I am reminded of the Alice Bot which we experimented with in the 90s. Now the idea has taken hold as a simpler way of delivering AI, especially for human natural language interaction.
About Alicebot:
A.L.I.C.E. (Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity) is an award-winning free natural language artificial intelligence chat robot. The software used to create A.L.I.C.E. is available as free ("open source") Alicebot and AIML software.
Try talking to A.L.I.C.E. just like a real person, but remember you are really chatting with a machine! A.L.I.C.E.'s Alicebot engine utilizes AIML (Artificial Intelligence Markup Language) to form responses to yourquestions and inputs.
Unlike other commercial chat robot software costing thousands of dollars, the Alicebot engine and AIML are freely available under the terms of the GNU General Public License (used by GNU/Linux and thousands of other software projects). The A.L.I.C.E. project includes hundreds of contributors from around the world.
You can read more about the history of A.L.I.C.E., or find out how you can participate in the A.L.I.C.E. development community. ... "
More on the relationship to early AI. And the Alicebot AI Foundation. Relationship to the work of Joseph Weizenbaum.
Via Jim Spohrer.
Friday, August 19, 2016
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Intel Acquires Nervana: How AI is Disrupting the Largest Industries
Unexpected, but have always been impressed with Intel's deep innovation, want to see hardware enhanced AI.
In Medium: Standing on the Shore*: How AI is Disrupting the World’s largest Industries
Artificial Intelligence is undergoing a massive acceleration driven by rapid growth in available data and rapid evolution of algorithms.
Intel’s acquisition this Tuesday of our portfolio company Nervana Systems validates that our companies’ platforms, driving this acceleration, are disrupting the world’s largest industries.
Our thesis is that a) increasingly powerful and inexpensive hardware that is machine learning/deep learning-friendly (lots of multipliers and fast memory; e.g., Nervana Systems), b) a flourishing of learning approaches running on that hardware, and c) large, novel data sets, now inexpensive to acquire and refresh, to train and drive those novel learning algorithms, is fueling a transformation of major global industries right in front of everyone’s eyes.... "
In Medium: Standing on the Shore*: How AI is Disrupting the World’s largest Industries
Artificial Intelligence is undergoing a massive acceleration driven by rapid growth in available data and rapid evolution of algorithms.
Intel’s acquisition this Tuesday of our portfolio company Nervana Systems validates that our companies’ platforms, driving this acceleration, are disrupting the world’s largest industries.
Our thesis is that a) increasingly powerful and inexpensive hardware that is machine learning/deep learning-friendly (lots of multipliers and fast memory; e.g., Nervana Systems), b) a flourishing of learning approaches running on that hardware, and c) large, novel data sets, now inexpensive to acquire and refresh, to train and drive those novel learning algorithms, is fueling a transformation of major global industries right in front of everyone’s eyes.... "
AI and Human Safety: Steve Omohundro
AIBrainTalk: AI and Human Safety
On August 17, 2016 Steve Omohundro spoke to the “Million AI Startups” group about “AI and Human Safety”:
AI and robotics will create $50 trillion of value over the next 10 years according to McKinsey. This is causing their rapid development but six recent events show the need to be careful as they are integrated into human society. In the past few weeks we’ve seen three Tesla autopilot crashes, the Dallas police using a robot to kill a suspect, a Stanford Shopping Center security robot running over a small child, and the first “Decentralized Autonomous Organization” losing $56 million due to a bug in a smart contract. As we move forward with these technologies, we will need to incorporate human values and new principles of security so that their human benefits can be fully realized. ... "
More and slides.
On August 17, 2016 Steve Omohundro spoke to the “Million AI Startups” group about “AI and Human Safety”:
AI and robotics will create $50 trillion of value over the next 10 years according to McKinsey. This is causing their rapid development but six recent events show the need to be careful as they are integrated into human society. In the past few weeks we’ve seen three Tesla autopilot crashes, the Dallas police using a robot to kill a suspect, a Stanford Shopping Center security robot running over a small child, and the first “Decentralized Autonomous Organization” losing $56 million due to a bug in a smart contract. As we move forward with these technologies, we will need to incorporate human values and new principles of security so that their human benefits can be fully realized. ... "
More and slides.
Naralogics: Understanding Decisions with Neural Networks
Always interested in how to represent and use models of decisions, especially how they are driven by data. Today heard a talk by Nathan Wilson of Naralogics on the topic. They are having considerable success in modeling decision process via biologically inspired neural networks. His slides. Recording. Looking to see how these might be placed in the average data science toolbox.
See their also their blog, which points to a sandbox effort for their methods.
Short non technical explanatory pdf about this associative network method is linked to.
See their also their blog, which points to a sandbox effort for their methods.
Short non technical explanatory pdf about this associative network method is linked to.
Inc Looks at Neuromarketing
Have been detached from technical neuromarketing efforts for a while now, you can see some writings from those efforts in the tag below. Inc Mag takes a non technical look. There is usefulness to address this. A sort of 'hints from neuroscience' view, as opposed to direct wiring the brain to understand the specifics of neural activity.
Staying Ahead of Smart Machines
A look at content generation using smart machines. A newly discovered philosophical blog. Lots of companies are considering the implications of AI today.
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Driver Assistance vs Autopilots
Interesting story of varying language being used in describing the idea of 'driver assistance' when using and selling the Tesla. Our language has to adapt to the physical consequences And the legal consequences. In ArsTechnica.
Microsoft's Open Mind
Not released yet, but apparently in process:
Open Mind: Microsoft's Visual-Studio-like suite for machine learning
Microsoft looks to be building a Visual-Studio-like tool suite for machine learning called Open Mind Studio. By Mary Jo Foley .... "
If this implies a highly visual way to implement machine learning, I like it.
Open Mind: Microsoft's Visual-Studio-like suite for machine learning
Microsoft looks to be building a Visual-Studio-like tool suite for machine learning called Open Mind Studio. By Mary Jo Foley .... "
If this implies a highly visual way to implement machine learning, I like it.
Hacks for Forgetfulness
The topic has always interested us. In the modern world there are so many more things to remember. But we have devices now, and they can provide cues in some context. What are the best kinds of cues? In Knowledge@Wharton. With even some implications for retail.
Procter and Targeted Facebook
More on P&G's change in the use of targeted Facebook.
P&G Shakes Up Targeted Facebook Approach, Sparks Marketing Stir
Procter & Gamble announced yesterday the company has decided to scale back on their targeted Facebook advertisements, citing limited effectiveness. The world's largest ad buyer will not cut back on the overall funding for Facebook advertisements, but instead will reduce the number of targeted ad buys. ,,, "
P&G Shakes Up Targeted Facebook Approach, Sparks Marketing Stir
Procter & Gamble announced yesterday the company has decided to scale back on their targeted Facebook advertisements, citing limited effectiveness. The world's largest ad buyer will not cut back on the overall funding for Facebook advertisements, but instead will reduce the number of targeted ad buys. ,,, "
Smart Cities, an IoT in Enterprise Introduction
Thingworx On Smart Cities. A free e-book that requires registration:
" ... Current hype aside, the Internet of Things will ultimately become as fundamental as the Internet itself, with lots of opportunities and trials along the way. To help you navigate these choppy waters, this practical guide introduces a dedicated methodology for businesses preparing to transition towards IoT-based business models. With a set of best practices based on case study analysis, expert interviews, and the authors’ own experience, the Ignite | IoT Methodology outlined in this book delivers actionable guidelines to assist you with IoT strategy management and project execution. You’ll also find a detailed case study of a project fully developed with this methodology. ... "
" ... Current hype aside, the Internet of Things will ultimately become as fundamental as the Internet itself, with lots of opportunities and trials along the way. To help you navigate these choppy waters, this practical guide introduces a dedicated methodology for businesses preparing to transition towards IoT-based business models. With a set of best practices based on case study analysis, expert interviews, and the authors’ own experience, the Ignite | IoT Methodology outlined in this book delivers actionable guidelines to assist you with IoT strategy management and project execution. You’ll also find a detailed case study of a project fully developed with this methodology. ... "
Using Anthropologic Thinking
In the HBR: Using anthropology to get more our of social media. We used anthropologists in the enterprise. This article promotes more quantitative thinking than we typically saw from anthropology. Something that may seem new: 'social listening' is something we had done for a long time. Good introduction to the possibility of paying micro attention to conversations:
" ... There is something marketing managers seem to forget about the internet: it was made for people, not for companies and brands. As such, it offers managers a source of insight they never had — social listening.
Eavesdropping on consumers’ social-media chatter allows marketers to economically and regularly peer inside people’s lives as they are being lived, without introducing biases through direct interaction. Armed with traces of revealed opinions and behaviors, managers can at long last discover the manifestations and ripple effects of their actions on consumer behavior. Clear indications from marketing science underline how chatter affects sales, brand health, and even stock performance. Social listening competency will be critical to competitive advantage in the digital age. . .. "
" ... There is something marketing managers seem to forget about the internet: it was made for people, not for companies and brands. As such, it offers managers a source of insight they never had — social listening.
Eavesdropping on consumers’ social-media chatter allows marketers to economically and regularly peer inside people’s lives as they are being lived, without introducing biases through direct interaction. Armed with traces of revealed opinions and behaviors, managers can at long last discover the manifestations and ripple effects of their actions on consumer behavior. Clear indications from marketing science underline how chatter affects sales, brand health, and even stock performance. Social listening competency will be critical to competitive advantage in the digital age. . .. "
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Innovation and the Language of the Corner Office
Reminds of work we did to enhance executive information systems. Back then and then later when we had more technology and live data to leverage. Language is a big deal. And finally when we started to leverage AI concepts. More digital now than ever. Lots of threads in this blog on this, see tags below. In Sloan Review:
When Innovation Meets the Language of the Corner Office by Dave Rochlin
What are the best ways to tailor the language of innovation to the executive suite?
We have learned that innovation executives often feel poorly understood by their fellow executives. In turn, functional executives are often baffled by what they see and hear from their innovation teams.
This isn’t a big surprise. As with other business disciplines, innovation experts have their own language. Innovation processes now include journey mapping, need-finding, technology-scouting, business model canvasing, prototyping, design sprints, and more. While these processes and terms are becoming more widely used across organizations, they are not always fully embraced at the executive level. ... "
When Innovation Meets the Language of the Corner Office by Dave Rochlin
What are the best ways to tailor the language of innovation to the executive suite?
We have learned that innovation executives often feel poorly understood by their fellow executives. In turn, functional executives are often baffled by what they see and hear from their innovation teams.
This isn’t a big surprise. As with other business disciplines, innovation experts have their own language. Innovation processes now include journey mapping, need-finding, technology-scouting, business model canvasing, prototyping, design sprints, and more. While these processes and terms are becoming more widely used across organizations, they are not always fully embraced at the executive level. ... "
Comparing Three Data Science Concepts
Nice quiz and a demonstration of the imprecision of the terms in use
AI vs Deep Learning vs Machine Learning Posted by William Vorhies
Summary: Which of these terms means the same thing: AI, Deep Learning, Machine Learning? Are you sure? While there’s overlap none of these is a complete subset of the others and none completely explains the others. ... "
AI vs Deep Learning vs Machine Learning Posted by William Vorhies
Summary: Which of these terms means the same thing: AI, Deep Learning, Machine Learning? Are you sure? While there’s overlap none of these is a complete subset of the others and none completely explains the others. ... "
Neural Dust Health Sensors
In Cnet: Beyond Fitbit: 'Neural dust' puts invisible cyborg tech deep inside you ... New, tiny sensors could create superpowerful fitness trackers, move prosthetics forward and lead to treatments for conditions like epilepsy. ... "
Cooperative Robotics for Amazon
Like humans being augmented by AI, here in the physical world.
How Locus Robotics Plans to Build a Successor to Amazon's Kiva Robots
By Evan Ackerman
Locus’ robot is designed to work collaboratively with humans to fill orders in a warehouse. It’s a mobile base that can navigate autonomously using lidar to track its location in a pre-mapped area, with cameras and 2D barcodes for verification. Each robot knows the location of every item in the warehouse, and when an item needs to be picked for an order, the robot will navigate to that item and wait.
Humans workers are assigned to patrol warehouse zones, and when they see a robot waiting, the worker reads the item that it needs off the screen, picks it, and moves on. The robot then drives to the location of the next item that it needs, or heads for a shipping station. It’s a very efficient system, since humans aren’t carrying anything or having to roam all over a warehouse to fulfill one order: instead, they’re doing what they’re best at, which is identifying and picking objects off of shelves. ... "
How Locus Robotics Plans to Build a Successor to Amazon's Kiva Robots
By Evan Ackerman
Locus’ robot is designed to work collaboratively with humans to fill orders in a warehouse. It’s a mobile base that can navigate autonomously using lidar to track its location in a pre-mapped area, with cameras and 2D barcodes for verification. Each robot knows the location of every item in the warehouse, and when an item needs to be picked for an order, the robot will navigate to that item and wait.
