INDUSTRIAL TRAINING REPORT

A report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Award

of Degree of

BACHELOR OF TECHONOLOGY
COMPUTER SCIENCE ENGINEERING

by
Name: ALISHA
Roll No: 19013001

INTERNSHIP REPORT

ON
DATA LABELLING
(SCIFFER ANALYTICS PRIVATELTD.)

BPS Mahila Viswavidlaya, Khanpur Kalan Sonipat-Haryana-131305

DEC,2022
CERTIFICATE
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is my pleasure to be indebted to various people, who directly or

indirectly helped me to persue this internship and who influenced my
thinking, behavior and acts during study.
I express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Ajit Singh (Head of Department
of Computer Science Engineering & Information technology) for
providing me an opportunity to undergo summer training. I am
thankful to Ms. Rupali Kesarwani (Director at Sciffer Analytics Pvt.
Ltd.) and Ms. Nikita Sharma (HR Manager at Sciffer Analytics Pvt.
Ltd.) for their support and cooperation provided to me during the
summer training.
I also extend my sincere appreciation to my team leader Mr. Bakul
Prajapati who provided his valuable suggestions and precious time
for helping me out in completing my internship. I perceive this
opportunity as a big milestone in my career development. I will strive
to use gained skills and knowledge in the best viable way, and I will
continue to work on their improvement, to attain desired career
objectives. Hope to continue cooperation with all of you in the future.

ALISHA
19013001
B.TECH CSE(7TH SEM)
 ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION

Sciffer Analytics Private Limited is an unlisted private company incorporated on

04 March, 2016. It is classified as a private limited company and is located in
Thane, Maharashtra. It's authorized share capital is INR 1.00 lac and the total
paid-up capital is INR 1.00 lac.
The current status of Sciffer Analytics Private Limited is - Active.
The last reported AGM (Annual General Meeting) of Sciffer Analytics Private
Limited, per our records, was held on 30 November, 2021. Also, as per our
records, its last balance sheet was prepared for the period ending on 31 March,
2021.
Sciffer Analytics Private Limited has two directors - Karan Rameshkumar
Kabra and Chandni Priya.
The Corporate Identification Number (CIN) of Sciffer Analytics Private Limited
is U72200MH2016PTC273880. The registered office of Sciffer Analytics Private
Limited is at FLAT NO 192, 19TH FLR, SHARMISHTA TARANGAN
COMPLEX S M P ROAD, BH CADBURY,, THANE WEST, Thane,
Maharashtra.
Hence data is exactly what makes the core of company operations. Their
products relay this belief, and use data science and content analytics for
increased productivity and proficiency.

 Computer vision
 Machine learning
 Collaborative model
 Audio and speech analytics
 Mixed integer programming based optimizer
 ABSTRACT

This report describes the work I have done as part of my Internship

program and the internship I have enrolled named DATA
LABELLING in a company name SCIFFER ANALYTICS PRIVATE
LIMITED, Thane west, Maharashtra. I also present an in-depth
analysis of the strengths and weaknesses as well as threats and
opportunities faced by me as identified throughout the journey. The
first task of this training was to learn a technology/language which
will help in my career, and I learn Python and data labelling. After
that I have done many tasks assigned to me during the internship by
my team leader and successfully completed my internship and earned
a certificate. I have mentioned the topics learnt during my Training.
Apart from the above-mentioned topics I leant Office Work Skill such
as Team Work, Report Writing, Knowing Products and Service
 Internship Learning objectives

➢ Internships are generally thought of to be reserved for college

students looking to gain experience in a particular field. However, a
wide array of people can benefit from Training Internships in order to
receive real world experience and develop their skills.

➢ An objective for this position should emphasize the skills you

already possess in the area and your interest in learning more.

➢ Internships are utilized in a number of different career fields,

including architecture, Engineering, healthcare, economics, advertising
and many more.

➢ Some internship is used to allow individuals to perform scientific

research while others are specifically designed to allow people to gain
first-hand experience working.

Utilizing internships is a great way to build your resume and develop

skills that can be emphasized in your resume for future jobs. When you
are applying for a Training Internship, make
sure to highlight any special skills or talents that can make you stand
apart from the rest of the applicants so that you have an improved
chance of landing the position.
 TABLE OF CONTENT

 What is Data Labelling?

