How Technology Levels the Playing Field for the Blind
Ever since Thomas Panek learned at age 20 that he would lose his eyesight due to a condition called retinal degeneration, he vowed that his disability would not prevent him from living a full life. “I wanted to do everything that sighted people do,” he says. He has not let himself down: In addition to […]
Embedding Intelligence in the Internet of Things
Three years ago when my wife and I were visiting Paris, we happened upon the finish of the Tour de France bicycle race. We were swept up in a huge crowd, and we were thrilled to watch bunches of riders zip around the Champs-Elysees at blazing speed. Amazing! The only problem was, we had no […]
Reinventing Securities Trading with Blockchain
Unlike some of my colleagues in our banking and financial markets teams, I’m no securities expert, but I’ve learned more about securities trading in the past six months than I ever would have thought possible. That’s because I spend many hours on the phone each week with leaders from securities exchanges and financial services companies […]
IBM’s Watson: Helping Sports Teams Make Talent Decisions
It is June and the the NBA’s draft looms large. The management and coaching staff of the Toronto Raptors gathers to consider potential draft picks and possible trade scenarios. Their strategy is to select players who will form a cohesive unit. No prima donnas. In the past, the staff would have gathered in a room […]
Making Data Easy for Businesses with Cloud Data Services
Big Data has been called the most hyped tech trend in the world today. It promises to enable people of all stripes to tap into the world’s ocean of structured and unstructured data and to draw insights that help them make better decisions. Too bad it’s not delivering fully on that promise. Or it wasn’t, […]
IBM and The Weather Company: An IoT Platform for Enterprises
When IBM announced last October that we were going to buy The Weather Company’s product and technology businesses, reactions were all over the map—from “IBM’s buying a TV station,” (not true), to “IBM is buying into cloud computing,” (not necessary; already there in a big way), to “Watson is going to predict weather,” (sort of). […]
It’s Time to Radically Overhaul Approaches to Data Privacy
It’s an article of faith among many that Millennials aren’t concerned about privacy, but a recent survey of people between the ages of 16 to 35 in the United States and the United Kingdom showed just the opposite. Eighty percent told interviewers from Atomik Research that it was “vital” or “very important” that personally identifiable, […]
A Revolution in Streaming Video
When colleagues and I started Clearleap in 2008, most people were getting their TV shows and movies the old-fashioned way, and cloud computing wasn’t much more than a blip on mainstream businesses’ radar. At the time, YouTube had taken off, but the major media companies had not yet awoken to the reality of streaming their […]
IBM Design Thinking: A Framework To Help Teams Continuously Understand and Deliver
Two years ago, after IBM executives decided to build a new application development platform for cloud computing, we tore up our old product development playbook. In its place, we developed a new approach: IBM Design Thinking. Following this new framework, IBM’s designers, developers, marketers and others combined forces to create Bluemix, which reimagines the cloud […]
The Next Grand Challenge: Computers That Converse Like People
Computer scientists have long dreamed of creating machines that can carry on free-wheeling conversations with people. So far, in spite of tremendous efforts in the field of speech recognition, natural language processing and other facets of artificial intelligence, even the most loquacious computers and smartphones are not yet great conversationalists. But that may change in […]
Inside IBM: The Inventors Who Are Creating the Era of Cognitive Computing
How many times have you been raving about a great movie and, suddenly, you draw a blank on the star actor’s name? Don’t worry, it happens to everybody. Well, in the not-too-distant future, when you get hung up, you may get a timely assist from a computer—one smart enough to complete your sentences for you. […]
IBM’s Cognitive Computing Innovation Surges
IBM’s work in cognitive computing emerged as a major factor among the patents awarded to the company by the US. Patent and Trademark Office. More than 800 of IBM’s 7,355 2015 patents are related to cognitive computing, a 52% increase from the previous year. Last year, IBM announced that it has realigned its entire business […]