VER 1.0 — The Visual Embedding Recordstable
§14 Relationship to Existing Standards
| Standard | Role under VER |
|---|---|
IPTC Photo Metadata | Vocabulary for the reconciled normalized view (§7.3). Preserved raw when embedded. |
XMP | Carrier framework; preserved byte-exact; second in reconciliation precedence. |
EXIF | Capture metadata; preserved byte-exact; consumed only for Orientation in CPNP; unsigned, hence never authoritative on its own. |
ICC | Consumed during CPNP color management, then discarded from the embedding path; preserved raw. |
C2PA | Trust root. Validated when present; bound to the Record via content_hash; its verified assertions sit atop reconciliation precedence. |
MWG guidance | Heritage for the reconciliation precedence order. |
VER replaces none of these. It is the AI-era representation layer above them — the thesis's key conclusion, now with the mechanics to enforce it: a normalization pipeline that makes “pixels only” well-defined, an identity gradient that makes claims honest, space descriptors that make vectors comparable, trust tiers that make metadata safe, and conformance levels that make all of it testable.