1. A content-based information retrieval architecture comprising: a hashing module that receives an input value and generates a plurality of hashed values from the input value; a first table storing a plurality of encoded values, each hashed value generated from the input value corresponding to a location in the table of an encoded value; a second table storing a plurality of lookup values; and a third table storing a plurality of associated input values in a lookup set, each such input value associated with a lookup value in the second table, where the first table is constructed so that the encoded values, obtained from the hashed values generated from an input value, encode an output value such that the output value cannot be recovered from any single encoded value and such that the output value selects a lookup value in the second table and an associated input value in the third table, thereby identifying the input value as being in the lookup set if the input value is same as the associated input value in the third table.