 Labelled data vs Unlabelled data
 What it is used for?
 How does data labelling work?
 Data collection
 Data tagging
 Quality Assurance
 Model Training
 Common types of Data labelling
 Data Labelling Approaches
 Data Labelling Tool
 Types of data lsabelling tool
 Benefits and challenges of data labelling
 Best Practices for data labelling
 What should we look for while choosing Data Labelling
 Conclusion
 INTRODUCTION

What is data labelling?

Data labeling is the task of identifying objects in raw data, such
as image, video, text, or lidar, and tagging them with labels that help your machine
learning model make accurate predictions and estimations. Now, identifying objects
in raw data sounds all sweet and easy in theory. In practice, it is more about using
the right annotation tools to outline objects of interest extremely carefully, leaving as
little room for error as possible. That for a dataset of thousands of items.

Labelled data vs. unlabelled data

Computers use labeled and unlabeled data to train ML models, but what is the
difference?

 Labeled data is used in supervised learning, whereas unlabeled data is used

in unsupervised learning .
 Labeled data is more difficult to acquire and store (i.e. time consuming and
expensive), whereas unlabeled data is easier to acquire and store.
 Labeled data can be used to determine actionable insights (e.g. forecasting
tasks), whereas unlabeled data is more limited in its usefulness.
Unsupervised learning methods can help discover new clusters of data,
allowing for new categorizations when labeling.

Computers can also use combined data for semi-supervised learning, which reduces
the need for manually labeled data while providing a large annotated dataset.

What is it used for?

Labeled datasets are especially pivotal to supervised learning models, where they
help a model to really process and understand the input data. Once the patterns in
data are analyzed, the predictions either match the objective of your model or don’t.
And this is where you define whether your model needs further tuning and testing.
Data annotation, when fed into the model and applied for training, can
help autonomous vehicles stop at pedestrian crossings, digital assistants recognize
voices, security cameras detect suspicious behavior, and so much more. If you want
to learn more about use cases for labeling, check out our post on the real-life use
cases of image annotation.
How does data labelling work?
In the meantime, here's a walkthrough of specific steps involved in the data labeling
process:

Data collection

It all starts with getting the right amount and variety of data that suffice with your
model requirements. And there are several ways you could go here:
Manual data collection:
A large and diverse amount of data guarantees more accurate results compared to a
small amount of data. One real-world example is Tesla collecting large amounts of
data from its vehicle owners. Though using a human resource for data assembly is
not technically feasible for all use cases.
For instance, if you’re developing an NLP model and need reviews of multiple
products from multiple channels/sources as data samples, it might take you days to
find and access the information you need. In this case, it will make more sense to use
a web scraping tool, which can help in automatically finding, collecting, and
updating the information for you.
Open-source datasets:
An alternative option is using open-source datasets. The latter can enable you to
perform training and data analysis at scale. Accessibility and cost-effectiveness are
among the two primary reasons why specialists may opt for open-source datasets.
Besides, incorporating an open-source dataset is a great way for smaller companies
to really capitalize on what is already in reserve for large-sized organizations.
With this in mind, beware that with open-source, your data can be prone to
vulnerability: there’s the risk of the incorrect use of data or potential gaps that will
affect your model performance in the end result. So, it all comes down to identifying
the value open-source brings to your model and calculating tradeoffs to undertake
the ready-made dataset.
Synthetic data generation:
Synthetic data/datasets are both a blessing and a curse, as they can be controlled in
simulated environments by creators. And they are not as costly as they may seem at
the outset. The primary costs associated with synthetic data are the initial simulation
expenses for the most part. Synthetic datasets are commonplace across two broad
categories, computer vision and tabular data (e.q., healthcare and security data).
Autonomous driving companies often happen to be at the forefront of synthetic data
generation consumption, as they come to deal with invisible or occluded objects
more often. Hence, the need for a faster way to recreate data featuring objects that
real-life scenario datasets miss.

Other advantages of using open-source datasets include boundless scalability and the
cover-up for edge cases, where the manual collection would be dangerous (given the
possibility of always generating more data vs. aggregating manually).