Humans workers are assigned to patrol warehouse zones, and when they see a robot waiting, the worker reads the item that it needs off the screen, picks it, and moves on. The robot then drives to the location of the next item that it needs, or heads for a shipping station. It’s a very efficient system, since humans aren’t carrying anything or having to roam all over a warehouse to fulfill one order: instead, they’re doing what they’re best at, which is identifying and picking objects off of shelves. ... "
Towards Decision Networks
Of interest: Decision Networks ...
... Cognitive Systems Institute Group Speaker Series on Thursday, August 18, 2016 at 10:30 am ET US (9:30am CT, 7:30 am PT). Our presenter this week is Nathan Wilson from Nara Logics, Inc. who will present "Biological Foundations for Deep Learning: Towards Decision Networks."
Please point your web browser to https://apps.na.collabserv.com/meetings/join?id=2894-8491 password=cognitive. Use audio on computer or 855-233-7153 in the US (other countries numberhere) PIN Code: 43179788 Non-IBMers and Non-Members, please use the "guest" option instead of entering your email.
Slides here. More here: http://cognitive-science.info/community/weekly-update/
We encourage those who join the calls to add questions and comments to the https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Cognitive-Systems-Institute-6729452 on LinkedIn and please ask questions at the end of the call.
Thank you and please let me know if you would like to be a presenter on an upcoming call!
Dianne Fodell
IBM Global University Programs
fodell@us.ibm.com
... Cognitive Systems Institute Group Speaker Series on Thursday, August 18, 2016 at 10:30 am ET US (9:30am CT, 7:30 am PT). Our presenter this week is Nathan Wilson from Nara Logics, Inc. who will present "Biological Foundations for Deep Learning: Towards Decision Networks."
Please point your web browser to https://apps.na.collabserv.com/meetings/join?id=2894-8491 password=cognitive. Use audio on computer or 855-233-7153 in the US (other countries numberhere) PIN Code: 43179788 Non-IBMers and Non-Members, please use the "guest" option instead of entering your email.
Slides here. More here: http://cognitive-science.info/community/weekly-update/
Thank you and please let me know if you would like to be a presenter on an upcoming call!
Dianne Fodell
IBM Global University Programs
fodell@us.ibm.com
Examples of AI in Marketing
Most of these are obvious, but I like them in a list. They also are only AI in a limited sense. Useful to think of every one of these for marketing applications.
Monday, August 15, 2016
Monetizing Data, Considering Risk
Data as an asset is a continued exploration, mentioned many times here. Our original view also looked at the risk of capturing and holding assets. Negative valued assets. Another view, In SiliconAngle.
An Open Data Board Game
I like the idea of using games to show how systems work. We used it to teach corporate and supply chain economics. But it does not often work very well. Not sure this one does either. Seems like its aimed at teaching something else. Some point about data itself being a universal solution. But OK, its here, and you are free to try it.
You can now buy your own copy of Datopolis, the open data board game
Today the beta version of Datopolis, our open data board game, goes on sale via Gamecrafter for two weeks. Its creators Ellen Broad and Jeni Tennison tell the story behind it, how it was made and what you can expect from buying your very own copy. By Ellen Broad and Jeni Tennison
Today we’re making the beta version of Datopolis, our open data board game, available for sale for two weeks. Don’t miss out!
What is Datopolis?
Datopolis is a board game about building things – services, websites, devices, apps and research – using closed and open data. It’s set in a town called Sheridan, which is gradually declining as shops close, teachers quit, hedgehogs go extinct and pollution rises. The tools that players build contribute to making Sheridan a healthier, wealthier, happier place to live.
There’s a short version and a long version of Datopolis. The short version is useful for team workshops and away days – it can be played within 20-30 minutes, and gets people comfortable talking to each other and negotiating to build tools with data. The longer version is for people who really enjoy playing board games – it has added role cards, plenty of bad things happening in Sheridan to contend with, and generally more complexity. ... "
You can now buy your own copy of Datopolis, the open data board game
Today the beta version of Datopolis, our open data board game, goes on sale via Gamecrafter for two weeks. Its creators Ellen Broad and Jeni Tennison tell the story behind it, how it was made and what you can expect from buying your very own copy. By Ellen Broad and Jeni Tennison
Today we’re making the beta version of Datopolis, our open data board game, available for sale for two weeks. Don’t miss out!
What is Datopolis?
Datopolis is a board game about building things – services, websites, devices, apps and research – using closed and open data. It’s set in a town called Sheridan, which is gradually declining as shops close, teachers quit, hedgehogs go extinct and pollution rises. The tools that players build contribute to making Sheridan a healthier, wealthier, happier place to live.
There’s a short version and a long version of Datopolis. The short version is useful for team workshops and away days – it can be played within 20-30 minutes, and gets people comfortable talking to each other and negotiating to build tools with data. The longer version is for people who really enjoy playing board games – it has added role cards, plenty of bad things happening in Sheridan to contend with, and generally more complexity. ... "
Medical Systems are not Written from a Cognitive Perspective
Via Larry Smith in Cognitive Systems Institute. Gets to how these systems need to be written to augment, hopefully improving the systems that they model.
" ... If you ever looked at the medical systems we use to manage patient care you may be surprised to discover they were not designed or aligned to how healthcare professionals think about medical issues. Their brains think one way while existing medical systems store and present information many times in a counterintuitive way. This difference is a critical issue that is at the epicenter of some of our most pressing healthcare challenges. If we truly want to tackle our healthcare challenges (e.g. comprehensive patient care, healthcare costs, etc.) we need to address how medical systems are designed to support our healthcare professionals who care for all of us in so many ways. ... "
" ... If you ever looked at the medical systems we use to manage patient care you may be surprised to discover they were not designed or aligned to how healthcare professionals think about medical issues. Their brains think one way while existing medical systems store and present information many times in a counterintuitive way. This difference is a critical issue that is at the epicenter of some of our most pressing healthcare challenges. If we truly want to tackle our healthcare challenges (e.g. comprehensive patient care, healthcare costs, etc.) we need to address how medical systems are designed to support our healthcare professionals who care for all of us in so many ways. ... "
Game Transfer Phenomenon
A new term for me. Essentially means addictive engagement with games or even any computer screen activity. To the agree they transfer out of reality. Now being seen beyond the domain of 'games', and has the potential of being seen in virtual reality scenarios. Have seen this kind of warning played out many times, but because of the quality of interaction in modern systems. and the ability to have them around at all times, is this now epidemic and dangerous?
On game transfer phenomenon. GTP Will be updated.
On game transfer phenomenon. GTP Will be updated.
Is AI Becoming Mainstream?
Good Bloomberg article. It still depends on the definitions involved, If by machine learning we mean better analytics, and if by AI, we mean more embedded logic in systems that improve business process, yes I agree. But if we are expecting in-depth, broad context human insight and intelligence, its just not mainstream yet. There are lots of interesting examples emerging, but they still take considerable effort to put in place. I have seen a number of new and impressive examples recently. On the rise yes, one we need to watch closely, but an element of hype is now also in play.
Rise of artificial intelligence & machine learning
This analysis is by Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Anurag Rana, Caitlin Noselli, Anand Srinivasan, Eshani Gupte and Courtney Cytryn . It appeared first on the Bloomberg Terminal.
Artificial Intelligence Strives to Be Critical Software Element
Artificial intelligence is becoming more prominent in the software industry as demand for analytics is driven more by growth in both structured and unstructured data. IBM’s big bet on Watson, Microsoft’s increased focus on Cortana and recent product launches and acquisitions, from Amazon to Apple, suggest its rising importance. Self-driving cars are the next frontier as applications move beyond the technology industry. Funding and M&A in the segment will likely be strong in 2016.
Watson to Siri, Artificial Intelligence Learns to Be Mainstream
Artificial intelligence products ranging from personal assistants to cognitive platforms are becoming mainstream in the software industry. As software packages grow increasingly “smarter,” with more predictive capabilities, these products are changing the industry landscape. New frameworks to examine both structured and unstructured data and new systems that can digest large quantities of data are accelerating the development of artificial intelligence and its commercial use across all industries. ... "
Rise of artificial intelligence & machine learning
This analysis is by Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Anurag Rana, Caitlin Noselli, Anand Srinivasan, Eshani Gupte and Courtney Cytryn . It appeared first on the Bloomberg Terminal.
Artificial Intelligence Strives to Be Critical Software Element
Artificial intelligence is becoming more prominent in the software industry as demand for analytics is driven more by growth in both structured and unstructured data. IBM’s big bet on Watson, Microsoft’s increased focus on Cortana and recent product launches and acquisitions, from Amazon to Apple, suggest its rising importance. Self-driving cars are the next frontier as applications move beyond the technology industry. Funding and M&A in the segment will likely be strong in 2016.
Watson to Siri, Artificial Intelligence Learns to Be Mainstream
Artificial intelligence products ranging from personal assistants to cognitive platforms are becoming mainstream in the software industry. As software packages grow increasingly “smarter,” with more predictive capabilities, these products are changing the industry landscape. New frameworks to examine both structured and unstructured data and new systems that can digest large quantities of data are accelerating the development of artificial intelligence and its commercial use across all industries. ... "
Sunday, August 14, 2016
Fundamentals of Evaluating Data Science Models
Via DSC: Good overview of the basic methods for evaluating models. Posted by Sandeep Raut. Not complete, but these are the fundamentals that every modeler should know and understand, and be able to explain to decision making management. Also mentions how important it is to link these to the particulars of the business process that needs to be improved. " ... In general, the assessment used should be closely matching the business objectives. Using the right metric can have more influence on you model performance than the algorithm you use.
... ". Plus some links to more reading.
Weka Mini Course
A 14 step mini course by Jason Brownlee on using the machine learning system Weka. Notable because it uses no programming code. Nice for those procedurally rather than code oriented. I can see some people liking this approach to understand the concept of machine learning. Though you can make the case that ultimately the approach should be understood technically to better detect errors in process. Still I like the alternative. Notably too, I have yet to see Weka used in the enterprise versus Python or R.
Real Pins for Pinterest
In AdWeek: Pinterest's Real-World Pins Let In-Store Shoppers Save Real Items to Virtual Boards DM9DDB tests the app in Brazil's biggest furniture store By Tim Nudd
I like the deal of connecting the real world to the virtual. Here is an interesting real world retail test example. Not sure this would work. Reminds me of tests we did that got people tactically involved with design layouts, which seemed to have better engagement.
I like the deal of connecting the real world to the virtual. Here is an interesting real world retail test example. Not sure this would work. Reminds me of tests we did that got people tactically involved with design layouts, which seemed to have better engagement.
Should Your Business Be in the Cloud?
Good, non technical overview of the positives and negatives of moving your business into the cloud, by Richard Smith.
The Robot You Really Want
Butlers, Bartenders, Maids, Window-washers, Clothes washing, drying and folding and putting them away. Its not the specification of the tasks, but doing them physically in varying contexts in a home that remains hard.
The Robot You Want Most Is Far From Reality
Technology Review (08/10/16) Andrew Rosenblum
House-cleaning robots will surely be popular, but building one will be a daunting challenge, according to researchers. Such a robot would need to analyze the types of messes in a house, formulate and execute a plan for room-by-room cleaning, and handle unexpected events. Maya Cakmak, a professor at the University of Washington who earned a three-year, $400,000 grant from the National Robotics Initiative last year to research cleaning robots, says the task goes beyond getting a machine to hold a tool to some surface.
"There's the angle, how much you're pushing and pressure you're applying, how fast you move it, how much you move it, and even the orientation [of the tool] relative to the dirt," she says. Cakmak is using a technique called "programming by demonstration" to train robots in her lab. The machines learn by mimicking a researcher who shows a cleaning method for the robot's vision system.
Ilker Yildirim, an expert in computational models of cognition and perception at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, believes machines will need to more fully understand their environment. Cakmak says designs for homes may need to be more machine-friendly and robots may need to be hackable by end users because every house is different. ... "
The Robot You Want Most Is Far From Reality
Technology Review (08/10/16) Andrew Rosenblum
House-cleaning robots will surely be popular, but building one will be a daunting challenge, according to researchers. Such a robot would need to analyze the types of messes in a house, formulate and execute a plan for room-by-room cleaning, and handle unexpected events. Maya Cakmak, a professor at the University of Washington who earned a three-year, $400,000 grant from the National Robotics Initiative last year to research cleaning robots, says the task goes beyond getting a machine to hold a tool to some surface.
