The Mostly Complete Chart of Neural Networks

The Mostly Complete Chart of Neural Networks by the team at the Asimov Institute. 

With new neural network architectures popping up every now and then, it’s hard to keep track of them all. Knowing all the abbreviations being thrown around (DCIGN, BiLSTM, DCGAN, anyone?) can be a bit overwhelming at first.

So I decided to compose a cheat sheet containing many of those architectures. Most of these are neural networks, some are completely different beasts. Though all of these architectures are presented as novel and unique, when I drew the node structures… their underlying relations started to make more sense.

One problem with drawing them as node maps: it doesn’t really show how they’re used. For example, variational autoencoders (VAE) may look just like autoencoders (AE), but the training process is actually quite different. The use-cases for trained networks differ even more, because VAEs are generators, where you insert noise to get a new sample. AEs, simply map whatever they get as input to the closest training sample they “remember”. I should add that this overview is in no way clarifying how each of the different node types work internally (but that’s a topic for another day).

Composing a complete list is practically impossible, as new architectures are invented all the time. Even if published it can still be quite challenging to find them even if you’re looking for them, or sometimes you just overlook some. So while this list may provide you with some insights into the world of AI, please, by no means take this list for being comprehensive; especially if you read this post long after it was written.

High-res poster image version is also available.

Mapping the Disciplines of User Experience Design

Mapping the Disciplines of User Experience Design is an uber-complex Venn Diagram. The original concept by Dan Saffer at KickerStudio was given a clean DataViz overhaul by Thomas Gläser who was with envis precisely at the time.

An infographic approach to visualize all players of the interactive field

. It shows the different areas and how they connect and overlap.

The diagram is based on the work of Dan Saffer

It's a couple years old, but all of the files were published on Github under Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-ShareAlike so anyone can Adpapt or Improve the design going froward.

You can see the original concept from Dan Shaffer here:

Found on FastCoDesign

Introduction to Software for Magazine Design

If you are interested in publishing a magazine, the Magazine Software for Design infographic from Maghub is a good tool to help you get started. The infographic tells you the difference between vector and pixel artwork, and then recommends some programs to use in your process.

Magazine publishing software can be confusing. This infographic will help you understand what to be looking for when choosing software for magazine design.

Quick read, with all the basics you need to get started. Just like a good infographic should be. For some reason they broke the infographic into 3 separate sections as separate JPG images. This makes it MUCH harder for readers to share!

Thanks to Aaron for sending in the link!

Animal Migrations In Motion

Animal Migrations In Motion is a fantastic animated & interactive data visualization of the predicted migration patterns of almost 3,000 species in North and South America as our climate changes.

As climate change alters 
habitats and disrupts ecosystems, where will
 animals move to survive?
 And will human development prevent them from getting there?

This map shows the average direction mammals, birds, and amphibians need to move to track hospitable climates as they shift across the landscape.

Researchers from University of Washington and The Nature Conservancy modeled potential habitat for 2954 species using climate change projections and the climatic needs of each species.

This map was created by Dan Majka, who works for The Nature Conservancy's North America Region science team.

This visualization would not have been possible without the incredible prior work of the hint.fm wind map, cambecc's earth wind map, and Chris Helm's adaptation of cambecc's code.

It's mesmerising to watch! Just like some of the prior designs that inspired this one listed above. It's interactive, so you can move and zoom the part of the map being shown.

The description does leave a few unanswered questions. For instance:

• What time period is being shown here?
• What predicted climate changes and assumptions are being used?
• What species are shown and how were they chosen?

Found on FlowingData!

Examining the Real Cost of Donald Trump's Wall

Real Money has done the math and shared their findings in the infographic Examining the Real Cost of Donald Trump's Wall, designed by DesignBySoap. It appears that the actual cost of the wall would end up being 2-3 times more expensive than the publicly released estimate. Luckily, even many of his supporters do not believe he will build the wall. You can see the details of Trump's plan, as well as some statistics on how Americans feel about it in the infographic above.

Thanks to John for sending in the infographic!

The Right Wine in the Right Kind of Glass

Just like how specific wines bring out the best flavors in certain foods, specific wine glasses bring out the best characteristics of each wine. The Right Wine in the Right Kind of Glass infographic from Wine Coolers starts off by showing us some general characteristic differences between red and white wine glasses, then shows us the correct wine glass to pair with each wine.

Have you ever wondered why there are different kinds of wine glasses? This article will illuminate the reason for different sizes and differently shaped wine glasses and help you smell the rich aroma of the right kind of wine enjoyed out of the right kind of glass for that wine.

Each type of wine has its own characteristics that stimulate the senses. These characteristics differentiate them from other wines. Every wine should be served in the most appropriate wine glass that will effectively enhance our reception of its unique characteristics.

Wine glasses come in a variety of shapes, and like wines, they too have different characteristics or features that make them different. Some wine glasses are made specifically for wines that come from specific types of grapes, or from certain regions. A wine glass’ shape is designed to bring out the best in the wine that it’s made for. So certain wine glasses can really affect the flavor of specific kinds of wines.

