Big Data: groundbreaking tool on the cards

EU researchers are working on a groundbreaking tool that could help firms exploit Big Data more efficiently.

The interactive system, Collective Experience and Empathic Data Systems (CEEDs), presents data in an aesthetically pleasing way and changes the presentation constantly to prevent brain overload.

Possible applications for CEEDs abound, from inspection of satellite imagery and oil prospecting, to astronomy, economics and possibly insurance.

Professor of psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London and co-ordinator of CEEDs, Jonathan Freeman said: “Anywhere where there’s a wealth of data that either requires a lot of time or an incredible effort, there is potential.

“We are seeing that it’s physically impossible for people to analyse all the data in front of them, merely because of the time it takes. Any system that can speed it up and make it more efficient is of huge value.”

The CEEDs system can help with gathering and reacting to feedback from users in places such as shops, museums, libraries and concerts. In the physical and virtual classrooms, professors could teach students more efficiently by adapting their presentations to their attention level.

The CEEDs technology has been used for two years at the Bergen-Belsen memorial site in Germany and discussions are ongoing with museums in the Netherlands, the UK and the US ahead of the 2015’s commemorations of the end of World War II.

The project’s team is in discussion with several public, charity and commercial organisations to further customise a range of CEEDs systems to their needs. 

Applications discussed are related to a virtual retail store environment in an international airport and the visualisation of soil quality and climate in Africa to assist local farmers in optimising crop yields.

Freeman added: “The system acknowledges when participants are getting fatigued or overloaded with information and it adapts accordingly.

“It either simplifies the visualisations so as to reduce the cognitive load, thus keeping the user less stressed and more able to focus. Alternatively it will guide the person to areas of the data representation that are not as heavy in information.”