"There's the angle, how much you're pushing and pressure you're applying, how fast you move it, how much you move it, and even the orientation [of the tool] relative to the dirt," she says. Cakmak is using a technique called "programming by demonstration" to train robots in her lab. The machines learn by mimicking a researcher who shows a cleaning method for the robot's vision system.
Ilker Yildirim, an expert in computational models of cognition and perception at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, believes machines will need to more fully understand their environment. Cakmak says designs for homes may need to be more machine-friendly and robots may need to be hackable by end users because every house is different. ... "
Cisco and Retailer of the Future
In the Cisco Blog:
" ... More than ever before, today’s consumers have more options about what to buy and where to buy it. With each interaction, they choose which retailers they support with time, attention, personal data, dollars and social capital. That’s no small investment to make, and as a result customers turn to retailers and brands that not only sell the products they want, but deliver the end-to-end experience they want.
Working with our research partner PSFK, Inc., Cisco has identified four key capabilities that support the customer experience while enabling today’s digital transformation. We discuss these capabilities in a recent joint paper on the “Retailer of the Future.” ... "
http://blogs.cisco.com/wp-content/uploads/Future-of-Retail-1.mov
" ... More than ever before, today’s consumers have more options about what to buy and where to buy it. With each interaction, they choose which retailers they support with time, attention, personal data, dollars and social capital. That’s no small investment to make, and as a result customers turn to retailers and brands that not only sell the products they want, but deliver the end-to-end experience they want.
Working with our research partner PSFK, Inc., Cisco has identified four key capabilities that support the customer experience while enabling today’s digital transformation. We discuss these capabilities in a recent joint paper on the “Retailer of the Future.” ... "
http://blogs.cisco.com/wp-content/uploads/Future-of-Retail-1.mov
Saturday, August 13, 2016
Wal-Mart and Jet
Podcast on Knowledge@Wharton:
" .... Wal-Mart this week brought more muscle to its competition with Amazon by buying online shopping site Jet.com. Wal-Mart Stores will pay $3.3 billion for the two-year-old Hoboken-based firm. Jet.com’s “gain sharing” business model revolves around persuading customers to bunch their orders and pass on the savings in shipping costs with lower price tags.
Opinions are sharply divided over the wisdom of Wal-Mart’s move. For many analysts, however, Wal-Mart’s eagerness to strengthen its online attractiveness is seen as the right driver to grow its business, even if its strategies to achieve that goal are debatable. .. "
" .... Wal-Mart this week brought more muscle to its competition with Amazon by buying online shopping site Jet.com. Wal-Mart Stores will pay $3.3 billion for the two-year-old Hoboken-based firm. Jet.com’s “gain sharing” business model revolves around persuading customers to bunch their orders and pass on the savings in shipping costs with lower price tags.
Opinions are sharply divided over the wisdom of Wal-Mart’s move. For many analysts, however, Wal-Mart’s eagerness to strengthen its online attractiveness is seen as the right driver to grow its business, even if its strategies to achieve that goal are debatable. .. "
Introduction to the AWS IoT Button
Had heard of this recently, but just started to take a look. Like the Dash buttons I still have in test for retail. Consider it for the simple acquisition of data for analytics.Post by Mihai Corbuleac:
The AWS IoT button provides a very simple way to control different devices around the home or outside. The best part is that it is very easy to both install and use. It is fully supported by AWS which is increasingly the home to many different technologies and solutions. The integration makes it very easy to achieve complex tasks in a simple way. ...
It makes IoT approachable for people
With the IoT button, IoT is no longer something which only experts can dabble in. Now, anyone who has programming skills can easily test out different IoT applications and create their own through the IoT button. You can set it up in your house easily with a few scripts and an active connection to AWS. You need to create the AWS IoT resources, configure your button and create rules. There are great guides available on the internet as well as software so you can hit the ground running with it.
Customize to your heart’s will
The problem with closed systems is that they do not let people get creative. There are already much more complex devices than the IoT button available to purchase but most of them use a closed architecture which you and I cannot access or customize. Only limited development is possible on the terms of the device’s manufacturer. The IoT button, on the other hand, is pretty much customizable. ... "
Microsoft Flow
On the arrival of Microsoft's IFTTT competitior, Flow. Note the connection to Slack. Examining. "... Flow works much the same way as IFTTT but focuses more heavily on integrating Microsoft's own products like Office 365 with other enterprise tools like Mailchimp and Salesforce. So if you want to get a text alert when you receive an important email or automatically post every tweet containing a specific hashtag to a specific Slack channel, you totally can. ... "
Friday, August 12, 2016
Still Looking for Full Featured Smart Mirrors
We featured the idea, and saw it at other consumer innovation labs a decade ago. Mostly it dealt with using the mirror for cosmetics options and delivering basic 'news and weather' information in the morning. That alone is fairly easy to do. A mostly one way visual and audio interface. Stationary to places in the home, the office, or even in conference rooms. But it seems the demand today is beyond the basic.
A new example is being promoted: " ... The problem with the Perseus smart mirror is the same as with all of the ones that preceded it: over-promising a set of features that will be incredibly difficult to deliver on. These include: voice recognition, video streaming, an HD camera with time-lapse capabilities, fully customizable widgets, third-party apps, and the list goes on .. " . Video at the link.
Some of the idea is similar to the Amazon Echo with a display. The capability is stationary. You could mount any number of them in place. Say as part of wall displays in an office. The inclusion of camera enables conferencing and gestural interaction, as well as displaying tailored information. But that's beyond a mirror.
Also in retail to sell things that we wear like clothes, cosmetics and eyeglasses. Experimented with several of these examples.
See my previous mirror posts.
A new example is being promoted: " ... The problem with the Perseus smart mirror is the same as with all of the ones that preceded it: over-promising a set of features that will be incredibly difficult to deliver on. These include: voice recognition, video streaming, an HD camera with time-lapse capabilities, fully customizable widgets, third-party apps, and the list goes on .. " . Video at the link.
Some of the idea is similar to the Amazon Echo with a display. The capability is stationary. You could mount any number of them in place. Say as part of wall displays in an office. The inclusion of camera enables conferencing and gestural interaction, as well as displaying tailored information. But that's beyond a mirror.
Also in retail to sell things that we wear like clothes, cosmetics and eyeglasses. Experimented with several of these examples.
See my previous mirror posts.
User Friendly and Visual Simulation Language
In the MIT News, Faster and friendlier ... and thus more easily testable and maintainable, is always of interest. Note the direct link to the visualization of the model. Technical here, but I look forward to an applicable system.
MIT News (08/10/16) Larry Hardesty
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Adobe, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Toronto, Texas A&M University, and the University of Texas have developed a programming language called Simit. Simit can accelerate computer simulations by a factor of 200 or reduce their required code by 90 percent, according to a paper the researchers presented last month at the ACM SIGGRAPH 2016 conference in Anaheim, CA.
"The story of this paper is that the trade-off between concise code and good performance is false," says MIT graduate student Fredrik Kjolstad. "It's not necessary, at least for the problems that this applies to. But it applies to a large class of problems." Simit requires the programmer to describe the translation between the graphical description of a system and the matrix description, but following that the coder can use the language of linear algebra to program the simulation.
During the simulation, Simit does not have to translate graphs into matrices and vice versa, instead converting instructions issued in the language of linear algebra into the language of graphs, keeping the runtime efficiency of hand-coded simulations. Kjolstad notes Simit-written programs can run on either conventional microprocessors or on graphics processing units with no underlying code revisions.
MIT News (08/10/16) Larry Hardesty
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Adobe, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Toronto, Texas A&M University, and the University of Texas have developed a programming language called Simit. Simit can accelerate computer simulations by a factor of 200 or reduce their required code by 90 percent, according to a paper the researchers presented last month at the ACM SIGGRAPH 2016 conference in Anaheim, CA.
"The story of this paper is that the trade-off between concise code and good performance is false," says MIT graduate student Fredrik Kjolstad. "It's not necessary, at least for the problems that this applies to. But it applies to a large class of problems." Simit requires the programmer to describe the translation between the graphical description of a system and the matrix description, but following that the coder can use the language of linear algebra to program the simulation.
During the simulation, Simit does not have to translate graphs into matrices and vice versa, instead converting instructions issued in the language of linear algebra into the language of graphs, keeping the runtime efficiency of hand-coded simulations. Kjolstad notes Simit-written programs can run on either conventional microprocessors or on graphics processing units with no underlying code revisions.
Retailers and Brands Leverage Omnishopping
Makes sense, brand can leverage product value and other marketing.
Link may require free registration.
Why retailers, brands should team up in the omnishopping era
Technology has made today's consumers "omnishoppers" who are always connected and ready to take immediate action on buying decisions, even when it comes to grocery, SmartCommerce CEO Jennifer Silverberg writes, making it vital for retailers and brands to work together to reach shoppers where they exist -- across channels. ... "
Link may require free registration.
Why retailers, brands should team up in the omnishopping era
Technology has made today's consumers "omnishoppers" who are always connected and ready to take immediate action on buying decisions, even when it comes to grocery, SmartCommerce CEO Jennifer Silverberg writes, making it vital for retailers and brands to work together to reach shoppers where they exist -- across channels. ... "
Build a Chat Bot in 10 Minutes
Though this is not the depth of conversation and language that I implied in my previous thoughts, it does represent some aspects of conversation like flow, intent and knowledge that are important. This takes you through the whole process of using Watson services on Bluemix. Not technical, worth a look if you want to understand it:
Build a Chat Bot in 10 Minutes Using Watson Conversation on Bluemix
Simplify the process of automatically understanding and responding to customers with Watson Conversation, a new cognitive service on Bluemix. Learn how to train and configure intents while optimizing dialog flow in 10 minutes, by reading this post by one of our developer advocates. ... "
Build a Chat Bot in 10 Minutes Using Watson Conversation on Bluemix
Simplify the process of automatically understanding and responding to customers with Watson Conversation, a new cognitive service on Bluemix. Learn how to train and configure intents while optimizing dialog flow in 10 minutes, by reading this post by one of our developer advocates. ... "
What is AI?
Good piece in O'Reilly. Non technical, speculative, good thoughts.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Mike Loukides and Ben Lorica examine factors that have made AI a hot topic in recent years, today's successful AI systems, and where AI may be headed.
By Mike Loukides and Ben Lorica June 29, 2016
Defining artificial intelligence isn’t just difficult; it’s impossible, not the least because we don’t really understand human intelligence. Paradoxically, advances in AI will help more to define what human intelligence isn’t than what artificial intelligence is.
But whatever AI is, we’ve clearly made a lot of progress in the past few years, in areas ranging from computer vision to game playing. AI is making the transition from a research topic to the early stages of enterprise adoption. Companies such as Google and Facebook have placed huge bets on AI and are already using it in their products. But Google and Facebook are only the beginning: over the next decade, we’ll see AI steadily creep into one product after another. We’ll be communicating with bots, rather than scripted robo-dialers, and not realizing that they aren’t human. We’ll be relying on cars to plan routes and respond to road hazards. It’s a good bet that in the next decades, some features of AI will be incorporated into every application that we touch and that we won’t be able to do anything without touching an application. .... "
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Mike Loukides and Ben Lorica examine factors that have made AI a hot topic in recent years, today's successful AI systems, and where AI may be headed.
By Mike Loukides and Ben Lorica June 29, 2016
Defining artificial intelligence isn’t just difficult; it’s impossible, not the least because we don’t really understand human intelligence. Paradoxically, advances in AI will help more to define what human intelligence isn’t than what artificial intelligence is.
But whatever AI is, we’ve clearly made a lot of progress in the past few years, in areas ranging from computer vision to game playing. AI is making the transition from a research topic to the early stages of enterprise adoption. Companies such as Google and Facebook have placed huge bets on AI and are already using it in their products. But Google and Facebook are only the beginning: over the next decade, we’ll see AI steadily creep into one product after another. We’ll be communicating with bots, rather than scripted robo-dialers, and not realizing that they aren’t human. We’ll be relying on cars to plan routes and respond to road hazards. It’s a good bet that in the next decades, some features of AI will be incorporated into every application that we touch and that we won’t be able to do anything without touching an application. .... "
Thursday, August 11, 2016
R Connects to Watson for Decision Improvement
Every successful Cognitive/AI project I have been involved in since the 80s has also used machine learning analytics techniques now readily available in R. Machine learning data science can be seen as a way to add intelligence to a system, and prepare it for better decision based methods.