Data tagging

Once you have your raw (unlabeled) data up and ready, it’s time to give your objects
a tag. Data tagging consists of human labelers identifying elements in unlabeled data
using a data labeling platform. They can be asked to determine whether an image
contains a person or not or to track a ball in a video. And for all these tasks, the end
result serves as a training dataset for your model.
Now, at this point, you’re probably having concerns about your data security. And
indeed, security is a major concern, especially if you’re dealing with a sensitive
project. To address your deepest concerns about safety, SuperAnnotate complies
with industry regulations.
Bonus: With SuperAnnotate, you’re keeping your data on-premise, which provides
greater control and privacy, as no sensitive information is shared with third parties.
You can connect our platform with any data source, allowing multiple people to
collaborate and create the most accurate annotations in no time. You can also
whitelist IP addresses, adding extra protection to your dataset. Learn how to set it up.

Quality assurance

Your labeled data must be informative and accurate to create top-performing

machine learning models. So, having a quality assurance (QA) in place to check the
accuracy of your labeled data goes a long way. By improving the instruction flow for
the QA, you can significantly improve the QA efficiency, eliminating any possible
ambiguity in the data labeling process.
Some of the things to keep in mind is that locations and cultures matter when it
comes to perceiving objects/text that is subject to annotation. So, if you have a
remote international team of annotators, make sure they’ve undergone proper
training to establish consistency in contextualizing and understanding project
guidelines.
QA training can end up being a long-term investment and pay off in the long run.
Though training only might not ensure consistent quality in delivery for all use
cases. That’s where live QA steps to the fore, as it helps detect and prevent potential
errors right on the spot and level up productivity levels for data labeling tasks.

Model training

To train an ML model, you have to feed the machine learning algorithm with labeled
data that contains the correct answer. With your newly trained model, you can make
accurate predictions on a new set of data. However, there are a number of questions
to ask yourself before and after training to provide prediction/output accuracy:
1) Do I have enough data?
2) Do I get the expected outcomes?
3) How do I monitor and evaluate the model’s performance?
4) What is the ground truth?
5) How do I know if the model misses anything?
6) How do I find these cases?
7) Should I use active learning to find better samples?
8) Which ones should I pick out to label again?
9) How do I decide if the model is successful in the end?

Common types of data labeling

Computer vision

By using high-quality training data (such as image, video, lidar, and DICOM) and
covering intersections of machine learning and AI, computer vision models cover a
wide range of tasks. That includes object detection, image classification, face
recognition, visual relationship detection, instance and semantic segmentation, and
much more.
However, data labeling for computer vision has its own nuances when compared to
that of NLP. The common differences between data labeling for computer vision vs.
NLP mostly pertain to the applied annotation techniques. In computer vision
applications, for example, you will encounter polygons, polylines, semantic and
instance segmentation, which are not typical for NLP.

Natural language processing (NLP)

Now, NLP is where computational linguistics, machine learning, and deep learning
meet to easily extract insights from textual data. Data labeling for NLP is a bit
different in that here, you’re either adding a tag to the file or using bounding
boxes to outline the part of the text you intend to label (you can typically annotate
files in pdf, txt, html formats). There are different approaches to data labeling for
NLP, often broken down into syntactic and semantic groups. More on that in our
post.

Data labeling approaches

Data labeling is a critical step in developing a high-performance ML model. Though

labeling appears simple, it’s not always easy to implement. As a result, companies
must consider multiple factors and methods to determine the best approach to
labeling. Since each data labeling method has its pros and cons, a detailed
assessment of task complexity, as well as the size, scope and duration of the project
is advised.

