No brain, no gain
The manager of cognitive computing at IBM Research-Almaden, Dharmendra S. Modha, gives an example of such quick correlating in his blog, where he talks about instrumenting the world's oceans with temperature, pressure, wave height, humidity and turbidity sensors.
"Imagine streaming this information in real-time to a cognitive computer that may be able to detect spatiotemporal correlations, much like we can pick out a face in a crowd," he writes, adding "We think that cognitive computing has the ability to profoundly transform the world and bring about entirely new computing architectures and, possibly even, industries."
Modha also points out that whereas we already have algorithms and machines capable of processing "structured data" like age, salary, etc., and semi-structured data like text and web pages, we still haven't come close to matching the human brain's amazing ability "to act in a context-dependent fashion while integrating ambiguous information across different senses (for example, sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell) and coordinating multiple motor modalities."
"Success of cognitive computing will allow us to mine the boundary between digital and physical worlds where raw sensory information abounds," he says.
And that may not be the only advantage according to IBM Fellow and lab director of IBM Research-Almaden, Josephine Cheng, who also says that learning from the human brain can help "overcome power and density challenges faced in computing today."
"As the digital and physical worlds continue to merge and computing becomes more embedded in the fabric of our daily lives, it's imperative that we create a more intelligent computing system that can help us make sense of the vast amount of information that's increasingly available to us, much the way our brains can quickly interpret and act on complex tasks," she concluded.
Could be an IBM brainwave if you ask us.