I think we will continue to see this collaboration between methods. This is a new kind of ensemble technique that will evolve. Decision making can be directly involved. Will continue to follow this development.
" ... New R extension gives data scientists easy access to IBM's Watson By Katherine Noyes
Data scientists have a lot of tools at their disposal, but not all of them are equally accessible. Aiming to put IBM's Watson AI within closer reach, analytics firm Columbus Collaboratory on Thursday released a new open-source R extension called CognizeR.
R is an open-source language that's widely used by data scientists for statistical and analytics applications. Previously, data scientists would have had to exit R to tap Watson's capabilities, coding the calls to Watson's application programming interfaces (APIs) in another language, such as Java or Python.
Now, CognizeR lets them tap into Watson's so-called "cognitive" artificial-intelligence services without leaving their native development environment.
"Data scientists can now seamlessly tap into our cognitive services to unlock data that lives in unstructured forms like chats, emails, social media, images, and documents," wrote Rob High, vice president and CTO for Watson, in a blog post. .. "
I think we will continue to see this collaboration between methods. This is a new kind of ensemble technique that will evolve. Decision making can be directly involved. Will continue to follow this development.
" ... New R extension gives data scientists easy access to IBM's Watson By Katherine Noyes
Data scientists have a lot of tools at their disposal, but not all of them are equally accessible. Aiming to put IBM's Watson AI within closer reach, analytics firm Columbus Collaboratory on Thursday released a new open-source R extension called CognizeR.
R is an open-source language that's widely used by data scientists for statistical and analytics applications. Previously, data scientists would have had to exit R to tap Watson's capabilities, coding the calls to Watson's application programming interfaces (APIs) in another language, such as Java or Python.
Now, CognizeR lets them tap into Watson's so-called "cognitive" artificial-intelligence services without leaving their native development environment.
"Data scientists can now seamlessly tap into our cognitive services to unlock data that lives in unstructured forms like chats, emails, social media, images, and documents," wrote Rob High, vice president and CTO for Watson, in a blog post. .. "
Microsoft Hololens is Public
Hololens pushes availability and commercial applications. Always interested in new practical applications. Here engineering application area.
".. At Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, PGA Golf and Tagtile showcased the amazing mixed-reality apps they developed for Microsoft HoloLens. Additional partners, such as Skanska, PACCAR, Stanford University School of Medicine, Major League Soccer, and more, have also jump-started apps they created with help from HoloLens Agency Readiness Program. ....
You can now buy up to five HoloLens devices directly from Microsoft Store. Join the community and start exploring the possibilities of HoloLens today. ... "
More.
".. At Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, PGA Golf and Tagtile showcased the amazing mixed-reality apps they developed for Microsoft HoloLens. Additional partners, such as Skanska, PACCAR, Stanford University School of Medicine, Major League Soccer, and more, have also jump-started apps they created with help from HoloLens Agency Readiness Program. ....
You can now buy up to five HoloLens devices directly from Microsoft Store. Join the community and start exploring the possibilities of HoloLens today. ... "
More.
Nissan Lab on the Future of Transportation
In Knowledge@Wharton. A podcast and transcribed text.
How Nissan Is Preparing for a Future of Self-driving Cars
Nissan Future Lab's Megan Neese discusses a future of transportation that's autonomous, electrified and connected.
In a future where self-driving vehicles may be the norm, will fewer people want to buy a car? Japanese automaker Nissan is looking ahead to this and other scenarios in the future of transportation — and it is doing research on products to position itself well going forward.
Knowledge@Wharton caught up with Megan Neese, senior manager of the Nissan Future Lab, to talk about her group’s goals and projects. She also recently spoke at the ‘Digital Disruption and Empowered End-users’ conference hosted by Wharton’s Mack Institute for Innovation Management. ... "
How Nissan Is Preparing for a Future of Self-driving Cars
Nissan Future Lab's Megan Neese discusses a future of transportation that's autonomous, electrified and connected.
In a future where self-driving vehicles may be the norm, will fewer people want to buy a car? Japanese automaker Nissan is looking ahead to this and other scenarios in the future of transportation — and it is doing research on products to position itself well going forward.
Knowledge@Wharton caught up with Megan Neese, senior manager of the Nissan Future Lab, to talk about her group’s goals and projects. She also recently spoke at the ‘Digital Disruption and Empowered End-users’ conference hosted by Wharton’s Mack Institute for Innovation Management. ... "
Infrastructure of Social Media
Anil Dash on what I would call a rough classification of the infrastructure of social media. Disagree with some of it, like analytics, but its a reasonable take. Talks about what has been lost, embedded in other things, and taken over by giants. Having been involved with this world from the beginning its a great reminder of what was. Less so, architecture or the specifics of what could be.
The lost infrastructure of social media.
More than a decade ago, the earliest era of blogging provided a set of separate but related technologies that helped the nascent form thrive. Today, most have faded away and been forgotten, but new incarnations of these features could still be valuable. ... "
The lost infrastructure of social media.
More than a decade ago, the earliest era of blogging provided a set of separate but related technologies that helped the nascent form thrive. Today, most have faded away and been forgotten, but new incarnations of these features could still be valuable. ... "
Value of Facebook Ad Targeting
In Adweek: Why P&G Decided Facebook Ad Targeting Often Isn't Worth the Money ... There's Still Something to Be Said for Mass Reach .... " By Garett Sloane
Word 2016 Researcher Feature
Happened on this. I note that this does not appear in the current version, but in the insider addition of Word 2016 in Office 365. This method lets you quickly assemble research from searches while developing a document. It uses Bing. We examined a similar approach that would automatically search for content in a document and suggest associated research. The startup Zakta uses related approaches but also enables group research on a topic.
IFTTT Recipes Can now Embed Directly in Apps
Interesting development that could drive the simple idea further, or even combine them as mini services to create 'skills'. I have used IFTTT for some time as part of Echo voice commands. Yet to see an example of this.
In Techcrunch:
" ... IFTTT made a name for itself as a platform for people to easily build (or pick up pre-built) scripts to automate tasks in and between various apps — say, to turn on the air conditioner using your home’s smart thermostat when your car tells it that you are 20 minutes’ drive away. Now, as part of the company’s bid to grow in ubiquity, it is taking the next natural step: instead of expecting users to find or write those recipes themselves on IFTTT, it will now allow developer partners to embed those IFTTT recipes directly in their own third-party apps. ... "
I also point out what seems to be a competitor to IFTTT, Microsoft Flow.
In Techcrunch:
" ... IFTTT made a name for itself as a platform for people to easily build (or pick up pre-built) scripts to automate tasks in and between various apps — say, to turn on the air conditioner using your home’s smart thermostat when your car tells it that you are 20 minutes’ drive away. Now, as part of the company’s bid to grow in ubiquity, it is taking the next natural step: instead of expecting users to find or write those recipes themselves on IFTTT, it will now allow developer partners to embed those IFTTT recipes directly in their own third-party apps. ... "
I also point out what seems to be a competitor to IFTTT, Microsoft Flow.
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Connected Volcanoes
Volcanoes have been linked to sensors for a long time. And connected to the internet as well. I like the new connections to advanced analytics, Data is not yet available. I plan to connect to this volcano. In Adage:
GE Creates World's First 'Connected Volcano'
Hooks Up Sensors to Nicaraguan Volcano; Shares on Social Media By Kate Maddox
Digital industrial company GE, which has been at the forefront of using new technologies to tell its story, is creating the world's first "connected volcano" and sharing the journey on social media.
GE's sensors will capture data from an active volcano.
To do this, GE is partnering with explorer Sam Cossman at Qwake, a company that combines global expeditions with cutting-edge technology. GE is the digital and software partner for an expedition Mr. Cossman is leading in Nicaragua to connect sensors to a live volcano in order to gather data for early warning systems and other purposes.
"We are leveraging Predix, GE's industrial internet software, to help build the foundation of a digital ecosystem Mr. Cossman and his team at Qwake are putting in place at the volcano," said Sydney Williams, global digital marketing manager at GE. ... "
GE Creates World's First 'Connected Volcano'
Hooks Up Sensors to Nicaraguan Volcano; Shares on Social Media By Kate Maddox
Digital industrial company GE, which has been at the forefront of using new technologies to tell its story, is creating the world's first "connected volcano" and sharing the journey on social media.
GE's sensors will capture data from an active volcano.
To do this, GE is partnering with explorer Sam Cossman at Qwake, a company that combines global expeditions with cutting-edge technology. GE is the digital and software partner for an expedition Mr. Cossman is leading in Nicaragua to connect sensors to a live volcano in order to gather data for early warning systems and other purposes.
"We are leveraging Predix, GE's industrial internet software, to help build the foundation of a digital ecosystem Mr. Cossman and his team at Qwake are putting in place at the volcano," said Sydney Williams, global digital marketing manager at GE. ... "
Scaling Data Science in R
Ran into exactly this problem recently. Mostly we solved using R as an abstraction layer with sampled data. There are a number of other solutions in the article:
You’ve got three options: Scaling up, scaling out, or using R as an abstraction layer.
By Federico Castanedo
For more on this topic, Brian Kreeger and Roger Fried will be hosting a live webcast, Scalable Data Science with R, on August 16, 2016.
R is among the top five data science tools in use today according O’Reilly research; the latest kdnuggets survey puts it in first, and IEEE Spectrum ranks it as the fifth most popular programming language.
The latest Rexer Data Miner survey revealed that in the past eight years, there has been an three-fold increase in the number of respondents using R, and a seven-fold increase in the number of analysts/scientists who have said that R is their primary tool.
Despite its popularity, the main drawback of vanilla R is its inherently “single threaded” nature and its need to fit all the data being processed in RAM. But nowadays, data sets are typically in the range of GBs and they are growing quickly to TBs. In short, current growth in data volume and variety is demanding more efficient tools by data scientists ... "
You’ve got three options: Scaling up, scaling out, or using R as an abstraction layer.
By Federico Castanedo
For more on this topic, Brian Kreeger and Roger Fried will be hosting a live webcast, Scalable Data Science with R, on August 16, 2016.
R is among the top five data science tools in use today according O’Reilly research; the latest kdnuggets survey puts it in first, and IEEE Spectrum ranks it as the fifth most popular programming language.
The latest Rexer Data Miner survey revealed that in the past eight years, there has been an three-fold increase in the number of respondents using R, and a seven-fold increase in the number of analysts/scientists who have said that R is their primary tool.
Despite its popularity, the main drawback of vanilla R is its inherently “single threaded” nature and its need to fit all the data being processed in RAM. But nowadays, data sets are typically in the range of GBs and they are growing quickly to TBs. In short, current growth in data volume and variety is demanding more efficient tools by data scientists ... "
Design for Learning and Assessment in Virtual Worlds
Via Dianne Fodell:
" ... This a reminder about our Cognitive Systems Institute Group Speaker Series on Thursday, August 11, 2016 at 10:30 am ET US (9:30am CT, 7:30 am PT). Our presenter this week is Brian Nelson from Arizona State University who will present “Design for Learning and Assessment in Virtual Worlds.”
Please point your web browser to https://apps.na.collabserv.com/meetings/join?id=2894-8491 password=cognitive. Use audio on computer or 855-233-7153 PIN Code: 43179788 Non-IBMers and Non-Members, please use the "guest" option instead of entering your email.
Please find the schedule of presenters here for the next several calls. A link to slides and a recording of each call should be available on the CSIG website (http://cognitive-science.info/community/weekly-update/).
Slides that will be used are here.
We encourage those who join the calls to add questions and comments to the https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Cognitive-Systems-Institute-6729452 on LinkedIn and please ask questions at the end of the call. ... "
" ... This a reminder about our Cognitive Systems Institute Group Speaker Series on Thursday, August 11, 2016 at 10:30 am ET US (9:30am CT, 7:30 am PT). Our presenter this week is Brian Nelson from Arizona State University who will present “Design for Learning and Assessment in Virtual Worlds.”
Please point your web browser to https://apps.na.collabserv.com/meetings/join?id=2894-8491 password=cognitive. Use audio on computer or 855-233-7153 PIN Code: 43179788 Non-IBMers and Non-Members, please use the "guest" option instead of entering your email.
Please find the schedule of presenters here for the next several calls. A link to slides and a recording of each call should be available on the CSIG website (http://cognitive-science.info/community/weekly-update/).
Slides that will be used are here.
