Advantages of Building a Remote Data Annotation Team for Your Business
Data annotation also referred to as labeling, is a process in which a data labeling specialist tags various types of data to make it easier for machine learning and AI algorithms to understand and process. The types of data to be labeled may be text, audio, video, images or some other form of data. Data labeling AI datasets requires manually tagging data and is extremely time-consuming.
Although some companies prefer to do data annotation in-house there are some definite advantages to outsourcing the task to a data labeling agency. Benefits of building a remote data annotation team using a data rating and labeling contractor include:
- Higher quality data sets: the quality of data sets is one of the most important factors in machine learning and AI projects. It is the data annotator who determines the accuracy and quality of these data sets. Outsourcing labeling tasks to a remote annotation team gives you access to a large talent pool of skilled specialists with experience labeling data for a variety of industries. They also have experience with a variety of data labeling tools and their expertise will ensure you receive high quality data sets.
- Speed: having a remote annotation team will result in completing data labeling tasks much faster than using an in-house team for the same reason they produce better quality data sets. A skilled and experienced data labeler familiar with the industry can complete data tagging tasks much faster than individuals who have just completed their training.
- Scalability: data labeling for machine learning may require thousands up to millions of labeled training items to be successful. A company might find they have to increase the size of their annotation team on short notice. Remote labeling AI services make scaling up your team fast and easy without having to spend a lot of time hiring and training new staff.
- Cost-effective: the salary for a remote data labeling specialist will typically be less than for one hired locally. You also won’t have to deal with additional associated costs such as additional HR, office space, equipment, paid vacations and other expenses.
- Security: many companies are concerned with data security and data privacy which prevents them from outsourcing labeling tasks. However a reputable data annotation company will have access to different data anonymization tools to ensure data is kept private and meets GDPR compliance.
Types of Data the Specialists We Hire Can Help You with
When it comes to annotation artificial intelligence and machine learning programs deal with a variety of data types. The following are some of the different types of data the labeling specialists we hire can help you with:
Text Annotation
One of the largest fields of AI development is natural language processing (NLP). NLP technologies are made possible by natural language annotation for machine learning. There are a number of ways for annotating text for NLP technologies that our specialists can help you with including entity annotation (named entity recognition (NER), keyphrase tagging, part-of-speech (POS) tagging), entity linking, text classification (document classification, sentiment annotation, product categorization), sentiment annotation and linguistic annotation (part-of-speech (POS) tagging, discourse annotation, semantic annotation, phonetic annotation). We can also assist with machine learning text recognition using OCR (optical character recognition). This involves scanning images of text in different formats and labeling them for AI text recognition.
Audio Labeling
Applications such as speech recognition and chatbots require audio annotation in order to function. An audio labeler hired for you by our company can provide you with a variety of labeling services. These include sound labeling to separate and identify different types of sounds on a recording, speech to text transcription and audio classification. Multi-labeling for overlapping sounds and event tracking are other tasks they can perform.
Video Annotation
The purpose of video annotation is to make the moving objects in a video recognizable to machine learning and AI algorithms. This involves going through a video clip frame by frame with every frame having to be annotated. As there may be anywhere from 24 to 60 frames per 1 second of video this can be a time-consuming process when a clip is several minutes long. A video labeler hired by us will be experienced in a variety of annotation techniques that include 2D bounding boxes, 3D boxes, polygons, landmarks and lines and splines. Our specialists are skilled and experienced in data labeling and classification so you are assured of receiving high-quality and accurate data sets.
Image Labeling
Image annotation involves labeling images for machine learning training so that your machine learning system can learn to recognize the features that are labeled. A photo labeler hired by our company is experienced in various image labeling methods. Some of the types of image annotation they may use depending on your requirements include 2D bounding box, 3D bounding box, polygon annotation, semantic segmentation, landmark, tagging and image masking.
Other Data Labeling Services
Our specialists can provide any type of data labeling you require such as 3D point annotation and data visualization labeling. We have experts for every aspect of data rating & labeling so inquire with us if you don’t see what you need listed.
Data Labeling Services Our Specialists Can Provide
There are a variety of methods for labeling AI training data depending on the specific needs of your project. The following are some of the data annotation services our labeling specialists can provide for your project:
Semantic Segmentation
Semantic image segmentation is a type of image labeling where every pixel in an image has to be linked to a class label. This label could be a person, a car, a tree, a chair or anything else in the image. It is often used in automotive, agriculture, retail, healthcare and other industries. Semantic segmentation treats all objects of the same class as a single entity. It is more complex than many other image labeling techniques and boosts the efficiency of algorithms. As it removes background it also improves accuracy. With increased accuracy and consistency, your machine learning models will perform better.