You can read more details about which wine to pair with each glass at http://winecoolers.reviews.

Thanks to Kathrin for sending in the link!

Strata-Hadoop World NYC Conference Pass Giveaway & Discount

The O'Reilly Strata+Hadoop World conference is coming up September 26-29 in New York City, NY!

First, I have a discount code from O'Reilly that will get you 20% OFF the registration cost!  Click THIS LINK and use the code PCCOOL during checkout to get the 20% discount.

Second, this month's giveaway is one free pass to the Strata+Hadoop World NYC conference! Register on the GIVEAWAYS page before 11:59pm CT on September 2, 2016 to be entered. I will randomly chose a winner on September 3rd.

Customizing 360 Photos - I Need Your Votes

I NEED YOUR VOTES!

SxSW 2017 PanelPicker is open until September 2nd, and this is the community voting portion of the SxSW conference. This is a big part of getting accepted to speak at SxSW, and I need your votes to help support two proposals. My talks proposed for the 2017 conference relate to editing and publishing 360° photos with data visualizations and graphic elements for digital marketing. This is a new content format that can also take advantage of data visualizations and infographics!

Now that Facebook natively displays immersive 360° photos, you can use 360 photography to promote your product, service, and/or brand. However, just publishing raw images is already behind the curve. In this presentation I will teach you how to embrace this technology and harness its reach. You will learn how to inject your brand, call outs, data visualizations and graphic elements to make your 360 photos a full experience for your audience. This presentation will also cover how to optimize a 360 image file, adjust the metadata, demonstrate different editing tools, and help your brand take its marketing to the next level.

You'll need to sign in or create an account to vote. Here's the Login Page

Optimizing 360 Photos for Marketing Your Brand is my Solo talk proposal

Customizing 360 Photos for Digital Marketing is my Workshop proposal

You can help in three ways:

1. Click the links above and vote for my proposal.
2. Leave a positive comment about the talk or your experience with me.
3. Share this proposal on your social pages using the buttons from the SXSW website.

Below you can see a sample edited 360° image embedded here. This example image shows the potential for branding, callouts, data visualziations and other graphic elements that can be added before a company publishes a 360° photo. For example, the white square represents the original view when posted onto Facebook. 

Demonstration of adding graphics to Bedford Boys Ranch Pokemon GO Event 360 photo - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

You can also see the original 360° photo here, before any of the graphic elements were added.

The Fastest Men in the Olympics Since 1896

To put Usain Bolt's 3rd consecutive Olympic Gold Medal for the 100m dash into perspective, the NY Times designed this great graphic showing Usain Bolt and the Fastest Men in the World Since 1896 – on the Same Track.

Usain Bolt’s historic third consecutive gold medal in the men’s 100-meter dash cemented his status as history’s greatest sprinter and the world’s fastest man. He edged out Justin Gatlin, an American, and Andre De Grasse, a Canadian, on his way to the gold.

But how does Bolt compare to the full Olympic field in the 100-meter dash – not just this year, but against every Olympic medalist since 1896? To answer that question, we created a massive (and imaginary) track with 88 lanes – one for every medal awarded in the 100-meter dash in the modern Olympics.

We then pitted these runners against each other in an imaginary race, using their average speeds. We froze all the runners at the moment the winner crossed the finish line.

This is an update to the same graphic they created in 2012 when he broke his own World Record. The 2012 piece also included this great infographic video explaining the significance of his win:

Found on FlowingData

Animated and Interactive Global Shipping Visualization

This is a fantastic detailed animated and interactive data visualization of the world's Global Shipping Traffic.

You can see movements of the global merchant fleet over the course of 2012, overlaid on a bathymetric map. You can also see a few statistics such as a counter for emitted CO2 (in thousand tonnes) and maximum freight carried by represented vessels (varying units).

The merchant fleet is divided into five categories, each of which has a filter and a CO2 and freight counter for the hour shown on the clock. The ship types and units are as follows:

• Container (e.g. manufactured goods): number of container slots equivalent to 20 feet (i.e. a 40-foot container takes two slots)
• Dry bulk (e.g. coal, aggregates): combined weight of cargo, fuel, water, provisions, passengers and crew a vessel can carry, measured in thousand tonnes
• Tanker (e.g. oil, chemicals): same as dry bulk
• Gas bulk (e.g. liquified natural gas): capacity for gases, measured in cubic metres
• Vehicles (e.g. cars): same as dry bulk

The map was created by Kiln based on data from the UCL Energy Institute (UCL EI)

You can hide the route lines and just watch the ship dots move over time. It's mezmerizing!

Thanks to Jim Hopkinson and Bill Gates for sharing on Twitter!

You can see the interactive version embedded here, or click here to take you to the full-size original site:

Created by London-based data visualisation studio Kiln and the UCL Energy Institute