MapR Converged Data Platform 6.0, Amazon Rekognition, and Japan’s quantum computer in today’s trending stories in data science news.
MapR 6.0 powers DataOps
MapR Converged Data Platform 6.0 is now available with new security, database, and automated administration features
MapR Technologies announced the availability of its MapR Converged Data Platform 6.0, with new advancements to help companies use emerging DataOps concepts. The 6.0 release focuses on three key areas in support of DataOps: automated cluster health and administration, security and data governance, and faster time to machine learning and analytics, according to MapR VP Anoop Dawar. To simplify the processing of cluster health and continuous operations, there is a new MapR Control System that administers all data, in addition to the recently introduced database indexing in MapR-DB that delivers auto-propagation, auto-scale, and auto-management. Furthermore, the MapR Change Data Capture now integrates MapR-DB with MapR-ES, resulting in simplified data integration for real-time information sharing. Version 6.0 also offers new single-click security enhancements, and makes available MapR’s recently announced Data Science Refinery for self-service data access leveraging machine learning.
Rekognition now ‘recognizes’ real-time faces with sentiments
Amazon Rekognition can now detect texts and real-time faces with 10% more accuracy
Amazon Web Services has added three new features to Amazon Rekognition: detection and recognition of text in images; real-time face recognition across tens of millions of faces; and detection of up to 100 faces in challenging crowded photos. Previously, the system could detect up to 15 different faces in a photo. With the added features now, if you feed Rekognition a snap of a crowd of people, it will share information about the demographics of all detected faces, (including the emotions Rekognition believes they’re displaying) at crowded public places like airports and department stores. “Customers who are already using Amazon Rekognition for face verification and identification will experience up to a 10% accuracy improvement in most cases,” AWS said. To get started with Text in Image, Face Search and Face Detection, download the latest SDK or simply log in to the Amazon Rekognition Console.
Japan enters quantum computing race
Japan unveils first quantum computer that is 100x faster than supercomputers
Japan has announced its first quantum computer prototype, which can theoretically make complex calculations 100 times faster than conventional supercomputers. The machine uses just 1 kilowatt of power for every 10,000 kilowatts consumed by a supercomputer. The creators — National Institute of Informatics, NTT, and University of Tokyo — said they are building a cloud system to house their “quantum neural network” (QNN) technology. The creators aim to commercialise their system by March 2020. To spur further innovation, they are making it available for free to the public and fellow researchers for trials starting Nov. 27 at https://qnncloud.com.