant.
Instantaneous death
Instantaneous death (ICD-11 MH12.0; ICD-10 R96.0) is death within seconds of symptom onset or trauma with no warning, or sudden unexplained death in adults, a forensic diagnosis made by exclusion after autopsy and toxicology.
Instantaneous unit hydrograph
The instantaneous unit hydrograph (IUH) is the theoretical runoff response of a watershed to a unit depth of excess rainfall applied instantaneously, proposed by J. E. Nash in 1957.
Instanton
An instanton is a localized, finite-action classical solution of the Euclidean Yang–Mills field equations, describing quantum tunneling between topologically distinct vacua; it was first found in 1975.
Instar
An instar is a developmental stage of an immature insect between two successive molts, numbered in order after hatching; the first instar runs from hatching to the first molt.
INSTASAMKA
INSTASAMKA (Инстасамка), real name Daria Zoteeva, is a Russian rap and pop singer and former Instagram blogger whose single «За деньги да» topped charts in 2022.
InstaVolt
InstaVolt is a British owner-operator of rapid and ultra-rapid public EV charging, founded in 2016 and owned by EQT since 2023, with 2,600 chargers across 900 UK sites.
InstaWin
InstaWin (Instawin) names several gambling products: IEST's PAGCOR-regulated Philippine terminal platform, a Taytay Rizal casino, a Galaxsys swipe instant game, and a closed Estonian online casino.
InstaWin - Big Rock, Antipolo Rizal
InstaWin - Big Rock, Antipolo Rizal is a PAGCOR-regulated InstaWin electronic casino on Marcos Highway in the Big Rock area of Barangay Bagong Nayon, Antipolo City, Rizal, Philippines, near Our Lady of Fatima University.
Instil Bio
Instil Bio is a Dallas, Texas-based biotechnology company founded in 2018 that developed TIL cell therapies for cancer, went public on Nasdaq in March 2021, and later exited cell-therapy development.
Instinct
Instinct: unlearned, inherited, species-typical behavior, also called innate behavior. Traced from Darwin and James through McDougall, the 1920s critiques (Dunlap, Kuo), ethology's fixed action patterns, and Lehrman's critique.