prediction

Despite what is often considered to be a conservative approach to business, IBM has no shortage of big thinkers who use their skills both internally and externally to influence the way the company thinks about technology and how it applies to business processes.

This week I met with Jeff Jonas, chief scientist, IBM Entity Analytics, to talk about how predictive analytics is moving into new realms of big data and how companies are using software to deal with the deluge of information.

Jonas joined IBM in 2005 when Big Blue acquired SRD, a company he founded to develop so-called extraordinary systems with specific data analysis tasks, such as facial recognition and analysis systems casinos use to catch cheating gamblers.

The main thrust of Jonas' research right now is trying to figure out ways to better take advantage of as much data as possible as fast as the transaction is happening--with an eye toward real-time predictive analytics. This is basically pattern detection in real-time, based on patterns that may or may not exist already.

Jonas explained that you may not know of a pattern, but you want to find one, and that many might be interesting but they don't always matter. In the casino example, bad guys are looking to perform channel separation by mixing and matching, people, places, and things, but the casino needs to do channel consolidation to aggregate information and determine an immediate course of action.… Read more

Each year E3 becomes the ultimate venue for game companies to flex their collective muscles in an effort to win over critics and gamers alike. Sometimes the news is groundbreaking, other times it can fall flat.

Let's take a look back exactly one year ago at E3 2009 and see how the show's biggest announcements have fared. From Project Natal to Wii MotionPlus, the PSP Go to the Vitality Sensor, the show certainly had its ups and downs. Click through our slideshow for a trip down memory lane.

In a recent conversation about predictive analytics, I learned how Wal-Mart Stores uses statistical modeling to better understand the habits and tendencies of its customers--and how businesses can use this data to drive competitive pricing to dominate a market.

Imagine that same type of customer intelligence, delivered almost instantaneously, into the hands of store managers on-site or corporate executives on their iPhone or iPad.

That's what Medallia, a provider of customer feedback and performance data software, aims to provide with a new offering this week on the heels of the new iPhone 4 announcement. Medallia gets its information from … Read more

This week on preGAME, we gear up for gaming's biggest show of the year, E3. On today's episode we'll run down every last prediction and anticipated game we're looking forward to at E3 2010, from each of the three major press conferences to the individual titles themselves.

First up for debate is Microsoft. It sounds like we'll finally get an official name for Project Natal, as well as some game announcements made for the motion-capturing hardware. We also think we'll see an Xbox 360 Slim announced at the company's press conference; maybe there'… Read more

If you find yourself constantly checking the Web for the latest and greatest stock information or for updates on your own stocks, you'll certainly appreciate what StockPoint has to offer. We're not exactly experts when it comes to the stock market, but we still found the program intuitive and easy to use.

StockPoint offers a tabbed user interface that keeps your stock information organized and easy to find. The various tabs are organized into three categories: Research, Earnings Releases, and Browser. The Research tab let us quickly find stocks with the help of its Screener Options drill-down feature. … Read more

It took 39 questions for the Hunch Twitter Predictor to make a wrong guess about me. The question was, "Have you ever ridden a Segway?" Yes, in fact, I have.

"We call it a 'stunt' internally. It's a fun way to show off the accuracy of our data," Hunch co-founder Chris Dixon told CNET about the Twitter Predictor, a new tool that takes a look at your Twitter network in an attempt to figure out as much as it can about you.

Start-up Hunch launched the prediction tool earlier this month and racked up about … Read more

Crazy as this sounds, the Japanese have uncovered a secret that would have Archimedes too surprised to even yell, "Eureka!" Enter the Age Prediction Machine, a device supposedly capable of guesstimating how old you are just by emitting a high-frequency sound similar to a mosquito's buzz.

There's actually a science behind this. As we age, our hearing deteriorates and loses its ability to tune in to high pitches. The Sonic Teenager Deterrent alarm uses just such a principle to solve loitering problems.

There's an equally nefarious purpose behind this 924 yen ($10) gadget. Just in … Read more

What is there to say about Lotto007 Prediction Expert? If it really worked, do you think you'd be able to buy it on Download.com for $79? We think not. That said, we suppose that some programs of this sort are better than others, and this one does purport to actually analyze patterns in previous winning numbers in order to predict future winning combinations. We don't honestly think this program will improve your chances of winning the lottery, but it might be marginally better than some other programs.

The program's interface is plain and fairly intuitive. Users … Read more

Analyst firm Gartner is out with five predictions for social software, the net of which shows that social media functions will both succeed and fail in the enterprise.

Gartner believes that social services will be embraced, but perhaps not in the way we thought they would. In boiling down the various social mediums into mechanics such as interpersonal communications or performance analysis, it becomes a bit clearer how these services will be adopted in the enterprise. It also gives a glimpse into areas start-ups can target to solve business problems.

Gartner's five social software predictions for 2010 and beyond: … Read more