Here are some paths to labeling your data:

 Internal labeling - Using in-house data science experts simplifies tracking,

provides greater accuracy, and increases quality. However, this approach
typically requires more time and favors large companies with extensive
resources.
 Synthetic labeling - This approach generates new project data from pre-
existing datasets, which enhances data quality and time efficiency. However,
synthetic labeling requires extensive computing power, which can increase
pricing.
 Programmatic labeling - This automated data labeling process uses scripts
to reduce time consumption and the need for human annotation. However,
 the possibility of technical problems requires HITL to remain a part of the
quality assurance (QA) process.
 Outsourcing - This can be an optimal choice for high-level temporary
projects, but developing and managing a freelance-oriented workflow can
also be time-consuming. Though freelancing platforms provide
comprehensive candidate information to ease the vetting process, hiring
managed data labeling teams provides pre-vetted staff and pre-built data
labeling tools.
 Crowdsourcing - This approach is quicker and more cost-effective due to its
micro-tasking capability and web-based distribution. However, worker
quality, QA, and project management vary across crowdsourcing platforms.
One of the most famous examples of crowdsourced data labeling is
Recaptcha. This project was two-fold in that it controlled for bots while
simultaneously improving data annotation of images. For example, a
Recaptcha prompt would ask a user to identify all the photos containing a car
to prove that they were human, and then this program could check itself
based on the results of other users. The input of from these users provided a
database of labels for an array of images.

Data Labeling Tool

A data labeling tool is software that can find raw data in image, text, and audio
formats and help data analysts label data according to specific techniques such as
bounding box, landmarking, polyline, named entity recognition, etc. to prepare high-
quality data for ML model training.

Why are data labeling tools important?

Today’s businesses rely on AI/ML-driven decisions to make profits. Labeling data is

one of the most important steps in training ML models. McKinsey argues data
labeling is the biggest challenge in building effective ML models. As mentioned
earlier, businesses need a software program that specializes in data labeling.

To make successful predictions, ML models need high-quality data. The training

process for ML models is no different from the growth of a child. Children learn the
environment in which they live using labels assigned as categories by their parents:
Cats, dogs, birds, etc. After receiving a certain amount of labeled data, children start
to recognize birds without the help of their parents and make some successful
predictions. Supervised ML models are trained in a similar manner.

For example, high-performance healthcare computer vision systems are dependent

on high-quality medical data annotation. Due to the poor quality of the labeled data,
if a medical vision system makes a wrong analysis of an MRI report, the
consequences can be dire.

You can also check our data-driven list of medical data annotation tools to find the
option that best suits your business needs.

What are the categories of data labeling tools?

We can categorize data labeling tools into two main groups:

 Price-based categorization: Firms can develop their own software program

for data labeling. There are also software services offered by third parties. It is
possible to divide such tools into two categories: Open source and Closed
source. Open source tools are free, while proprietary tools have fees.
Nonetheless, both strategies offer a more cost-effective alternative compared
to developing your own enterprise data labeling software.
 Function-based categorization: It is important to determine the type of ML
model you want to train for your business purposes in order to select the right
data labeling tool. For example, if you are training a chatbot to increase
customer service efficiency, a data labeling tool specialized in image
annotation would not be useful. Consequently, training computer vision, NLP,
and audio-based ML models require different data labeling tools.

Price based categorization

In-house

It is possible to create an in-house software program to ensure the efficiency of the

data labeling process. However, this is a costly and slow process. Creating your own
software requires effort, a highly skilled engineering team, and time. Obviously,
these are rare sources that are only available to a limited number of companies. The
advantage of in-house data labeling tools is that they provide greater data
security because the data is never sent outside the organization. Thus, it might be the
best strategy for a company if it has highly personalized data.
Open-source

Open source data labeling platforms allow companies to customize existing data
tagging solutions without having to develop software from scratch. They are
completely free, and since the code is available to anyone, it can be modified to meet
the needs of the business.

Closed source

Closed source data labeling software is another cost-friendly option compared to in-
house. The difference between closed and open-source software is that you need to
purchase a key license to use the service. Even though there is an annual cost for the
closed source data labeling software, the team behind the tool will help you set it up
and use it for your business. They are also responsible for any necessary updates.
Therefore, less IT staff is needed in your company than with open-source software.

Function-based categorization
Data labeling for computer vision training

Image annotation is the process behind the training of computer vision models.
Annotated image data powers ML applications like self-driving cars, ML-guided
disease detection, autonomous vehicles, and so on. There are tools that specialize in
image annotation.
Data labeling for NLP training

Text annotation is the process behind training NLP models. NLP models help
organizations derive the meanings behind text data and interpret it for their own
benefit. There are tools that specialize in-text annotation.