We encourage those who join the calls to add questions and comments to the https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Cognitive-Systems-Institute-6729452 on LinkedIn and please ask questions at the end of the call. ... "
Kroger Pushes Technology Advantage
In Retailwire: by George Anderson
" .. You may be familiar with the adage that all businesses are selling organizations. Something similar can be said today of all companies being tech firms. Examples abound across retailing. In grocery, it would be hard to identify any company that has an edge over Kroger. Last week’s announcement that Kroger’s 84.51° division had acquired the predictive analytics firm Market6 is just another indication that the company sees technology-driven consumer insights as its edge in the marketplace.
“Every decision we make focuses on engaging customers where, when and how it matters most to them. Market6’s technology and people will be key to further enhancing how we communicate with Kroger customers in the most personalized and relevant ways,” said Stuart Aitken, CEO, 84.51°, in a statement. ... "
" .. You may be familiar with the adage that all businesses are selling organizations. Something similar can be said today of all companies being tech firms. Examples abound across retailing. In grocery, it would be hard to identify any company that has an edge over Kroger. Last week’s announcement that Kroger’s 84.51° division had acquired the predictive analytics firm Market6 is just another indication that the company sees technology-driven consumer insights as its edge in the marketplace.
“Every decision we make focuses on engaging customers where, when and how it matters most to them. Market6’s technology and people will be key to further enhancing how we communicate with Kroger customers in the most personalized and relevant ways,” said Stuart Aitken, CEO, 84.51°, in a statement. ... "
Microsoft and Linkedin
I had wondered how the proposed acquisition of Linkedin by Microsoft would influence how the Skills and Resume Social giant would change. They are very skilled in building architectures for storing, managing and delivering large HR oriented databases. We talked to them about reapplying some of these capabilities internal to the enterprise. How will Linkedin be connected to other MS services? I had never thought of Linkedin as open source oriented .... but in eWeek article this week this is discussed. Worth a complete read if you are interested. Was surprised by it.
Q&A: Will Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn slow down the social networking company’s cadence of open-sourcing core technology for developers?
In June, Microsoft announced its intent to acquire LinkedIn, the business-oriented social networking service, for $26 billion. LinkedIn, which boasts a stable of talented engineers across a spectrum of disciplines—including cloud infrastructure, mobile and web technologies, has had a history of open-sourcing some of its core technology to the benefit of the community. LinkedIn's Kafka message broker, for instance, helped launch a successful software company and spawned related projects. However, as the company becomes a part of Microsoft, some folks have wondered whether LinkedIn's focus on open-sourcing technology for developers would continue unabated. In this eWEEK Q&A, Igor Perisic, vice president of engineering at LinkedIn, explains that the company will not only continue to open-source technology, but will try to teach Microsoft a lesson or two about working with the community. .... "
Q&A: Will Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn slow down the social networking company’s cadence of open-sourcing core technology for developers?
In June, Microsoft announced its intent to acquire LinkedIn, the business-oriented social networking service, for $26 billion. LinkedIn, which boasts a stable of talented engineers across a spectrum of disciplines—including cloud infrastructure, mobile and web technologies, has had a history of open-sourcing some of its core technology to the benefit of the community. LinkedIn's Kafka message broker, for instance, helped launch a successful software company and spawned related projects. However, as the company becomes a part of Microsoft, some folks have wondered whether LinkedIn's focus on open-sourcing technology for developers would continue unabated. In this eWEEK Q&A, Igor Perisic, vice president of engineering at LinkedIn, explains that the company will not only continue to open-source technology, but will try to teach Microsoft a lesson or two about working with the community. .... "
McDonalds of the Future
In Retailwire: A look and discussion of the McDonald's of the Future. New concepts and technologies built in. Nothing about robot preparation, or other back of the house operations, which have big and controversial labor implications. This is about food ordering through tablets and food concept changes.
Tuesday, August 09, 2016
Wal-Mart to Buy Jet.com
The startup that notably follows an 'Amazon Prime' loyalty model. To push their online sales.
Walmart buys Jet.com for $3.3 billion By Rebecca Linke
If you have $3.3 billion lying around, why not buy a startup? ... That is exactly what Walmart is doing. The retail giant is buying two-year-old e-commerce startup Jet.com in an attempt to invigorate its online sales division. Walmart is dropping a lot of money on this deal, but it hopes to get a lot in return. ... "
Walmart buys Jet.com for $3.3 billion By Rebecca Linke
If you have $3.3 billion lying around, why not buy a startup? ... That is exactly what Walmart is doing. The retail giant is buying two-year-old e-commerce startup Jet.com in an attempt to invigorate its online sales division. Walmart is dropping a lot of money on this deal, but it hopes to get a lot in return. ... "
Still Looking for AI Language
Do we know how to build machines that understand language? Though some good attempts are out there, not yet. This Tech Review Article article does a good job of looking at the history of the challenge. Have spent some time in those years addressing the leveraging of language.
Systems like Cortana, Siri and Echo seem to understand language well enough to get some clever things done, but you soon find out that the intelligence at play is still thin. As long as it matches some template, or links to a search in some way, or has a fairly predictable formulaic answer ... it seems to work. But the result is not always satisfactory, and you find yourself tailoring answers or solutions to your needs. And worse, the system does not learn from the conversation. And in later interaction does not learn to focus on your needs.
Like talking to someone who is very adept at calculating in their head, or looking up facts, but has limited common sense. And is not considering the varying context of a conversation. Results can still be useful, just like searches are, but we frequently have to adapt, and often re-ask questions.
Systems like Cortana, Siri and Echo seem to understand language well enough to get some clever things done, but you soon find out that the intelligence at play is still thin. As long as it matches some template, or links to a search in some way, or has a fairly predictable formulaic answer ... it seems to work. But the result is not always satisfactory, and you find yourself tailoring answers or solutions to your needs. And worse, the system does not learn from the conversation. And in later interaction does not learn to focus on your needs.
Like talking to someone who is very adept at calculating in their head, or looking up facts, but has limited common sense. And is not considering the varying context of a conversation. Results can still be useful, just like searches are, but we frequently have to adapt, and often re-ask questions.
IBM and Innovation
Bob Herbold my former colleague writes about IBM. He has more than a little internal insight based on his experience in the computing industry. He makes some brief comments on innovation and leadership that make sense. Certainly today IBM is pushing very innovative spaces. Converting that into value in changing context is the challenge.
Cognitive Systems Institute Group
Wanted to remind people of the Cognitive Systems Institute Group, that I have been part of for several years. Spoken at and contributed to. I particularly like their goal: To Augment and Scale Expertise ... ". Their speaker series contains lots of interesting research and practitioner speaker recordings.
" ... The Cognitive Systems Institute Group is a collaborative effort between universities, research institutes, and IBM clients to advance the state-of-the-art in cognitive computing. The institute features resources on this website , a LinkedIn Discussion Group and a weekly Speaker Series . As research collaborators and faculty, we focus on building and evaluating cognitive assistants for every profession. The Cognitive Systems Institute centers on professional cognitive assistants that exhibit the three L’s – language, learning, and levels to augment and scale human expertise. ... "
" ... The Cognitive Systems Institute Group is a collaborative effort between universities, research institutes, and IBM clients to advance the state-of-the-art in cognitive computing. The institute features resources on this website , a LinkedIn Discussion Group and a weekly Speaker Series . As research collaborators and faculty, we focus on building and evaluating cognitive assistants for every profession. The Cognitive Systems Institute centers on professional cognitive assistants that exhibit the three L’s – language, learning, and levels to augment and scale human expertise. ... "
Trends in China's Digital Embrace
Interesting stats about China's use of digital. in Strategy Business Trend Watch. " ... s+b Trend Watch: China’s Digital Embrace ... The time it takes for Chinese consumers to incorporate a new technology into their lives is ever-shrinking as smartphones and broadband make adaptation easier. ... "
Marketing Augmented Reality is Here
In Adworld. An overview of how it is being tested by marketers today. Now we know that the right kind of simple quest game can work. Now will other methods beyond gaming work too?
" .. First, let's define the new medium. Augmented reality, or AR, is simply the mixture of digital worlds (images, video and sound) and physical reality, experienced first by today's mobile screens and eventually by eye goggles with better vision or haptic suits with full-body sensation.
2016 is the year AR arrived. In February, the Florida startup Magic Leap secured $793 million in VC funding for its glasses that project high-resolution animations over real space. Microsoft in March began shipping developer kits for its HoloLens headset. And Facebook has purchased Oculus, a virtual-reality pioneer, for $2 billion. With all the big tech players investing, AR is coming fast. ... "
" .. First, let's define the new medium. Augmented reality, or AR, is simply the mixture of digital worlds (images, video and sound) and physical reality, experienced first by today's mobile screens and eventually by eye goggles with better vision or haptic suits with full-body sensation.
2016 is the year AR arrived. In February, the Florida startup Magic Leap secured $793 million in VC funding for its glasses that project high-resolution animations over real space. Microsoft in March began shipping developer kits for its HoloLens headset. And Facebook has purchased Oculus, a virtual-reality pioneer, for $2 billion. With all the big tech players investing, AR is coming fast. ... "
Monday, August 08, 2016
Sports Analytics Taxonomy
Gary Cokins writes:
My analytics colleagues,
I am writing you to share a recently published article that I co-authored describing a “sports analytics taxonomy”. Everyone loves sports ! ...
The article is a result of a volunteer task force I am on with three others with www.informs.org . As some of you may know INFORMS is a premier professional society with the operations research (OR) community. My 1971 Cornell University degree was in OR.
What led to writing this article was my first meeting with the other task force members. Each has been involved with consulting to professional sports teams and in some cases university athletic departments. I naively presumed that sports analytics is narrowly limited to professional athlete selection or salary negotiations and sports fans interest in “statistics”. I quickly discovered that it covers much broader applications such as stadium management, league scheduling, athlete biology performance, and gambling. I suggested that we first develop a “taxonomy” with tree-branches-leaves to capture the wide breadth of sports analytics, and which can serve as a platform for many applications described in the article (e.g., assessing the maturity of analytical methods to support decisions, indexing articles and academic papers).
The article is on pages 40-43 in the magazine in this link (and if you care to receive its pdf file of its 4 pages, request it from me) :
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/085442e2#/085442e2/42?platform=hootsuite
You can read about what is occupying my time since I retired from SAS in my website at www.garycokins.com . ....
My analytics colleagues,
I am writing you to share a recently published article that I co-authored describing a “sports analytics taxonomy”. Everyone loves sports ! ...
The article is a result of a volunteer task force I am on with three others with www.informs.org . As some of you may know INFORMS is a premier professional society with the operations research (OR) community. My 1971 Cornell University degree was in OR.
What led to writing this article was my first meeting with the other task force members. Each has been involved with consulting to professional sports teams and in some cases university athletic departments. I naively presumed that sports analytics is narrowly limited to professional athlete selection or salary negotiations and sports fans interest in “statistics”. I quickly discovered that it covers much broader applications such as stadium management, league scheduling, athlete biology performance, and gambling. I suggested that we first develop a “taxonomy” with tree-branches-leaves to capture the wide breadth of sports analytics, and which can serve as a platform for many applications described in the article (e.g., assessing the maturity of analytical methods to support decisions, indexing articles and academic papers).
The article is on pages 40-43 in the magazine in this link (and if you care to receive its pdf file of its 4 pages, request it from me) :
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/085442e2#/085442e2/42?platform=hootsuite
You can read about what is occupying my time since I retired from SAS in my website at www.garycokins.com . ....
On IOT Smarthome Security
In the BBC, a non technical overview of the IoT in the smart home, and the security challenges it creates.
Donald Knuth Gets SIAM Award
Donald Knuth was an inspiration since my earliest use of computing. Reveled and still awaiting the latest volume of his Art of Computer Programming. For now here are many of his talks on Youtube. Looking for the SIAM talk. Likely technical. More.
" ... The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) has awarded the 2016 John von Neumann Lecture prize to Donald E. Knuth of Stanford University for his transformative contributions to mathematics and computer science. Knuth delivered the associated prize lecture, "Satisfiability and Combinatorics," at the SIAM Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 12. The highest honor awarded by SIAM, the flagship lecture recognizes outstanding and distinguished contributions to the field of applied mathematical sciences and the effective communication of these ideas to the community. ... "
" ... The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) has awarded the 2016 John von Neumann Lecture prize to Donald E. Knuth of Stanford University for his transformative contributions to mathematics and computer science. Knuth delivered the associated prize lecture, "Satisfiability and Combinatorics," at the SIAM Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 12. The highest honor awarded by SIAM, the flagship lecture recognizes outstanding and distinguished contributions to the field of applied mathematical sciences and the effective communication of these ideas to the community. ... "
New ACM Text Mining Book
Newly received:
We are pleased to present the newest ACM Books title: Text Data Management and Analysis: A Practical Introduction to Information Retrieval and Text Mining, by ChengXiang Zhai and Sean Massung. Text Data Management and Analysis covers the major concepts and techniques in information retrieval and text data mining at scale, while focusing on practical real-world applications. The book is for use by both undergraduate and graduate-level students, as well as by library and information scientists, and practitioners involved in managing and analyzing text data. ... "
More on recently published ACM books.
