What areas of application have become smarter because of big data?

Whether it's Amazon, Pandora, or Netflix, they use data collected and analyzed to understand consumer preferences and provide advice.

This data use is becoming increasingly popular with applications that allow consumers to see how their fitness is different from others, or whether their reproductive model is normal or worrying. There is an application whose users can quickly find out whether he is in Milan or London on vacation cheaper. At the same time, there are applications and Web sites that can make it possible to track the speed at which flu travels in a country and see which communities are most at risk.

What are some of the areas where applications have become smarter because of the use of data? The following types are more pronounced.

Health and fitness applications

Nike's FuelBand, Sony's SmartBand and Jawbone's UP24, and other smart wrist bands or smart bracelets offer large data services that allow users to visually see their diet, exercise and sleep quality, helping them to train more effectively. Help them reach their fitness goals.

Some new applications can also help with more specific health issues, such as infertility. More than 10% of married women aged 15 to 44 in the United States (about 6.7 million women) are unable to conceive within 12 months of marriage, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New applications can collect data from public health services, clinical research and other device users to help women get pregnant without unnecessary medication.

The application fertility Tracker, developed by the Kindara company in Colorado State, USA, requires women to record and provide information about their menstrual cycle, body temperature, fitness activities, vitamins, emotions and more. It could analyse the data and identify the woman's peak day of childbirth. It also tells users if their health is normal.

William Sacks, co-founder and chief executive of Kindara Inc., said more than 300,000 users had downloaded since fertility tracker was launched at the end of 2012.

Tourism applications

Tourism in the early days of the internet used large data, consumers can be in thousands of different flights and hotels to choose, and can book online.

Now there are some new tourism applications based on mobile devices that make it easier for consumers to compare prices and make the best choices. For example, the Skyscanner company in Edinburgh, UK, has developed a mobile application Skyscanner that can display all the tourism trade listings on the web and classify them by price, time, or airline, so that visitors do not have to log on to multiple sites for booking.

Garreth Williams, president of Skyscanner, said Skyscanner collects information from more than 300 airlines, travel agencies and timetables and lists them in a straightforward form. Skyscanner uses computer algorithms to keep prices rolling and can make forecasts for a given market.

For more detailed information on individual flights, there are also related applications that can help. Routehappy, based in New York, collects data on travel-related news, blogs and web sites, compiling information such as seat widths, number of outlets, wireless network connections, and other facilities availability. (John Walton, director of Routehappy Data division, said economic class passengers could expect to have a seating width of 16.5 inches to 19.7 inches on flights around the world, and about 5% of U.S. flights have power outlets.) ）

A new mobile app called Cellcontrol can even help users learn driving skills. This application was developed by the Obdedge company in Louisiana, USA. This application needs to be used in conjunction with a sensor mounted on the windshield of the car. The sensor is used to determine whether the vehicle is moving, its speed, and the driver's braking and acceleration are appropriate. Cellcontrol collects and analyzes publicly available data to inform drivers whether they have violated local laws regarding the use of mobile phones in automobiles.

Shopping application

Special offer searchers can now use large data based applications to compare stores, track prices, and find coupons on shopping sites.

Such new shopping apps include RetailMeNot company development applications that collect a large amount of coupon information and, depending on geographic information, remind users whether there are any items in the vicinity that the user has already collected that can be bought at a discounted price.

Another shopping application Poachit can help users verify the availability of promotional codes and coupons. It also allows users to keep track of the prices of the items they want to buy and to remind them when prices fall.

Poachit, chief executive and founder of Gidi Fisher, said his company's use of large data solved a frustration among online shoppers: The coupons listed on popular sites have often expired, and helping users validate them can save users a lot of time.

Citizen's Life Application

Governments are the collectors of big data. Now, many institutions are putting more information into the hands of citizens.

Data.gov was a website established by the United States government in 2009. The site can see previously locked information in the database: More than 88,000 data sets from 175 agencies, including local crime statistics, the rate of influenza transmission in the United States, the wholesale price of organic food and so on. The site also provides a simple way for developers to display data on drug and drug recalls.

There is an application called Neighborland, designed to help social groups and government departments work well together. The app brings together data from sources such as Twitter, Google (Weibo) maps and Instagram, for example, to collect photos, data and APIs about real estate projects, including traffic systems and "311" complaints about noise and garbage nuisance.

In 2012, the New Orleans Food Truck Alliance (NEW Orleans Food Truck Coalition) used Neighborland to collect advice from community residents to identify "food deserts"-communities lacking food and healthy food. They found that if members of the Union were allowed to work in more communities, New Orleans's economy and residents ' health would benefit.

The New Orleans Parliament passed a decree last July to increase the authority for urban itinerant vendors, expand the range of mobile vendors ' services and extend the statutory working hours of food trucks.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)