[ Big Post. Look at PS, at the end, if lazy to read
]
I
actually don't know much of Data Mining and hence have some aversion to
it ( weird. Ikr ! I don't even know much about it and then this. ). But
some cool Data Mining applications amaze me ! May be these things will
motivate me to learn some stuff and know something about Data Mining
The two things that amazed to a good extent was - Blinkist and WrapItUp Apps.
Some of you might have heard about Blinkist, probably not
about WrapItUp. But I got to know about both of them, only recently
through Quora. You should really, try Quora if you haven't already !
It's for everyone !
Now. Back to these Apps. Blinkist was suggested as a really
good Android App in a Quora answer. So, I started checking about it.
It's a service provided through a Website and Apps (iOS and Android),
which "summarizes" Non Fiction Books and provides you a "short" version
of it. Like, a really short and sweet version, which needs a maximum of
15 minutes only to read. Yes! Only 15 minutes!
Now,
this is what is called "Text Summarization", that we learnt about
recently, in our Data Mining course in College. Here's one old post
talking about it.
This is their official site :
https://www.blinkist.com/en/
Looks
like Blinkist is old enough from what the article says and from the
date of article. Now the article mentions that Blinkist has an actual person
to do the summarizing work. But when I first checked their website, I
was just wondering how cool their "algorithm" would be and thought that
they were using computers. But then, that way, they would have almost
every Non Fiction eBook in their shelf, because they would have an
algorithm ( executed in a matter of mins/secs in a computer, for every
eBook ), which summarizes stuff given an input. But I never thought so
much at that time, even though I did notice they had only a few hand
picked eBooks in their shelf. I just got to know they don't use
computers, when I saw the above post, which I found to let you read
about it. The below link approves the post, and tells how the blinks (summaries)
are created in a skillfull manner by humans. (And oh, did I mention ?
Blinkist is a paid service! Of course! Good business ;) You would know
if you read the post or saw the site.)
And
I was just imagining that it should be really cool for algorithms to
summarize Non Fiction eBooks, based on emotions and key ideas/thoughts
and stuff. Would require a lot of knowledge for an algorithm to do it. I
suppose, we need Artificial Intelligence, to do such stuff, and yeah,
which would be based on lots and lots of knowledge in literature and
emotions.
Now, talking about such algorithms, which could
summarize text, I found out later, about WrapItUp and then some similar
Apps like it.
WrapItUp is an iOS App (iPad/iPhone), that
takes text content as input, and summarizes it. Yes. You read it right!
Now, that did amaze me. And that was when I was first introduced to the
term "
Text Summarization" but later, when it was taught in Data
Mining, I understood how many applications it actually has and I could
relate to these Apps and write about them now, in this post.
Here's a link to the App :
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wrapitup-text-summariser/id1017676504?mt=8
The fb page of the WrapItUp App :
https://www.facebook.com/wrapitupapp?_rdr=p
As
far as my tech knowledge goes. The App cannot do such a lot of
processing on it's own, because this process requires a lot of knowledge
- data. Of course, the App would have some App server, to which the
text content is sent to, from the App, and then the Server would process
and summarize it and then send it back to the App, for the user to view
it. I m not that sure though, about all the working, because I don't
have an iOS mobile device to check the App. So I have asked my
iPhone
friends to try the App :p But yeah, I think that's the only possible
way. Or else the App size would be reaaaaallly large with all the data
necessary to summarize any type of text that the user types. Same thing
applies to a lot of Apps, that require too much processing, that too
based on lots of data.
Anyways. From what I believe, WrapItUp
is basically a software as a service. Where the software is actually
present at the server side. Such an App just
contacts the server
to do the service
by giving the input. The App is just like a medium to access the
service. And the load on the App itself is very very small, compared to
the load on the server, which has the summarizing software to do all the
work, in the case of WrapItUp.
Does it ring it bells ? The term "
software as a service"
(SaaS). Our Distributed Systems course talks about such stuff and about
how it's a new trend in the tech world. Cool stuff right ? How all the
tech come up one by one. Text Summarization. Software as a Service.
And oh yeah, WrapItUp is free.
Finally, If you read the above message (surprisingly!
Please
ping me if you did! :O), you don't have to read the summary in the PS
section :P And by the way, find some Text Summarizer App to read my long posts in a short manner :P ;) Just in case you care to read, but then
feel lazy to (like me! :P) But I wasn't lazy to write this big post
(O.o). Did drag a bit though. Took me a few hours. May be 2 or 3, i
guess. I m too slow a guy.
PS (summary of the post):
Go check about these two stuff.
Blinkist :
https://www.blinkist.com/en/
WrapItUp :
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wrapitup-text-summariser/id1017676504?mt=8
Blinkist summarizes handpicked famous Non Fiction Books. The summaries called
blinks,
can be read in 15 minutes. And you would be able to know all the
critical thoughts and ideas of the book. It makes you save time, which
is one perspective. Another perspective is, it makes you wanna read the
whole of the Non Fiction book, by providing a good summary - basically, a
good review. And Blinkist is a paid service! And yes, many users say
it's a worth it thing. Blinkist service is available in Web, iOS App and
Android App too.
WrapItUp summarizes any text content given
as input, by the user. Helps you understand "big content" stuff by
giving a good summary. I m yet to try the App though. May be you could
try if you have an iPhone or iPad, and tell me how the App is. WrapItUp
is free.
Find a Text Summarizer App to read my long posts in a
short manner, if you are lazy to read (like me! :P) But I wasn't lazy to
write this big post (O.o). Did drag a bit though.
Took me a few hours. May be 2 or 3, i guess. I m too slow a guy.