Smart Threads
Researchers Invent 'Smart' Thread That Collects Diagnostic Data When Sutured Into Tissue
Tufts University researchers have integrated nanoscale sensors, electronics, and microfluidics into cotton and synthetic threads that can be sutured through multiple layers of tissue to wirelessly gather diagnostic data in real time. .... "
Tufts University researchers have integrated nanoscale sensors, electronics, and microfluidics into cotton and synthetic threads that can be sutured through multiple layers of tissue to wirelessly gather diagnostic data in real time. .... "
Apple Expands AI with Acquisition
More machine learning acquisition for AI. I have not examined Turi. More on them here.
Apple expands its AI lineup by acquiring machine learning startup Turi by Duncan Riley in SiliconAngle.
Apple, Inc. has made a serious play in the artificial intelligence (AI) space by acquiring machine learning startup Turi, Inc., a company previously known as both Dato and GraphLab.
The acquisition price is believed to be $200 million according to Geekwire who broke the story.
Founded in 2013, Turi offers a machine learning platform that creates Big Data analytics for its users based on an open source project initially intended for applying large-scale machine learning to graph analysis.
The product allows developers to build apps with both machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities allowing enterprises both small and large make better sense of data; use cases given by the company include recommendation engines, fraud detection, predicting customer churn, sentiment analysis, and customer segmentation. ... "
Apple expands its AI lineup by acquiring machine learning startup Turi by Duncan Riley in SiliconAngle.
Apple, Inc. has made a serious play in the artificial intelligence (AI) space by acquiring machine learning startup Turi, Inc., a company previously known as both Dato and GraphLab.
The acquisition price is believed to be $200 million according to Geekwire who broke the story.
Founded in 2013, Turi offers a machine learning platform that creates Big Data analytics for its users based on an open source project initially intended for applying large-scale machine learning to graph analysis.
The product allows developers to build apps with both machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities allowing enterprises both small and large make better sense of data; use cases given by the company include recommendation engines, fraud detection, predicting customer churn, sentiment analysis, and customer segmentation. ... "
Sunday, August 07, 2016
Creating Models of Virtual Changes from Physical Interactions
A interesting effect. Here you create a model of how a real world object reacts to physical interactions. Say using a videotape of the object in motion under influences. Then you use that model to have it react the same way when interacted with artificially. A kind of virtual interaction reality.
To get an appreciation, watch the linked video. Possible applications in gaming, animation, engineering models. Further imagining this with alternate forms of interactions. Say of a visualization of data being influenced by context? Thought provoking.
To get an appreciation, watch the linked video. Possible applications in gaming, animation, engineering models. Further imagining this with alternate forms of interactions. Say of a visualization of data being influenced by context? Thought provoking.
Wide and Deep Learning with Tensorflow
Google open sources its Tensorflow for 'wide and deep' learning. I very much like the thought. In our own exploration of pattern matching with neural nets we often did what was essentially deep learning. We left the 'wide' to what were variants of non procedural code (aka Declarative code, e.g. Prolog) .
Beyond that was what we might have called 'thin' ... that is classic analytic methods or algorithms to solve numeric sub-problems. Combining them harmoniously is an interesting thought. Am I thinking this right? Considering it further.
Beyond that was what we might have called 'thin' ... that is classic analytic methods or algorithms to solve numeric sub-problems. Combining them harmoniously is an interesting thought. Am I thinking this right? Considering it further.
Fog Computing for Distributed IoT Analytics
I like the emergence of new ways to address the complexity and volume of data.
How IoT Can Benefit from Fog Computing By Ben Dickson. ...
What I’m mentioning a lot these days (and hearing about it as well) is the chaotic propagation and growth of the Internet of Things. With billions of devices slated to connect to the internet every year, we’re going to be facing some serious challenges. I’ve already discussed how blockchain technology might address connectivity issues for huge IoT ecosystems.
But connectivity accounts for a small part of the problems we’ll be facing. Another challenge will be processing and making sense of the huge reams of data that IoT devices are generating. Close on its heels will be the issue of latency or how fast an IoT system can react to events. And as always, security and privacy issues will remain one of the top items in the IoT challenge list.
Fog computing (aka edge computing) can help mitigate – if not overcome – these challenges. As opposed to the cloud, where all the computation takes place in a central location, fog computing pushes the computation of tasks toward the edge of the network and distributes it among smart routers or gateways. The term and concept was coined by networking giant Cisco even before the IoT became a buzzword, but it was the advent of the Internet of Things that provided it with true, legitimate use cases. .... "
How IoT Can Benefit from Fog Computing By Ben Dickson. ...
What I’m mentioning a lot these days (and hearing about it as well) is the chaotic propagation and growth of the Internet of Things. With billions of devices slated to connect to the internet every year, we’re going to be facing some serious challenges. I’ve already discussed how blockchain technology might address connectivity issues for huge IoT ecosystems.
But connectivity accounts for a small part of the problems we’ll be facing. Another challenge will be processing and making sense of the huge reams of data that IoT devices are generating. Close on its heels will be the issue of latency or how fast an IoT system can react to events. And as always, security and privacy issues will remain one of the top items in the IoT challenge list.
Fog computing (aka edge computing) can help mitigate – if not overcome – these challenges. As opposed to the cloud, where all the computation takes place in a central location, fog computing pushes the computation of tasks toward the edge of the network and distributes it among smart routers or gateways. The term and concept was coined by networking giant Cisco even before the IoT became a buzzword, but it was the advent of the Internet of Things that provided it with true, legitimate use cases. .... "
Open Source Required
In the CACM: On the use of open source. The history, evolution and the why of how big players are using it today. Every client I talk to today brings it up as a interest and need.
Linguistics at Google
Google research writes about what they are doing in computational linguistics. As it implies 'computational' means linguistics applied and delivered in systems. A very important topic in a world where cognitive systems need to understand us and be understood by us. A look at the upcoming ACL (Association for Computational Linguistics) meeting and papers being given. Worth following.
" ... Our systems are used in numerous ways across Google, impacting user experience in search, mobile, apps, ads, translate and more. Our work spans the range of traditional NLP tasks, with general-purpose syntax and semantic algorithms underpinning more specialized systems.
Our researchers are experts in natural language processing and machine learning, and combine methodological research with applied science, and our engineers are equally involved in long-term research efforts and driving immediate applications of our technology. ... "
" ... Our systems are used in numerous ways across Google, impacting user experience in search, mobile, apps, ads, translate and more. Our work spans the range of traditional NLP tasks, with general-purpose syntax and semantic algorithms underpinning more specialized systems.
Our researchers are experts in natural language processing and machine learning, and combine methodological research with applied science, and our engineers are equally involved in long-term research efforts and driving immediate applications of our technology. ... "
Saturday, August 06, 2016
First Web Site Went Public 25 Years Ago
Quite an interesting anniversary. Tim Berners-Lee 1991 announcement of his Web Project. Its interesting that one of the other primary components of the Web, the hyperlink, existed before then. We used it as a means to link text definitions, calling it hypertext, as early as 1983.
Smarter Health Delivery Systems
In RW: Smarter Health Delivery Systems. Givessome interesting examples, like that of compliance in drug usage. But I believe that in the short term, the use of augmented people will be far more effective towards the significant decrease in costs. Good example there is the analysis of complex medical imagery and its linking to knowledge bases. The high costs of systems need to be overcome by considerable augmentation of human effort.
Pingpad Building onto Slack for Knowledge Sharing
I see that long time connection Ross Mayfield, who we worked on in early corporate wiki days with Socialtext, is building onto Slack, He writes: " .... We are about to launch Pingpad for Slack teams to capture shared knowledge, organize and act on it. Focusing your startup on a single platform is a big bet, and I thought I’d share our reasoning. ... " . See much more in his post. I plan to follow up. See their Beta.
Random but with Geometric Order
A mathematical, but but not very technical article, but the implications are not easily thought about. The non-order called randomness has a remarkable number of practical applications. Such as crytology, for example or creating 'natural' imagery. It turns out that if you build geometric structures based on randomness, they turn out to exist in classes. Is that itself a kind of order? Visually striking example images.
In Wired: Mathematics are building new models of geometric randomness. by Kevin Hartnett
" ... these random shapes can be categorized into various classes, that these classes have distinct properties of their own, and that some kinds of random objects have surprisingly clear connections with other kinds of random objects. Their work forms the beginning of a unified theory of geometric randomness.
“You take the most natural objects—trees, paths, surfaces—and you show they’re all related to each other,” Sheffield said. “And once you have these relationships, you can prove all sorts of new theorems you couldn’t prove before.” ... "
In Wired: Mathematics are building new models of geometric randomness. by Kevin Hartnett
“You take the most natural objects—trees, paths, surfaces—and you show they’re all related to each other,” Sheffield said. “And once you have these relationships, you can prove all sorts of new theorems you couldn’t prove before.” ... "
Predictive Analytics Interview
Good piece, non technical, relatively little about how results will be integrated with the decision process.
Talk with Eric Siegel on predictive analytics. Good, non technical interview:
" ... What is predictive analytics? How do you define it, and how did you get interested in working with predictive analytics?
As defined in my book, “Predictive Analytics,” this is technology that learns from experience (data) to predict the future behavior of individuals in order to drive better decisions.” ...
As a result, predictive analytics affects everyone every day. Trendsetters like Chase, Facebook, Google, Hillary for America, HP, IBM, Match.com, Netflix, the NSA, Pfizer, Target, and Uber are seizing upon the power of big data to predict human behavior—including yours. Why? Predictive analytics reinvents industries and runs the world. It combats risk, boosts sales, fortifies healthcare, optimizes social networks, toughens crime fighting, and wins elections.
What have been some of the main advances that have fueled the rise of predictive Analytics in recent years?
Ensemble models (Chapter 6 of my book) and uplift modeling (Chapter 7). They are game changers.
Ensemble models are the most prevalent way to advance from simple methods like decision trees in order to improve predictive performance. As with most advanced method, you lose transparency (model interpretability) — but you don’t lose all that much simplicity: an ensemble model is nothing more than a collection of models such as decision trees that vote (or are otherwise combined). This is kind of like collective intelligence — the wisdom of a crowd not of people but of predictive models. ...
How is predictive analytics and machine learning related?
The two are largely synonymous. In academics and R&D labs, it is called “machine learning” (although that is a slightly broader area), and when deployed commercially, it is “predictive analytics.” ...
This makes sense, since the machine needs to learn in order to predict. It learns from data how to consider the factors (variables) known about an individual in order to predictively score that individual. The mechanism that considers multiple factors to derive a single score, e.g., a decision tree or neural network, is called a predictive model; the process of creating the model from data – modeling – is the learning process, and the model is what’s been learned. ... "
Talk with Eric Siegel on predictive analytics. Good, non technical interview:
" ... What is predictive analytics? How do you define it, and how did you get interested in working with predictive analytics?
As defined in my book, “Predictive Analytics,” this is technology that learns from experience (data) to predict the future behavior of individuals in order to drive better decisions.” ...
As a result, predictive analytics affects everyone every day. Trendsetters like Chase, Facebook, Google, Hillary for America, HP, IBM, Match.com, Netflix, the NSA, Pfizer, Target, and Uber are seizing upon the power of big data to predict human behavior—including yours. Why? Predictive analytics reinvents industries and runs the world. It combats risk, boosts sales, fortifies healthcare, optimizes social networks, toughens crime fighting, and wins elections.
What have been some of the main advances that have fueled the rise of predictive Analytics in recent years?
Ensemble models (Chapter 6 of my book) and uplift modeling (Chapter 7). They are game changers.
Ensemble models are the most prevalent way to advance from simple methods like decision trees in order to improve predictive performance. As with most advanced method, you lose transparency (model interpretability) — but you don’t lose all that much simplicity: an ensemble model is nothing more than a collection of models such as decision trees that vote (or are otherwise combined). This is kind of like collective intelligence — the wisdom of a crowd not of people but of predictive models. ...
How is predictive analytics and machine learning related?
The two are largely synonymous. In academics and R&D labs, it is called “machine learning” (although that is a slightly broader area), and when deployed commercially, it is “predictive analytics.” ...