Data labeling for time series

Many ML models require proper annotation of time series data to function

effectively. For example, sensors can be better trained if the conditions that force
them to turn off are clearly annotated.

Data labeling for speech recognition

Audio annotation is the process underlying the training of speech reconstruction

models. Speech recognition improves the customer service processes of companies.
There are tools that specialize in audio annotation.

TYPES OF DATA LABELLING TOOLS

1) Amazon SageMaker Ground Truth

Amazon SageMaker Ground Truth is a state-of-the-art automatic data labeling
service from Amazon. This tool offers a fully managed data labeling service that
simplifies the implementation of datasets for machine learning.
With Ground Truth, you can build highly accurate training datasets with ease.
There’s a custom built-in workflow through which you can label your data within
minutes, with high accuracy. The tool provides support for different types of labeling
output such as text, images, video, and 3D cloud points.
The labeling features such as automatic 3D cuboid snapping, removal of distortion in
2D images, and auto-segment tools make the labeling process easy and optimized.
They greatly reduce the time needed to label the dataset.
Throughout the process, you will:

 Enter raw data into Amazon S3.

 Create automatic labeling tasks using built-in custom workflow.
 Make accurate selection from a group of labelers.
 Label with assistive labeling feature
 Generate accurate training datasets.
 The major benefits of Ground Truth are:
 It’s automatic and easy to use.
 It improves data labeling accuracy.
 It greatly reduces the time with its labeling features.

2) Label Studio
Label Studio is a web application platform with a data labeling service, and
exploration for multiple data types. It’s built using a combination of React and MST
as the frontend, and Python as the backend.
It offers data labeling for every possible data type: text, images, video, audio, time
series, multi-domain data types, etc. Resulting datasets have high accuracy, and can
easily be used in ML applications. The tool is accessible from any browser. It’s
distributed as precompiled js/CSS scripts that run on every browser. There’s also a
feature to embed Label Studio UI into your applications.
In order to perform accurate labeling and create optimized datasets, this tool:
Takes in data from various APIs, files, Web UI, audio URL, HTML markup, etc.
Pipelines the data to a labeling configuration that has three major sub-processes:
Task that takes in data of different types from various sources.
The completion process provides the result of labeling in JSON format.
The prediction process provides optional labeling results in JSON format.
The machine learning backend adds the popular and efficient ML frameworks to
create accurate datasets automatically.
The benefits are:
Supports labeling of data of different types.
Easy to use and automatic.
Accessible in any web browser and also can be embedded in personal applications.
Generates high-level dataset with precise labeling workflow.

3) Sloth
Sloth is an open-source data labeling tool mainly built for labeling image and video
data for computer vision research. It offers dynamic tools for data labeling in
computer vision.
This tool can be considered as a framework, or a set of standard components to
quickly configure a label tool specifically tailored to your needs. Sloth lets you write
your own custom configurations, or use default configurations to label the data.
It lets you write and factorize your own visualisation items. You can handle the
complete process from installation to labeling, and creating properly documented
visualization datasets. Sloth is pretty easy to use.
The benefits are:
It simplifies image and video data labeling.
Specialized tool to create accurate datasets for computer vision.
You can customize default configurations to create your own labeling workflow.

4) Labelbox

LabelBox is a popular data labeling tool that offers an iterate workflow process for
accurate data labeling and creating optimized datasets. The platform interface
provides a collaborative environment for machine learning teams, so that they can
communicate and devise datasets easily and efficiently. The tool offers a command
center to control and perform data labeling, data management, and data analysis
tasks.
The overall process involves:
Management of external labeling service, workforce and machine labels.
Optimization for different data types.
Analytical and automatic iterative process for training and labeling data and making
predictions, along with active learning.
The benefits are:
Centralized command center for ML teams to collaborate.
Easy to perform tasks with complete communication.
Iterate your process with active learning to perform highly accurate labeling and
create improved datasets.

