The Best Data Collection Tools for Machine Learning
Data collection is the single most important step in solving any machine learning problem. As such, teams that dive head first into projects without considering the right data collection process often don’t get the results they want. Fortunately, there are many data collection tools to help prepare training datasets quickly and at scale.
The best data collection tools are easy to use, support a range of functionalities and file types, and preserve the overall integrity of data. In this article, we outline the best data collection tools for machine learning projects.
The first obstacle for many data science projects is obtaining raw data. For more on how to obtain raw data for machine learning, check out our article on the topic.
Listed below are tools that enable users to quickly source large volumes of raw data.
Web scraping describes the automated, programmatic use of an application to extract data or perform actions that users would usually perform manually, such as social media posts or images. The following companies offer an tools to extract data from the web:
Synthetic data can also be programmatically generated to obtain large sample sizes of data. This data can then be used to train neural networks. Below are a few tools for generating synthetic datasets:
Most algorithms require data to be formatted in a very specific way. As such, datasets usually require some amount of preparation before they can yield useful insights. After you’ve collected enough raw data, you’ll still need to preprocess it before it’s useful for training a model. In addition to a data collection platform, the following companies also provide data labeling services:
Lionbridge AI provides an open platform for users to design and manage their own data collection projects. With over 20 years of hands-on experience creating custom data for the world’s largest technology companies, Lionbridge AI has built the most intuitive data collection platform on the market. The tool works for all major file types, with unique features to handle text, audio, image & video data.