This makes sense, since the machine needs to learn in order to predict. It learns from data how to consider the factors (variables) known about an individual in order to predictively score that individual. The mechanism that considers multiple factors to derive a single score, e.g., a decision tree or neural network, is called a predictive model; the process of creating the model from data – modeling – is the learning process, and the model is what’s been learned. ... "
Friday, August 05, 2016
Deep Dive on Consumer Product Innovation
From Deloitte. Good overview ..
Consumer product companies face ongoing challenges from slowing industry growth to declining brand loyalty and the rise of unconventional competitors. While innovation is key for companies to differentiate themselves from competitors, few are creating new, viable business offerings that drive value for their customers and shareholders. Companies that maintain the status quo may continue to experience a negative impact. Companies that innovate beyond product, design for consumer behavior, and develop systemic capabilities to drive their innovation activities are likely to surpass competitors. .... "
Consumer product companies face ongoing challenges from slowing industry growth to declining brand loyalty and the rise of unconventional competitors. While innovation is key for companies to differentiate themselves from competitors, few are creating new, viable business offerings that drive value for their customers and shareholders. Companies that maintain the status quo may continue to experience a negative impact. Companies that innovate beyond product, design for consumer behavior, and develop systemic capabilities to drive their innovation activities are likely to surpass competitors. .... "
Looking for Sarcasm
Have been looking at the general problem of how to detect demographic and personality indicators via twitter streams. Here is an example described of detecting sarcasm .
" ... Researchers at the University of Lisbon have developed a machine-learning system that can identify sarcasm on Twitter by examining a user's past tweets. The system uses the past tweets to develop a picture of a person that is detailed enough to guess when they are being sarcastic. The researchers say the system predicts sarcasm with an accuracy of 87 percent, which is slightly better than other existing methods. However, by learning to detect sarcasm without human input, the system should be easy to use. In addition, the new approach should work for any language and any online platform where posting history is available. "The key innovation is realizing you can build a model of the user merely based on what they have said in the past," says University of Lisbon researcher Silvio Amir. Monash University researcher Mark Carmen notes it should be straightforward to integrate the new approach with other types of social media analysis, such as tracking users' emotions or stock market trends. Analyzing sarcasm also could be a great help to marketers and customer service teams, as well as virtual assistants such as Apple's Siri. ... "
See previous coverage of sarcasm below.
" ... Researchers at the University of Lisbon have developed a machine-learning system that can identify sarcasm on Twitter by examining a user's past tweets. The system uses the past tweets to develop a picture of a person that is detailed enough to guess when they are being sarcastic. The researchers say the system predicts sarcasm with an accuracy of 87 percent, which is slightly better than other existing methods. However, by learning to detect sarcasm without human input, the system should be easy to use. In addition, the new approach should work for any language and any online platform where posting history is available. "The key innovation is realizing you can build a model of the user merely based on what they have said in the past," says University of Lisbon researcher Silvio Amir. Monash University researcher Mark Carmen notes it should be straightforward to integrate the new approach with other types of social media analysis, such as tracking users' emotions or stock market trends. Analyzing sarcasm also could be a great help to marketers and customer service teams, as well as virtual assistants such as Apple's Siri. ... "
See previous coverage of sarcasm below.
Wearable, IOT Memory
In CWorld: New kinds of very low power memory for Wearables and IoT by Samsung and IBM. I am thinking that building simplicity will be particularly useful for the internet of things.
Skype to Translate Business Meetings
Imagine your conferencing systems translating all the interactions. Trouble is, translation is still not perfect, so be cautious about this. In CWorld,
Considering Elements of an AI Revolution
Nicely done piece. As a practitioner in the space, long ago and now, I like the thoughts.
AI Revolution 101 by Pawel Sysiak
Our last invention, greatest nightmare, or pathway to utopia?
About
This essay, originally published in eight short parts, aims to condense the current knowledge on Artificial Intelligence. It explores the state of AI development, overviews its challenges and dangers, features work by the most significant scientists, and describes the main predictions of possible AI outcomes. This project is an adaptation and major shortening of the two–part essay AI Revolution by Tim Urban of Wait But Why. I shortened it by a factor of 3, recreated all images, and tweaked it a bit. Read more on why/how I wrote it here. ... "
AI Revolution 101 by Pawel Sysiak
Our last invention, greatest nightmare, or pathway to utopia?
About
This essay, originally published in eight short parts, aims to condense the current knowledge on Artificial Intelligence. It explores the state of AI development, overviews its challenges and dangers, features work by the most significant scientists, and describes the main predictions of possible AI outcomes. This project is an adaptation and major shortening of the two–part essay AI Revolution by Tim Urban of Wait But Why. I shortened it by a factor of 3, recreated all images, and tweaked it a bit. Read more on why/how I wrote it here. ... "
Thursday, August 04, 2016
Foundational Course for Statistical Thinking
My interaction with Columbia University led me to the following course. This is meant as a preparatory foundation course for those taking graduate professional level Analytics classes. like the ones I will be teaching. More information to follow.
Statistical Thinking for Data Science and Analytics ....
Learn how statistics plays a central role in the data science approach.
This statistics and data analysis course will pave the statistical foundation for our discussion on data science. You will learn how data scientists exercise statistical thinking in designing data collection, derive insights from visualizing data, obtain supporting evidence for data-based decisions and construct models for predicting future trends from data.
This is the first course in the three-part Data Science and Analytics XSeries. .... "
Statistical Thinking for Data Science and Analytics ....
Learn how statistics plays a central role in the data science approach.
This statistics and data analysis course will pave the statistical foundation for our discussion on data science. You will learn how data scientists exercise statistical thinking in designing data collection, derive insights from visualizing data, obtain supporting evidence for data-based decisions and construct models for predicting future trends from data.
This is the first course in the three-part Data Science and Analytics XSeries. .... "
Open Connectivity Foundation
Just brought to my attention, The Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF). The breadth of corporate support does look to be good.
" ... Efforts led by ARRIS, CableLabs, Cisco, Electrolux, GE Digital, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Samsung – Ensures IoT Solutions and Devices of the Future Work Together Seamlessly
Beaverton, Oregon – Feb. 19, 2016 – Today, major industry leaders who are invested in the future of the Internet of Things, announced they will unify as the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF), an entity whose goal will be to help unify IoT standards so that companies and developers can create IoT solutions and devices that work seamlessly together. Via cross-industry collaboration, the OCF will work towards unlocking the massive opportunity of the future global IoT segment, accelerate industry innovation and help all developers and companies create solutions that map to a single, open IoT interoperability specification. Ultimately, with OCF specifications, protocols and open source projects, a wide-range of consumer, enterprise and embedded devices and sensors from a variety of manufacturers, can securely and seamlessly interact with one another.
The OCF unifies the entirety of the former Open Interconnect Consortium with leading companies at all levels – silicon, software, platform, and finished-goods – dedicated to providing this key interoperability element of an IoT solution. ... "
" ... Efforts led by ARRIS, CableLabs, Cisco, Electrolux, GE Digital, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Samsung – Ensures IoT Solutions and Devices of the Future Work Together Seamlessly
Beaverton, Oregon – Feb. 19, 2016 – Today, major industry leaders who are invested in the future of the Internet of Things, announced they will unify as the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF), an entity whose goal will be to help unify IoT standards so that companies and developers can create IoT solutions and devices that work seamlessly together. Via cross-industry collaboration, the OCF will work towards unlocking the massive opportunity of the future global IoT segment, accelerate industry innovation and help all developers and companies create solutions that map to a single, open IoT interoperability specification. Ultimately, with OCF specifications, protocols and open source projects, a wide-range of consumer, enterprise and embedded devices and sensors from a variety of manufacturers, can securely and seamlessly interact with one another.
The OCF unifies the entirety of the former Open Interconnect Consortium with leading companies at all levels – silicon, software, platform, and finished-goods – dedicated to providing this key interoperability element of an IoT solution. ... "
Voice and Next Generation Search
A now long term test of voice interaction with the Amazon Echo and increased use of Siri has led me to rethink voice use in other environments. Where can it work effectively as a background or even primary channel? Some experts talk it.
Cortana for the Smart Home
Long ago we met with MS Research about their approaches to the smart home. Seems they had dropped that approach since then. . Are they back again pushing standards?
The Thread Group and Open Connectivity Foundation join forces to make it easier for smart home devices to connect By Agam Shah
Microsoft wants to put Windows 10 at the center of smart homes. The company wants users to be able to tell the operating system's Cortana voice assistant to switch on a light, open a door, release food for a cat and even check the contents of a refrigerator. ... "
The Thread Group and Open Connectivity Foundation join forces to make it easier for smart home devices to connect By Agam Shah
Microsoft wants to put Windows 10 at the center of smart homes. The company wants users to be able to tell the operating system's Cortana voice assistant to switch on a light, open a door, release food for a cat and even check the contents of a refrigerator. ... "
Wednesday, August 03, 2016
IFTTT Connects to Skype
IFTTT, a means to create simplified bots based on channels of information, has now been attached to Skype. It is already attached to many other social streams. No programming required. Worthwhile experiment that will give you the idea of how bots should be able to work. At the link, lots of sample recipes for Skype bots.
Brain and Plans Behind Google's AI
Seems somewhat limited comparing this to general cognitive AI. Also note that the proposal needs some semantic web of knowledge relating to the context of the example. In CACM, an extract from Forbes:
" ... Jeff Dean, senior fellow of Google's Systems and Infrastructure Group, discusses the company's artificial intelligence (AI) agenda, with its current focus on machine-learning systems.
Dean cites much progress toward true artificial general intelligence in the last five or six years as people applied some of the more refined machine-learning models.
He says a key AI goal Google plans to pursue in the coming years is taking in hundreds or thousands of documents and then having a conversation about the documents' contents. "Perhaps the system will summarize the documents, or ask or answer questions about the contents of the documents," Dean says. "I think that is the level of understanding we will need to truly demonstrate high levels of language understanding." .... '
" ... Jeff Dean, senior fellow of Google's Systems and Infrastructure Group, discusses the company's artificial intelligence (AI) agenda, with its current focus on machine-learning systems.
Dean cites much progress toward true artificial general intelligence in the last five or six years as people applied some of the more refined machine-learning models.
He says a key AI goal Google plans to pursue in the coming years is taking in hundreds or thousands of documents and then having a conversation about the documents' contents. "Perhaps the system will summarize the documents, or ask or answer questions about the contents of the documents," Dean says. "I think that is the level of understanding we will need to truly demonstrate high levels of language understanding." .... '
Shoe Recognition by Disney
How much better is this than face recognition? Positioned as less personal I assume. Link to demographics and style.
Disney may track park visitors using shoe recognition technology
Walt Disney was recently awarded a patent that describes identifying and tracking its visitors based on their footwear in order to provide customers with customized experiences.
As a guest enters a theme park, cameras would capture their shoe’s color scheme as well as brand and model. Further, sensors placed in the ground would recognize and store shoe size and tread pattern. Individuals could then be recognized by other cameras and sensors as they move about the park.
According to the patent, amusements parks, theme parks other sporting and entertainment venues would benefit from a better understanding of guests’ footpaths. For theme parks this would include understanding the “common guest paths from ride to ride.” .... '
Disney may track park visitors using shoe recognition technology
Walt Disney was recently awarded a patent that describes identifying and tracking its visitors based on their footwear in order to provide customers with customized experiences.
As a guest enters a theme park, cameras would capture their shoe’s color scheme as well as brand and model. Further, sensors placed in the ground would recognize and store shoe size and tread pattern. Individuals could then be recognized by other cameras and sensors as they move about the park.
According to the patent, amusements parks, theme parks other sporting and entertainment venues would benefit from a better understanding of guests’ footpaths. For theme parks this would include understanding the “common guest paths from ride to ride.” .... '
Baidu AI, Augmented Reality and The Du Series
Note also Baidu's work on Virtual Assistants. Its a natural connection to AR, since the augmentation can include required levels of assistance. Don't see why other practitioners of the space do not combine the two. The Pokemon explosion has alerted people to the possibilities of visual augmentation. Another layer of augmentation is possible today.
Baidu Is Bringing Intelligent AR to the Masses
An augmented-reality system powered by computer vision and deep learning will add an extra layer to the real world for millions of people. by Jamie Condliffe
The Chinese Internet giant Baidu has announced a new AR platform that will allow people to make use of the technology from within many of the company’s own apps.
The system, called DuSee, is claimed to make use of "sophisticated computer vision and deep learning" to “understand the 3-D environment, and create virtual objects that have rich interactions with the user and the real world.” The platform seems to sit somewhere between basic AR systems, like those used in Pokémon Go, and more advanced technologies, such as Google’s Tango. The former simply drops animations onto a device’s screen to make it look like they’re in situ without any analysis of the real world; the latter uses special 3-D camera technology to map the local environment and overlay visual graphics.
