Southampton, Hampshire-based Neural Computer Sciences has launched NeuFrame 1.10, a 32-bit version of its graphical data analysis and modelling tool designed to enable developers with a minimum of neural network expertise to embed intelligence technologies such as neural networks into applications. The company’s first neural network for Windows product, NeuDesk, was launched in 1991. The new NeuFrame 1.10 has been written from the bottom up using C++, as a true 32-bit fully object-oriented system, and exploits Windows95’s object linking environment to enable neural networks to be embedded into Excel spreadsheets and other Visual Basic applications. Gordon Snook of Neural Computer Sciences said that NeuDesk 1.10 is a tool for both the neural computing newcomer and the more experienced user alike. He added that it is a general purpose package that need not be specific to any particular market, although the company is particularly targetting the industrial, scientific and medical sectors. For the newcomer, the package offers templates, with default neural networks already set up and scaled. Users simply import their data and press Play to run the network. The help facility will take users through problems with training the network, and suggest how to deal with problems. For the more experienced user, a data sheet object enables encoding and scaling of the network, and the user can see the whole flow of data from input to output. This, says Snook, gives greater design flexibility, and enables the developer to break complex problems into different networks by adding new networks, and to vary data sets. Another feature of NeuFrame 1.0 is its text encoding facility. Neural networks operate on numbers, but NeuFrame’s text-encoding objects enable character data, such as M/F for male/female, to be converted into numbers for use in the network. The company says this opens up the processing of non-numeric information in areas such as market research or database mining. Version 1.10 also supports the import of text files from 1-2-3, and from Neural Computer Sciences’ NeuDesk product, enabling existing users to upgrade to NeuFrame. While the Windows95 Object Linking & Embedding enables simple embedding of neural nets into Windows applications, the company says it will work with developers wishing to embed the networks into other environments. NeuFrame 1.10 will run on a Pentium or 80486-based personal computer, under Windows95, Windows NT or Windows 3.X, and costs ú750.