Data Tagging
Data tagging is the labelization of people and objects located in an image. It allows images to be arranged and sorted quickly and efficiently. This form of image annotation is also useful when you want to access particular images using keywords. Industries, where data tagging is widely used, include e-commerce, retail, advertising and marketing. Tagging is also used in video annotation to assist with AI object recognition in a real-world environment and is useful in tracking the movement of people by labeling a sequence of events for specific actions.
2D/3D Bounding Box
2D bounding box is an image and video annotation technique used to assist machine learning and AI models with detecting and identifying particular objects more easily. A rectangular box is simply drawn around the object of interest that you would like to be recognized. The 2D bounding box technique is used in a variety of industries including robotics, self-driving automobiles, insurance, e-commerce, retail, medical and security among others. It is a popular form of annotation as it tends to be less expensive than other methods and requires less time. 3D bounding box annotation, also known as 3D Cuboid annotation, is similar to 2D and is used in many of the same industries. However the 3D bounding box technique provides more information such as the height, width, length and rotation of objects and is useful for training your models for spatial perception. Basically 3D bounding box annotation creates 3D models from 2D images. This makes it possible to develop algorithms for things such as drones and robots since not only do they need to detect and identify objects but also have to recognize their placement in three-dimensional space.
Landmark Annotation
Landmark annotation is an image and video labeling technique that works by placing key points across an image in order to label different objects within the image. This technique ranges from using single key points to label small individual objects to using multiple points to outline specific details of an object. Some of the common types of images for landmark annotation include bodies, faces and maps as well as other objects. One of the most common uses of landmark annotation is for facial recognition which works by using multiple points to distinguish the details and shapes of unique faces. It is also useful for motion tracking and hand gesture recognition. Industries, where landmark annotation has practical applications, include automotive, healthcare, agriculture, e-commerce, retail and security.
Polygon Annotation
There are times when image annotation requires more accuracy than is available using bounding box techniques. In those cases where it is necessary to label irregularly shaped objects polygon annotation is the best choice. Whereas bounding boxes have a set rectangular shape, polygon annotation permits multiple angles and lines which gives a higher level of precision. As the outline of the object of interest is closely followed there is less noise than when using bounding box techniques. A descriptive label is added once an object has been mapped using a polygon annotation tool. Polygon annotation is often used in autonomous driving applications, agriculture, drones and satellites as well as in industries such as real estate and healthcare.
Other Data Annotation Services
Additional services our specialists can provide include image masking, lines and splines to define boundaries between different parts of an image and video event tracking to label events of interest over a period of time.
Our data annotation specialists are capable of providing any type of labeling service you require.
Reasons to Partner with Our Company and Set up a Dedicated Data Labeling Team
We are a Ukraine-based company that provides data labeling specialists for all types of data annotation projects. Here are a few of the reasons to partner with our company to set up a dedicated labeling team.
- Skilled annotation specialists: we have a large talent pool of skilled data annotation specialists with extensive experience in a variety of industries. Every labeling expert we hire for you is thoroughly vetted by us to verify their qualifications. With their skills and experience you are assured of high quality and accurate data sets for your project.
- Flexibility: no two companies are alike and we will customize a data labeling team for you that meets your specific requirements. We are also aware that those requirements may change on short notice and can quickly and easily scale up your team to meet changing needs as they occur.
- Cost-effective: to begin with, salaries for data annotation specialists in Ukraine are less than in many other countries due to the low cost of living. You will also be eliminating many of the associated costs of an in-house team such as office space, equipment, paid holidays and more as those are managed on our end.
- Multilingual: many of our specialists speak multiple languages in addition to English. French, Spanish, German and Russian are just a few on the languages that can be included in your team if required.
In addition to data labeling, we provide a number of other BPO services including IT support, customer support and online marketing services among others.
How We Work to Find Your Data Labeling Specialist
We have a simple but effective procedure will follow for assembling data labeling teams that consist of the following steps:
- Provide us with your requirements: we talk to you via Skype or telephone to establish the specific requirements of your project.
- Candidate selection: the resumes of the most suitable data annotation specialists matching your requirements will be sent to you.
- Conduct interviews: you conduct interviews of your preferred candidates by Skype or video conference. If you prefer you may administer a test to assist you in your decision.
- Final preparations: we establish a workflow and determine a starting date. Once the service agreement is signed everything is ready to go.