Web Picks (week of 15 August 2016)

Every two weeks, we find the most interesting data science links from around the web and collect them in Data Science Briefings, the DataMiningApps newsletter. Subscribe now for free if you want to be the first to get up to speed on interesting resources.

  • Dreaming of names with RBMs
    A classic problem in natural language processing is named entity recognition. Given a text, we have to identify the proper nouns. But what about the generative mirror image of this problem – i.e. named entity generation? What if we ask a model to dream up new names of people, places and things?
  • Design Better Data Tables
    “After being the bread and butter of the web for most of its early history, tables were cast aside by many designers for newer, trendier layouts. But while they might be making fewer appearances on the web these days, data tables still collect and organize much of the information we interact with on a day-to-day basis.”
  • A Unified Theory of Randomness
    Researchers have uncovered deep connections among different types of random objects, illuminating hidden geometric structures.
  • Playing for Data: Ground Truth from Computer Games
    “Recent progress in computer vision has been driven by high-capacity models trained on large datasets. Unfortunately, creating large datasets with pixel-level labels has been extremely costly due to the amount of human effort required. In this paper, we present an approach to rapidly creating pixel-accurate semantic label maps for images extracted from modern computer games.”
  • NYC Subway Math
    “Apparently MTA (the company running the NYC subway) has a real-time API. Let’s do some cool stuff with this data!”
  • Make Algorithms Accountable
    Algorithms are ubiquitous in our lives. They map out the best route to our destination and help us find new music based on what we listen to now. But they are also being employed to inform fundamental decisions about our lives.
  • Researchers use neural networks to turn face sketches into photos
    We all have a soft spot for Prisma, the app that turns smartphone photos into stylized artwork. But the reverse process — transforming artwork into pictures — is no less fascinating. And it’s not far from becoming real, researchers in the Netherlands said.