IBM Watson cognitive system - the future is really here

IBM Watson is a cognitive system that is able to understand, draw conclusions and learn. It also allows you to transform entire industries, various areas of science and technology. For example, to predict the appearance of epidemics or the occurrence of foci of natural disasters in various regions, monitor the state of the atmosphere of large cities, optimize business processes, find out which products will be in trend in the near future.

Now, on the basis of this cloud-based API platform, various applications, services and processes are being developed. Watson currently has 28 APIs, and at the heart of all this lies more than 50 different technologies. By the end of 2016, the developers promise to add another couple of dozens of APIs, and by 2017 their number should increase to 50. Next, we present a number of examples of services and applications based on the IBM Watson cognitive platform.


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Investment Advisor

By combining the IBM Watson Personality Insights and IBM Watson Tradeoff Analytics services, it was possible to get a service recommending suitable areas for investment, as well as agents for investors.

Application: investment-advisor.mybluemix.net
Source code: github.com/watson-developer-cloud/investment-advisor

Speech interpreter

It uses three IBM Watson services at once, which resulted in a cloud-based application that translates a person’s speech, not a printed text. At the entrance we have a human speech in the source language, at the output - an audio stream, the translation of speech into one of the available languages.

Appendix: speech-to-speech-app.mybluemix.net
Source code: github.com/leonrch/SpeechToSpeech

Qualifier questions in natural language

This service demonstrates the ability to create a question and answer application using a small amount of initial training data.

Appendix: watson-on-classifier.mybluemix.net
Source code: github.com/watson-developer-cloud/questions-with-classifier-ega
Documentation: www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/ibmwatson/developercloud/doc/ega_docs/classifier_ega.shtml

What's in the movie?

A service that will help a lover of good films to find out what they are currently showing or are going to show in the near future in cinemas. The project uses the database "themoviedb.org".

Appendix: watson-movieapp-dialog.mybluemix.net/watson-movieapp-dialog/dist
Source code: github.com/watson-developer-cloud/movieapp-dialog
Documentation: www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/ibmwatson/developercloud/doc/ega_docs/dialog_ega.shtml

Smart recruiter

The service helps a person to find an interesting job.

Appendix: chh.mybluemix.net
Source code: hub.jazz.net/manage/manager/project/alanbraz/job-hunters/overview

Personal designer

Helps to find accessories created by your favorite designer.

Application: roztayger.com/match/designer

School Search in New York

And this service is for Americans, which allows you to find the best school for your child.

Application: nyc-school-finder.mybluemix.net
Source code: github.com/germanattanasio/nycschoolfinder

Find a celebrity whose character is similar to that of a user.

This is not the most serious and practical application, but many people will like it. The service helps to find a celebrity who is most similar in character to the user's Twitter account.

The application, as already mentioned, is not too serious, but the technologies behind it are very complex. The service is capable of processing huge data arrays, analyzing the characteristics of Twitter users' messages in order to obtain structured and comparable information.

Appendix: your-celebrity-match.mybluemix.net
Source Code: github.com/watson-developer-cloud/yourcelebritymatch

Newsmakers: who is in trend?

Another interesting service showing the most active newsmaker of the hour.

Application: pitn.mybluemix.net
Source code: hub.jazz.net/project/bsvihovec/PITN/overview

Other uses

In February, the American Heart Association (AHA) announced plans to create a new Workplace Health program, which will use the capabilities of IBM Watson. The current project is the first of its kind, where IBM’s cognitive technologies will be used to combat cardiovascular diseases.

According to the developers of the program, it is primarily aimed at reducing the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. The new project will help to assess the working conditions and occupational health in the enterprise, in addition, the health of employees will be assessed by ANA criteria. The basic component of the application will be the new Workplace Health Achievement Index. The index allows to evaluate companies by the overall level of maintaining a healthy environment in the workplace.

Watson will develop recommendations for employers to maintain the health of their own employees. They will include the creation and adaptation of health insurance and health programs with maximum efficiency in terms of improving the health of staff. And this is just one example from a number of newest projects involving IBM Watson.

Below are a few other examples that we wrote about in the company's blog earlier.

IBM Watson can help you organize your daily routine.

Watson analyzes the user's daily activity , data on sleep and nutrition . The person enters this information into the application, and the cognitive system evaluates and analyzes. It is also interesting that the application works not only with the data of its user, but also with information received from other users of the system.
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Watson can also characterize a person’s identity by examining his social media accounts .

Or help choose a gift for the holidays. It uses the IBM Watson Trend API, which helps to find the most popular products at a particular point in time .

And do not forget that IBM Watson can replace the whole information bureau .

What is in perspective?

Now IBM Watson is a leader in its field - the possibilities of this cognitive system, of course, are not limitless, but much more than what a person could have dreamed of recently.

Scientists are trying to use the capabilities of the system to predict earthquakes or volcanic eruptions in certain regions. Businessmen optimize the flow of goods and find out what will be the most popular among buyers in the near future. Doctors enter into the practice of an individual approach to the treatment of cancer and other diseases.

As was shown above, on the basis of IBM Watson, various applications and services have been created that facilitate a person’s work and make life more comfortable. Try to create your own service based on Watson can almost any developer who is interested. The goal of IBM at this stage is to create the most advanced ecosystem of applications and services that work with Watson, providing all interested people, scientists and businessmen with a reliable assistant who is able to cope with a large number of problems and issues. And this is no longer the future described by science fiction, but the present.