Google Continues to Improve Voice Search
November 5, 2015
Google’s research arm continues to make progress on voice search. The Google Research Blog updates us in, “Google Voice Search: Faster and More Accurate.” The Google Speech Team begins by referring back to 2012, when they announced their Deep Neural Network approach. They have since built on that concept; the team now employs a couple of models built upon recurrent neural networks, which they note are fast and accurate: connectionist temporal classification and sequence discriminative (machine) training techniques. The write-up goes into detail about how speech recognizers work and what makes their latest iteration the best yet. I found the technical explanation fascinating, but it is too lengthy to describe here; please see the post for those details.
I am still struck when I see any article mention that an algorithm has taken the initiative. This time, researchers had to rein in their model’s insightful decision:
“We now had a faster and more accurate acoustic model and were excited to launch it on real voice traffic. However, we had to solve another problem – the model was delaying its phoneme predictions by about 300 milliseconds: it had just learned it could make better predictions by listening further ahead in the speech signal! This was smart, but it would mean extra latency for our users, which was not acceptable. We solved this problem by training the model to output phoneme predictions much closer to the ground-truth timing of the speech.”
At least the AI will take direction. The post concludes:
“We are happy to announce that our new acoustic models are now used for voice searches and commands in the Google app (on Android and iOS), and for dictation on Android devices. In addition to requiring much lower computational resources, the new models are more accurate, robust to noise, and faster to respond to voice search queries – so give it a try, and happy (voice) searching!”
We always knew natural-language communication with machines would present huge challenges, ones many said could never be overcome. It seems such naysayers were mistaken.
Cynthia Murrell, November 5, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Google Hacks to Make You Grin
October 30, 2015
Google is run by a bunch of geeks that entertain themselves using the high tech toys at their fingertips. Beyond the insertion of Douglas Adams references in search results, there are other Google hacks that the tech geeks developed to make themselves and you smile. Digital Spy tracked down “Eleven Google Secrets That Will Change The Way You Search, From Playing Pac-Man To Lego Street View.”
“Day after day you hammer out search after search, overlooking not only the hidden gems lurking beneath the surface, but the very thing that makes Google such an anomaly amongst the world’s biggest companies – its sense of humor. Here are a few thinks you might not have known you can do in Google.”
Google can do numerous things just by typing a few simple commands into the search bar. Try typing: “askew” or “tilt,” “do a barrel roll,” and “Zerg rush.” Google is also a time machine and can take you back to the 1998 Google interface or you can spend hours playing Pac-Man on an uploaded Google Doodle from May 2010. The yellow stick figure on Google Street View also likes to play dress-up when he visits certain places.
But our absolute favorite is the six degrees of Kevin Bacon calculator. Based off an old Internet meme that everyone in Hollywood has worked with Kevin Bacon in less than six degrees, type in a famous person and “bacon number” to find out how close their careers are.
Little hacks and fun games like this show the human side to the Google empire. What will they think of next? However, it would be nice if Google added some practical functions, such as a time and date feature.
Whitney Grace, October 30, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Latest Global Internet Report Available
October 30, 2015
The Internet Society has made available its “Global Internet Report 2015,” just the second in its series. World-wide champions of a free and open Internet, the society examines mobile Internet usage patterns around the globe. The report’s Introduction explains:
“We focus this year’s report on the mobile Internet for two reasons. First, as with mobile telephony, the mobile Internet does not just liberate us from the constraints of a wired connection, but it offers hundreds of millions around the world their only, or primary, means of accessing the Internet. Second, the mobile Internet does not just extend the reach of the Internet as used on fixed connections, but it offers new functionality in combination with new portable access devices.”
It continues with this important warning:
“The nature of the Internet should remain collaborative and inclusive, regardless of changing means of access. In particular, the mobile Internet should remain open, to enable the permission-less innovation that has driven the continuous growth and evolution of the Internet to date, including the emergence of the mobile Internet itself.”
Through the report’s landing page, above, you can navigate to the above-cited Introduction, the report’s Executive Summary, and Section 2: Trends and Growth. There is even an interactive mobile Internet timeline. Scroll to the bottom to download the full report, in PDF, Kindle, or ePub formats. The download is free, but those interested can donate to the organization here.