Instead, DuSee seems to make use of a smartphone’s single camera, using computer vision software to detect and interpret what it sees in order to add a layer of extra information for the user ... "
See also Duer, DuLight and DuSee ... Apparently other Du- efforts of Baidu.
Baidu Is Bringing Intelligent AR to the Masses
An augmented-reality system powered by computer vision and deep learning will add an extra layer to the real world for millions of people. by Jamie Condliffe
The Chinese Internet giant Baidu has announced a new AR platform that will allow people to make use of the technology from within many of the company’s own apps.
The system, called DuSee, is claimed to make use of "sophisticated computer vision and deep learning" to “understand the 3-D environment, and create virtual objects that have rich interactions with the user and the real world.” The platform seems to sit somewhere between basic AR systems, like those used in Pokémon Go, and more advanced technologies, such as Google’s Tango. The former simply drops animations onto a device’s screen to make it look like they’re in situ without any analysis of the real world; the latter uses special 3-D camera technology to map the local environment and overlay visual graphics.
Instead, DuSee seems to make use of a smartphone’s single camera, using computer vision software to detect and interpret what it sees in order to add a layer of extra information for the user ... "
See also Duer, DuLight and DuSee ... Apparently other Du- efforts of Baidu.
Future of Work: Riding the Wave of Change
Precisely this question came up during a recent look at how you should prepare for an AI and Data Analytics Driven future. Well done, non technical piece. Its not only about full blown AI taking over your job, its also about cognitively augmented workers doing that as well. In Knowledge@Wharton:
The Future of Work: How You Can Ride the Wave of Change
For the average job-seeker or any parent wondering what kind of livelihood awaits the next generation, the current headlines are the stuff of anxiety attacks. Last month, the Associated Press announced that it would begin using an automated writing service to cover more than 10,000 minor league baseball games each year. Driverless trucks may soon be taking over from humans, elbowing out an entire profession. New technology purports to bring great change to a surprising number of fields, including law, medicine and financial services. What will be the human toll and net effect on the economy? Has the U.S. reached an epoch of irreversible job loss?
To a large extent, the public discussion over the future of work has followed a storyline that says technology and globalization are coming to whisk your job away. But behind the obvious forces, other perhaps more powerful factors are at play, says Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli, director of the school’s Center for Human Resources. “If one wanted to look at single changes that matter a lot to work, the biggest in my view has been ideology, the shift from the idea that business had a responsibility to all stakeholders toward the idea that they have responsibility only to one – shareholders.” He adds that the second most impactful change has been the rise of China and “the addition of maybe 500 million semi-skilled workers to the world labor force. Neither of those were predictable a decade or more in advance of them happening.” ... "
The Future of Work: How You Can Ride the Wave of Change
For the average job-seeker or any parent wondering what kind of livelihood awaits the next generation, the current headlines are the stuff of anxiety attacks. Last month, the Associated Press announced that it would begin using an automated writing service to cover more than 10,000 minor league baseball games each year. Driverless trucks may soon be taking over from humans, elbowing out an entire profession. New technology purports to bring great change to a surprising number of fields, including law, medicine and financial services. What will be the human toll and net effect on the economy? Has the U.S. reached an epoch of irreversible job loss?
To a large extent, the public discussion over the future of work has followed a storyline that says technology and globalization are coming to whisk your job away. But behind the obvious forces, other perhaps more powerful factors are at play, says Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli, director of the school’s Center for Human Resources. “If one wanted to look at single changes that matter a lot to work, the biggest in my view has been ideology, the shift from the idea that business had a responsibility to all stakeholders toward the idea that they have responsibility only to one – shareholders.” He adds that the second most impactful change has been the rise of China and “the addition of maybe 500 million semi-skilled workers to the world labor force. Neither of those were predictable a decade or more in advance of them happening.” ... "
Tuesday, August 02, 2016
Flower and Plant Recognition
As a Botanist of sorts, always of interest. And how it differs from face recognition.Machine Learning Researchers Team Up With Chinese Botanists on Flower-Recognition Project
Microsoft Research Asia scientists, working with botanists at the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCAS), have developed the Smart Flower Recognition System, which is designed to quickly identify any flower or plant.
The researchers trained a deep neural network to recognize images using a set of learnable filters. Each filter is initially convolved across the width and height of the input volume, computing the dot product between the entries of the filter and the input. The process produces a two-dimensional activation map of that filter, and the system then learns filters that activate specific types of features at a given spatial position in the input.
After entering millions of pictures into the deep-learning framework, the researchers say they enabled the engine to accurately identify images more than 90% of the time. ... "
A History of E-Mail
An interesting detailed history of e-mail. Remember parts of it that I played with on the Arpanet. It remains surprising how 'recently' some of this was created. Seems its been around much longer fouling up our communications.
Gadget Powered Surveillance State
Quite an extensive look at how advanced surveillance is now 'affordable':
What Happens When the Surveillance State Becomes an Affordable Gadget?
Maybe it doesn’t faze you that your local police have a $400,000 device that listens in on cell phones. How will you feel when your neighbor has a $1,500 version? ... "
What Happens When the Surveillance State Becomes an Affordable Gadget?
Maybe it doesn’t faze you that your local police have a $400,000 device that listens in on cell phones. How will you feel when your neighbor has a $1,500 version? ... "
Promoting Scientific Papers to the Public
Promoting, and often translating scientific papers and ideas to the more general public. Its a little like what this kind of blog does. And what I did in various enterprises. Help semi-technical management understand the value of new technologies.
In Nature: ‘Kudos’ promises to help scientists promote their papers to new audiences ... Increasingly popular social-media tool says it can maximize reach and impact of research. .... " By Jeffrey Perkel
In Nature: ‘Kudos’ promises to help scientists promote their papers to new audiences ... Increasingly popular social-media tool says it can maximize reach and impact of research. .... " By Jeffrey Perkel
Artificial Intelligence and the Supply Chain
In Financial Experess: Artificial Intelligence: The next big thing in Supply Chain Management
Imagine the endless possibilities of learning from 2.5 quintillion bytes of data generated every day. Artificial intelligence (AI), which began its journey 60 years ago is well on its course to make this implausible scenario a reality. Artificial Intelligence, is slowly taking over our lives. ,,, "
Imagine the endless possibilities of learning from 2.5 quintillion bytes of data generated every day. Artificial intelligence (AI), which began its journey 60 years ago is well on its course to make this implausible scenario a reality. Artificial Intelligence, is slowly taking over our lives. ,,, "
The State of our General Assistants
Two major general assistance capabilities for computing platforms, Cortana and Siri continue to improve and expand. It looks like this kind of voice driven intelligence will become the standard. Mashable compares the power of each and design choices just now.
Will the future focus these, and allow the addition of precise 'skills', ala the Amazon Echo? Although the Echo's skills are not yet smart enough. Apple has already produced the SDK to make this happen. Will you be able to tailor the specifics to your needs, add conversational AI, learn from interaction , and link to semantic data? Get ready.
Will the future focus these, and allow the addition of precise 'skills', ala the Amazon Echo? Although the Echo's skills are not yet smart enough. Apple has already produced the SDK to make this happen. Will you be able to tailor the specifics to your needs, add conversational AI, learn from interaction , and link to semantic data? Get ready.
Cisco Service Innovation Center
This week’s presenter for the ISSIP Service Innovation Weekly Speaker Series is Craig Wirkus, Innovation Program Manager, Cisco Services Innovation Excellence Center (SIEC). This is a special 45-60 minutes presentation that will start at 7:30 am PT. 10:30 AM ET ...
https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigwirkus
http://www.intrapreneurshipconference.com/speaker/craig-wirkus/
Craig is a strategic innovation leader who works on a consultative basis with the C-suite within a Fortune 50 corporation to develop innovation project portfolios. Craig utilizes multiple ideation channels, business cases, proof of concepts, strategic partnerships and crowd sourcing to create a sustainable culture of innovation. An innovation process designer that created enterprise employee ideation, proof of concepting and innovation workshop consulting approaches. Craig has a proven track record of facilitating innovation workshops, running innovation tournaments, converting and launching ideas with cross functional teams for new products and commercial ventures.
Wed 7:30 am pacific time (San Francisco time zone)/ 10:30 am EST ....
Join WebEx meeting
https://issip.webex.com/issip/j.php?MTID=m980f2a9da470d264408be87884cdcb2a
Meeting number: 927 413 167 Meeting password: innovation
Join by phone
+1-415-655-0002 US Toll
Access code: 927 413 167
Via Haluk Demirkan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigwirkus
http://www.intrapreneurshipconference.com/speaker/craig-wirkus/
Craig is a strategic innovation leader who works on a consultative basis with the C-suite within a Fortune 50 corporation to develop innovation project portfolios. Craig utilizes multiple ideation channels, business cases, proof of concepts, strategic partnerships and crowd sourcing to create a sustainable culture of innovation. An innovation process designer that created enterprise employee ideation, proof of concepting and innovation workshop consulting approaches. Craig has a proven track record of facilitating innovation workshops, running innovation tournaments, converting and launching ideas with cross functional teams for new products and commercial ventures.
Wed 7:30 am pacific time (San Francisco time zone)/ 10:30 am EST ....
Join WebEx meeting
https://issip.webex.com/issip/j.php?MTID=m980f2a9da470d264408be87884cdcb2a
Meeting number: 927 413 167 Meeting password: innovation
Join by phone
+1-415-655-0002 US Toll
Access code: 927 413 167
Via Haluk Demirkan
Monday, August 01, 2016
Seymour Papert Dies
We followed him closely in our AI years. Also a developer of the Logo language and Lego Mindstorms. Developed much in the area of technology driven learning.
Seymour Papert, theorist behind One Laptop Per Child, dies at 88
South African computer scientist had an outsized influence on tech-driven learning. By Cyrus Farivar ...
See the Playful Invention Company (PICO) Via previous notes.
See also, the Logo Foundation.
Seymour Papert, theorist behind One Laptop Per Child, dies at 88
South African computer scientist had an outsized influence on tech-driven learning. By Cyrus Farivar ...
See the Playful Invention Company (PICO) Via previous notes.
See also, the Logo Foundation.
Machine Learning and Data Leakage
Admit I knew the concept, but not the term itself. Data Leakage. Using data outside a training set to build a model. Well, surprise, this is in practice always the case. It is usually needed for adjusting models to changes in contexts that did not even exist when the training data set was gathered. In general we are not seeking fundamental truths, as one collaborator once said: "This is not Physics we are doing." Interesting related thoughts in this article.
What Does it Mean for Everything to be Smart?
What are the challenges for invention on the Internet of Things? In the early days of our use the only application was an indicator of what a thing was. So it could be counted, located, or paid for. Now the possibilities have grown, and we expect many very complex things to take their place on the net and start conversations with other things that are there. How do you innovate on the IoT? Would seem a place ready for the use of agent models.
Increased Functions of Mobile Wallets
And consider also the integration of virtual assistance?
How to increase customer engagement with mobile wallets
One method of connecting with users on mobile, which most brands likely wouldn’t consider, is by using mobile wallets.
Mobile wallets, despite being native to both iOS and Android, are still on their way up to becoming a mainstream payment method.
New research commissioned by Urban Airship suggests that not only is usage of mobile wallets becoming more widespread, but that the ‘non-payment’ functions of wallets may give brands an unprecedented opportunity to reach out to consumers through their smartphones – without the need for a mobile app. ,,, "
How to increase customer engagement with mobile wallets
One method of connecting with users on mobile, which most brands likely wouldn’t consider, is by using mobile wallets.
Mobile wallets, despite being native to both iOS and Android, are still on their way up to becoming a mainstream payment method.
New research commissioned by Urban Airship suggests that not only is usage of mobile wallets becoming more widespread, but that the ‘non-payment’ functions of wallets may give brands an unprecedented opportunity to reach out to consumers through their smartphones – without the need for a mobile app. ,,, "
Introduction to Graph Databases
My latest blog is An Introduction to Graph Databases. William McKnight
An Introduction to Graph Databases -- Upside
Graph databases are one of the fastest growing categories in data management, yet they remain an enigma to many. What can these workhorses do for your enterprise? .... "
An Introduction to Graph Databases -- Upside
Graph databases are one of the fastest growing categories in data management, yet they remain an enigma to many. What can these workhorses do for your enterprise? .... "
Cutting a Display for Experimental Packaging
In Engadget. An example where you can now cut up a computer display with a pair of scissors. Interesting, once looked at a packaging design project where this could have been useful. Other applications?
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