Cognition Technology Inc, Billerica, Massachusetts has a new neural network program for the Macintosh, Microbytes Daily reports. Combining a neural network simulation with an expert system tool, the NeuroSmarts program is intended to facilitate the embedding of a neural net into an expert system. The knowledge base and the neural net can work ei-ther serially or in parallel, so that decisions are made only if both concur on an answer, a process that Cognition says can significantly increase accuracy. By simulating a neural network, NeuroSmarts allows for automatic identification of patterns for such applications as image recognition, medical diagnosis, and fault diagnosis, and, according to Cognition, is designed for users without an extensive knowledge of neural nets. NeuroSmarts will work with several common database and spreadsheet formats, including Excel, Lotus, dBase, ASCII, and native file formats such as those of 4th Dimension. The program includes preprocessing functions that can be applied to a training set to cut down on training time, while context-sensitive help and a neural net advisor are available online to help develop and validate a neural network. The program can create rule-based expert systems with forward and backward chaining and can handle up to 4,000 rules per knowledge base. A SYLK interface enables NeuroSmarts to act as an inference server on a TOPS or other Mac local network and enables the user to link rules and ad-vice to databases and spreadsheets, HyperCard stacks, MacPaint and PICT images, and text files. The program requires a Mac Plus or larger with at least 1Mb of memory, and a hard disk with at least 20Mb is strongly recommended. NeuroSmarts is to ship by yearend at $1,000.