Cynthia Murrell, October 30, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
CSI Search Informatics Are Actually Real
October 29, 2015
CSI might stand for a popular TV franchise, but it also stands for “compound structured identification” Phys.org explains in “Bioinformaticians Make The Most Efficient Search Engine For Molecular Structures Available Online.” Sebastian Böcker and his team at the Friedrich Schiller University are researching metabolites, chemical compounds that determine an organism’s metabolism. Metabolites are used to gauge information about the condition of living cells.
While this is amazing science there are some drawbacks:
“This process is highly complex and seldom leads to conclusive results. However, the work of scientists all over the world who are engaged in this kind of fundamental research has now been made much easier: The bioinformatics team led by Prof. Böcker in Jena, together with their collaborators from the Aalto-University in Espoo, Finland, have developed a search engine that significantly simplifies the identification of molecular structures of metabolites.”
The new search works like a regular search engine, but instead of using keywords it searches through molecular structure databases containing information and structural formulae of metabolites. The new search will reduce time in identifying the compound structures, saving on costs and time. The hope is that the new search will further research into metabolites and help researchers spend more time working on possible breakthroughs.
Whitney Grace, October 29, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
The PurePower Geared Turbofan Little Engine That Could
October 29, 2015
The article on Bloomberg Business titled The Little Gear That Could Reshape the Jet Engine conveys the 30 year history of Pratt & Whitney’s new PurePower Geared Turbofan aircraft engines. These are impressive machines, they burn less fuel, pollute less, and produce 75% less noise. But thirty years in the making? The article explains,
“In Pratt’s case, it required the cooperation of hundreds of engineers across the company, a $10 billion investment commitment from management, and, above all, the buy-in of aircraft makers and airlines, which had to be convinced that the engine would be both safe and durable. “It’s the antithesis of a Silicon Valley innovation,” says Alan Epstein, a retired MIT professor who is the company’s vice president for technology and the environment. “The Silicon Valley guys seem to have the attention span of 3-year-olds.”
It is difficult to imagine what, if anything, “Silicon Valley guys” might develop if they spent three decades researching, collaborating, and testing a single project. Even more so because of the planned obsalesence of their typical products seeming to speed up every year. In the case of this engine, the article suggests that the time spent has positives and negatives for the company- certain opportunities with big clients were lost along the way, but the dedicated effort also attracted new clients.
Chelsea Kerwin, October 29, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
RAVN Pipeline Coupled with ElasticSearch to Improve Indexing Capabilities
October 28, 2015
The article on PR Newswire titled RAVN Systems Releases its Enterprise Search Indexing Platform, RAVN Pipeline, to Ingest Enterprise Content Into ElasticSearch unpacks the decision to improve the ElasticSearch platform by supplying the indexing platform of the RAVN Pipeline. RAVN Systems is a UK company with expertise in processing unstructured data founded by consultants and developers. Their stated goal is to discover new lands in the world of information technology. The article states,
“RAVN Pipeline delivers a platform approach to all your Extraction, Transformation and Load (ETL) needs. A wide variety of source repositories including, but not limited to, File systems, e-mail systems, DMS platforms, CRM systems and hosted platforms can be connected while maintaining document level security when indexing the content into Elasticsearch. Also, compressed archives and other complex data types are supported out of the box, with the ability to retain nested hierarchical structures.”
The added indexing ability is very important, especially for users trying to index from from or into cloud-based repositories. Even a single instance of any type of data can be indexed with the Pipeline, which also enriches data during indexing with auto-tagging and classifications. The article also promises that non-specialists (by which I assume they mean people) will be able to use the new systems due to their being GUI driven and intuitive.
Chelsea Kerwin, October 28, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
The Lack of Digital Diversity
October 27, 2015
Tech companies and their products run our lives. Companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft have made it impossible to function in developed nations without them. They have taken over everything from communication to how we entertain ourselves. While these companies offer a variety of different products and services, they are more similar than different. The Verge explains that “Apple, Google, And Microsoft Are All Solving The Same Problem.”
Google, Apple, and Microsoft are offering similar services and products in their present options with zero to little diversity among them. For example, there are the personal assistants Cortana vs. Google Now vs. Siri, options for entertainment in the car like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and seamless accessibility across devices with Chrome browser, Continuity, and Continuum. There are more comparisons between the three tech giants and their business plans for the future, but it is not only them. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are starting to resemble each other more too.
