IBM Watson cognitive system - the future is truly here

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

Now, on the basis of this cloud API platform, various applications, services and processes are being developed. Watson currently has 28 APIs, and all of this is based on more than 50 different technologies. By the end of 2016, the developers promise to add a couple more dozen 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.

Investment Advisor

By combining the services of IBM Watson Personality Insights and IBM Watson Tradeoff Analytics, we managed to get a service that recommends 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 translator

It uses three IBM Watson services at once, resulting in a cloud application that translates human speech, rather than printed text. At the input, we have human speech in the source language, at the output, there is an audio stream, translation of speech into one of the available languages.

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

Natural Language Question Classifier

This service demonstrates the ability to create a Q & A application using a small amount of initial training data.

Application: 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 the lover of good films to find out what is being shown or are going to show in the near future in movie theaters. The project uses the themoviedb.org database.

Application: 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

Service helps a person to find an interesting job.

Application: 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

New York School Search

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 resembles 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 nature to the nature of the user of a particular Twitter account.

The application, as already mentioned, is not very serious, but the technologies behind it are very complex. The service is capable of processing huge amounts of data, analyzing the features of messages from Twitter users to obtain structured and comparable information.

Application: 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 applications

In February, the American Heart Association (AHA) announced plans to create a new Workplace Health program that will leverage the power of IBM Watson. The current project is the first of its kind where IBM platform cognitive technologies will be used to fight cardiovascular disease.

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

Watson will make recommendations to employers on maintaining the health of their employees. They will include the creation and adaptation of medical 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 recent projects involving IBM Watson.

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

IBM Watson can help you organize your daily routine

Watson analyzes the daily activity of the user, data on sleep and nutrition . A 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 personality by examining his social media accounts .

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

And do not forget that IBM Watson can replace a whole help desk .

What is the perspective?

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

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

As shown above, on the basis of IBM Watson, various applications and services have been created that facilitate the person’s work and make life more comfortable. Almost any developer who is interested can try to create their own Watson-based service. The goal of IBM at this stage is to create the most developed ecosystem of applications and services working with Watson, providing all interested people, scientists and businessmen with a reliable assistant who is able to cope with a lot of problems and questions. And this is not the future described by science fiction writers, but the present.