by Nick Mikhailovsky, CEO and Co-Founder of NTRLab.
Marc Andreessen said, “…the life of any startup can be divided into two parts – before product/market fit and after product/market fit.” It’s a kind of magic thing, without which a startup stands little chance of success. That said, how do you define it beyond “you know it when you see it?”
By Leonid Bulyga, Robot Navigation System Developer at NTRLab.
To successfully function, a robot needs to know its place in space, in other words, its exact location on the map.
The Navigation Stack, which includes SLAM, allows the robot to build a map, determine its position on it and move around relying on its “feelings.”
Let us consider in more detail what each element of the navigation stack is responsible for.
One question always pops up during every Artificial Intelligence (AI) related discussion: How do I become Deep Learning Expert? What do I need to learn?
AI related positions are in high demand and extremely well paid. Everyone wants to become an AI expert and every tech company wants AI experts on their team.
Continue reading Coding Won’t Cut It: How to increase your deep learning skills
As you may already know, one of the projects that our developers worked on (the expert AI team at NTR Lab) was a project for drones that can work indoors. NTR Lab created unique, embedded software for UAV autonomous indoor navigation.
The original object of the SLAM method was quite narrow. But more and more, as this technology becomes popular and more applicable on practice, we are moving swiftly towards a future we watched in movies.
Continue reading Info From an Indoor Drone Navigation Developer
Continuing our series on AI implementation in different areas, today we’re talking about a field which has a huge impact on our lives — healthcare.
To the average person the level of change and sheer transformation that AI brings to the industry is not yet obvious. But we will see huge changes soon, in all aspects of healthcare from diagnosis and doctor interactions to medical therapy and health improvement.
This post can’t cover all possible AI and machine learning applications, let alone mention all the emerging technology and research that promises so much. Continue reading AI application in Healthcare
AI is the hottest term in tech these days. Media stories predict, and human pundits argue, everything from AI solving all of humanities woes to AI’s subjugating humanity and charting its own course.
What we do know for sure is that AI will significantly transform the way companies function internally, as well as how they interact with their customers.
Starting today we’ll look at some of the ways AI is disrupting and transforming different industries.
In this first post we will look at leading industry of AI development – IT. And then will see how this progress is applied in more traditional sectors such as banking and insurance. Continue reading AI implementation trends
Organizations everywhere, from traditional tech giants, such as Google and Facebook, to SMB and small startups, are wondering which industry will be disrupted next. Banking, insurance, marketing, and retail have been changed drastically by technology and continue to change.
News of the tens of millions being invested by Fortune 500 leaders in their company’s digital future is everywhere. Although digital transformation may look expensive and possibly unreachable for SMBs, in many ways digital transformation is easier for them. They can move faster, usually have fewer obstacles within the company, and many startups focus on making the latest technologies affordable and ready-to-use for smaller companies.
Going digital has lots of benefits for SMB (see research), but, as with any new approach, you need to plan your strategy first.
Here are 7 guiding principles that can help your company move faster and be more ready for inevitable disruption. Continue reading 7 Guiding principles of digital transformation for SMBs
No matter the size of your company at some point as you grow you will need to hire developers.
Finding good talent is where the problems usually begin. Hiring can be a long, complicated, often overwhelming process and hiring tech talent is usually at least 5x more difficult. Unless your company name is Google, Apple, Facebook or a unicorn, with salaries and perks to match, hiring developers is more like 10x as difficult.
If you are facing this dilemma, why not consider using remote workers? It’s a solution that not only gives you access to the best talent, regardless of where they live, but is also cost-effective. Continue reading Freelancer vs. remote employee vs. custom software company. What is the best option when hiring for software development?
There are two sides to everything, including innovation.
Take AI. It can be turned to good, as discussed last week, but it can just as easily be used by the dark side.
The dark side of AI holds consequences for the real world, both socially and personally.
Stuff like dating, which I, as a 22-year-old single woman, take very personally.
An article in Gizmodo describes the Future of Online Dating and that future is brutal. Human relations are usually based on games, emotions, negotiations, etc.
Online dating itself kills some of that; you know both you’re looking and the most of the play is lost from that moment: depending on the app, you know you’re both ready for sex and maybe more — spending time together and even a relationship — otherwise you would never open the app or site, but at lease they offer some space for the fun of maneuvering.
The future of online dating looks more like breed selection when you take 2 dogs of the same breed, with genetic desirability, compatible traits and they give you nice puppies.
How? The AI algorithm will take a look at your social media, reveal a lot of stuff about you (who you are, what you like, friends, family and more; check out article for detail, it’s terrifying and depressing) and give you the perfect match.
Thank you, AI, but I prefer to remain a messy human, after all.
AI is a big player in enabling sites to addict us to increase their revenue. More and more, AI tells us what to buy (think Amazon suggestions) and, taking a page from game makers, helps online businesses and social media increase the addictiveness of their sites through profiling and data analysis. And Miki also wrote about the dark side in When What You See Ain’t What You Get.
Because my company builds AI software for drones that take on dangerous jobs, so humans don’t have to risk their life, I’ve been talking with many people about the two sides of new technology. All of us, including the engineers, hope AI will only be used in positive ways.
But none of us are so naïve that we believe that will happen.
We never know where new inventions will lead us. We tend to overestimate it in short-term and underestimate the long. We also tend to see only the positive forgetting that most everything has a dark side, too.
So just keep that in mind when we’re talking about AI – there will definitely be no robots walking around the streets in the next few years, but you can’t even begin to imagine what the world will be for you // your children // grandchildren will find themselves in 50 years.
It is because the world is so full of mysteries and technology is so unpredictable that it fascinates me so.
Today I want to talk not about the future, but about today. I really enjoy tracking the tech news, especially AI, because, as you know, it’s what my company does, so I’m actually involved.
Today I want to share some of the exciting news on the positive side of AI development; these are my top four.
We’ve gotten used to hearing about the innovative stuff that happens in healthcare – NTR Lab once worked with a local university on a project for tumor image recognition — the results were fascinating.
While serious diagnostic and treatment breakthroughs are amazing, they aren’t the health problems most of us face in our everyday life.
However, mental health is something that, while often not discussed, most of us deal with to some degree, even if it’s just a down day. That’s why I find the suicide trends tracker so amazing.
The second one I’m undecided if it’s good or bad, so writing about it is a bit confusing. Take a look at article about facial recognition.
It’s about modern AI algorithms catching crimes in crowd. I find this both scary and encouraging at the same time. It’s obviously good for public safety — finding criminals or missing people (especially children). But thinking about being tracked wherever I go and it’s not so great anymore.
Third, the way history and sociology can really benefit from using AI and related technologies in their studies, such as modern 3D models. It’s probably too early, but the idea that AI could contribute something revolutionary to historical studies, such as this effort to recover lost languages, makes me feel good — assuming, of course, that society pays attention to the results.
Finally, if technology can empower people by getting rid of social gaps, then it has the potential to make society more homogenous and, hopefully, friendly.
Tech, such as the wearables that allow blind runners to run independently, are the future. Maybe once there really is no difference — and I don’t mean pity, toleration or politically correct stuff — between us and people who are not like us there will be more inclusion, collaboration and even a bit more peace.
All the result of technology filling the gap.
And I find that really cool.