Technology companies have borrowed from each and have had healthy competition for years spurring more innovation, but these companies are operating on such similar principles that it is stifling creativity and startups are taking more risks:
“Without the dual pressures of both the consumer and the stock market, and without a historic reputation to uphold, small startups are now the best engine for generating truly new and groundbreaking innovations. Uber and Airbnb are fundamentally altering the economics of renting things, while hardware designers like Pebble and Oculus are inventing cool new technology that isn’t bound to any particular company’s ecosystem. Startups can see a broader range of problems to address because they don’t have to wear the same economic blinkers as established, monolithic companies.”
The article ends on positive thoughts, however. The present is beating along at a consistent pace, but in order to have more diversity companies should not be copying each other on every little item. Tech companies should borrow ideas from the future to create more original ideas.
Whitney Grace, October 27, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Apple May Open up on Open Source
October 27, 2015
Is Apple ready to openly embrace open source? MacRumors reports, “Apple Building Unified Cloud Platform for iCloud, iTunes, Siri and More.” Writer Joe Rossignol cites a new report from the Information that indicates the famously secret company may be opening up to keep up with the cloudy times. He writes:
“The new platform is based on Siri, which itself is powered by open source infrastructure software called Mesos on the backend, according to the report. Apple is reportedly placing more emphasis on open source software in an attempt to attract open source engineers that can help improve its web services, but it remains to be seen how far the company shifts away from its deep culture of secrecy.
“The paywalled report explains how Apple is slowly embracing the open source community and becoming more transparent about its open source projects. It also lists some of the open source technologies that Apple uses, including Hadoop, HBase, Elasticsearch, Reak, Kafka, Azkaban and Voldemort.”
Rossignol goes on to note that, according to Bloomberg, Apple is working on a high-speed content delivery network and upgrading data centers to better compete with its rivals in the cloud, like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Will adjusting its stance on open-source allow it to keep up?
Cynthia Murrell, October 27, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Xendo, Can Do
October 23, 2015
While it would be lovely to access and find all important documents, emails, and Web sites within a couple clicks, users usually have to access several programs or individual files to locate their information. Stark Industries wanted users to have the power of Google search engine without compromising their personal security. Xendo is a private, personal search engine that connects with various services, including email servers, social media account, clouds, newsfeeds, and more.
Once all the desired user accounts are connected to Xendo, the search engine indexes all the files within the services. The index is encrypted, so it securely processes them. After the indexing is finished, Xendo will search through all the files and return search results displaying the content and service types related to inputted keywords. Xendo promises that:
“After your initial index is built, Xendo automatically keeps it up-to-date by adding, removing and updating content as it changes. Xendo automatically updates your index to reflect role and permission changes in each of your connected services. Xendo is hosted in some of the most secure data-centers in the world and uses multiple layers of security to ensure your data is secured in transit and at rest, like it’s in a bank vault.”
Basic Xendo search is free for individual users with payments required for upgrades. The basic search offers deep search, unlimited access, and unlimited content, while the other plans offer more search options based on subscription. Xendo can be deployed for enterprise systems, but it requires a personalized quote.
Whitney Grace, October 23, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Genentech Joins the Google Enterprise Crew
October 22, 2015
Enterprise search offers customizable solutions for organizations to locate and organize their data. Most of the time organizations purchase a search solution is to become more efficient, comply with procedures for quality compliance, and or to further their business development. The latter usually revolves around sales operation planning, program research, customer service, contracts, and tech sales collateral.
Life sciences companies are but one of the few that can benefit from enterprise search solutions. Genentech recently deployed the Google Search Application to improve the three areas listed above. Perficient explains the benefits of enterprise search for a life science company in the video, “Why Life Sciences Leader Genentech Adopted Google Enterprise Search.”
“‘…we explore why life sciences leader Genentech executed Google Search Appliance. “No company is or should ever be static. You have to evolve,’ said CEO Ian Clark.”
Perficient helps companies like Genentech by customizing a search solution by evaluating the company and identifying the areas where it can be improved the most. They host workshops to evaluate where people in different areas must stop to search for information before returning to the task. From the workshops, Perficient can create a business prototype to take their existing business process and improve upon it. Perficient follows this procedure when it deploys enterprise search in new companies.
The video only explains a short version of the process Perficient deployed at Genentech to improve their business operations with search. A full webinar was posted on their Web site: “Google Search For Life Sciences Companies.”
Whitney Grace, October 22, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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