IBM Watson Visual Recognition (discontinued) vs. MATLAB

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM Watson Visual Recognition (discontinued)
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
IBM's Watson Visual Recognition was a machine learning application designed to tag and classify image data, and deployable for a wide variety of purposes. The service was discontinued in early 2021, and is no longer available.N/A
MATLAB
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
MatLab is a predictive analytics and computing platform based on a proprietary programming language. MatLab is used across industry and academia.
$49
per student license
Pricing
IBM Watson Visual Recognition (discontinued)MATLAB
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Student
$49
per student license
Home
$149
perpetual license
Education
$250
per year
Education
$500
perpetual license
Standard
$860
per year
Standard
2,150
perpetual license
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM Watson Visual Recognition (discontinued)MATLAB
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM Watson Visual Recognition (discontinued)MATLAB
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User Ratings
IBM Watson Visual Recognition (discontinued)MATLAB
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Usability
6.0
(0 ratings)
9.9
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM Watson Visual Recognition (discontinued)MATLAB
Likelihood to Recommend
As I mentioned before, it can only be employed in simple basic visual recognition applications. It can be employed in large projects and relying it on completely is not encouraged. It's better to create your own algorithms rather than using it. If you are from a non-programming background, then I may suggest you rely on this and use it to develop simple apps that can predict a few plants and animals.
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Engineering, mathematical modeling, and machine learning are all fields where MATLAB will shine. It's fast, reliable, and relatively easy to use. MATLAB is the de facto standard when it comes to producing high-quality plots. If you need to deal with large data sets, and not take forever processing them, MATLAB may very well be the tool for you!
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Pros
  • Easy to use interface, you can just drag and drop the images in the negative and positive dropboxes to train.
  • It's affordable and there is a free version to test for yourself and check if it's useful for you.
  • Easy to integrate with apps using one single API key and you can train easily with your terminal.
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  • Has robust and easy-to-use debugging tools that can help one identify problems in one's codes.
  • Rich, well-developed and efficient library of mathematical and statistical functions that one might need to develop models or perform statistical analysis.
  • A very active online user community that is a great resource in terms of seeking help when you hit a snag.
  • Great help literature (and sometimes videos too) on all tools making it possible for all to train themselves.
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Cons
  • Documentation sometimes not complete
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  • MATLAB should have a full free version (without time limit) in order to be more accessible and thus have a greater user community.
  • The idea of having toolboxes to work directly with hardware (microcontrollers, single-board computers) is great, but one can tell it isn't updated very frequently and there isn't as much documentation available as with more common resources.
  • Our organization had a lot of trouble getting our network licenses to work properly and there wasn't any local service provider that could help us get it to work faster.
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Usability
I am giving this rating on the basis of its usability in real-time applications and based on the interface to upload negative and positive images to train the AI. But it's not perfect and sometimes its predictions are wrong. On overall usability, it's better if you are planning on working with UI rather than using complex programs and algorithms on your own.
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The best thing about MATLAB is the variety of research and development fields it supports. The reason for this rating is that it is best used for medical images enhancement and signal processing, it is also used for speech to text conversion. This tool server is best when the demand is for machine learning.
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Support Rating
No answers on this topic
The built-in search engine is not as performing as I wish it would be. However, the YouTube channel has a vast library of informative video that can help understanding the software. Also, many other software have a nice bridge into MATLAB, which makes it very versatile. Overall, the support for MATLAB is good.
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Alternatives Considered
No answers on this topic
The commands and coding language of MATLAB reads a lot more in plain English as opposed to all the periods and other special characters that are needed when typing in Python or Java. Additionally MATLAB has several different function packages that can solve all different categories of problems so you don't have to make a bunch of different code scrips from scratch.
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Return on Investment
  • High cost if models are trained
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  • MATLAB has made me a better coder. I can see the code behind inbuilt functions which helps me improve my own coding.
  • The various features offered in the software helped me to understand new topics in a relatively short span of time.
  • MATLAB has a rich forum and library which allows exchange of ideas and info with other users. This has certainly broadened my horizon.
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ScreenShots