5) Tagtog

Tagtog is a data labeling tool for text-based labeling. The labeling process is
optimized for text formats and text-based operations, to create specialized datasets
for text-based AI.
At its core, the tool is a Natural Language Processing (NPL) text annotation tool. It
also provides a platform to manage the work of labeling the text manually, take in
machine learning models to optimize the task, and more.
With this tool, you can automatically get relevant insights from text. It helps to
discover patterns, identify challenges, and realize solutions. The platform has
support for ML and dictionary annotations, multiple languages, multiple formats,
secure Cloud storage, team collaboration and quality management.
The process is simple:
Import text-based data in any file formats.
Perform labeling automatically or manually.
Export accurate datasets with API format.
The benefits are:
It’s easy to use and highly accessible to all.
It’s flexible, you can integrate it in your own application with personalized workflow
and workforce.
It’s time- and cost-efficient.

6) Playment

Playment is a multi-featured data labeling platform that offers customized and secure
workflows to build high-quality training datasets with ML-assisted tools and
sophisticated project management software.
It offers annotations for various use cases, such as image annotation, video
annotation, and sensor fusion annotation. The platform supports end-to-end project
management with a labeling platform and auto-scaling workforce to optimize the
machine learning pipeline with high-quality datasets.
It has features like workflow customization, automated labeling, centralized project
management, workforce collaboration, built-in quality control tools, dynamic
business-based scaling, secure cloud storage, and more. It’s an awesome tool to label
your dataset and produce high-quality accurate datasets for ML applications.
The benefits are:
All-in-one tool with a centralized project management center.
Collaboration platform for ML teams to seamlessly participate.
Easy to use and automated with built-in automated tools.
Big emphasis on quality control.

7) Dataturk

Dataturk is an open-source online tool that provides services primarily for labeling
text, image, and video data. It simplifies the whole process by letting you upload
data, collaborate with the workforce, and start tagging the data. This lets you build
accurate datasets within a few hours.
It supports various data annotation requirements such as Image Bounding Boxes,
NER tagging in documents, Image Segmentation, POS tagging, and more. Easy and
simple UI for workforce collaborations.
The overall process is simple:
Create a project based on required annotation.
Upload the required data in any related format.
Bring the workforce in and start tagging/labeling.
The benefits are:
Open-source tool so the services are accessible to all.
Simple UI platform for coordination between team and labeling.
Highly simplified labeling process to create datasets in a short period of time.

8) LightTag
LightTag is another text-labeling tool designed to create accurate datasets for NLP.
The tool is configured to run in a collaborative workflow with ML teams. It offers a
highly simplified UI experience to manage the workforce and make annotations
easy. The tool also delivers high-quality control features for accurate labeling and
optimized dataset creation.
The benefits are:
Super simplified UI platform for easy labeling process and team management.
Faster and efficient data labeling without any complex feature hassles.
Reduces time and project management cost.

9) Superannotate
Superannotate is the fastest data annotation tool specially designed as a complete
solution for computer vision products. It offers an end-to-end platform to label, train,
and automate the computer vision pipeline. It supports multi-level quality
management and effective collaboration to boost model performance.
It can integrate easily with any platform to create a seamless workflow. The platform
can handle labeling for image, video, LiDar, text/NLP, and audio data. With
performant tools, automated predictions, and quality control, this tool can speed up
the annotation process with utmost accuracy.
The benefits are:
The platform supports smart predictions and active learning to create more accurate
datasets.
It utilizes transfer learning methods to improve the efficiency of overall training.
It supports manual as well as automatic labeling with proper quality assurance
structure.

10) CVAT

CVAT is a powerful open-source labeling tool for computer vision. It mainly

supports image and video annotations. CVAT facilitates tasks such as image
segmentation, image classification, and object detection. The tool is pretty powerful
for the work it does, but it’s not easy to use.
The overall workflow and use cases are a bit hard to understand. It takes training to
master this tool. CVAT is only accessible from the Google Chrome browser. The
web interface is difficult to get used to. The tool is efficient in terms of labeling and
dataset generation, but lacks the quality control mechanism, so you need to do it
manually.
The benefits are:
The tool is open source and highly efficient for image and video based annotations.
It supports automatic labeling.

Benefits and challenges of data labeling

The general tradeoff of data labeling is that while it can decrease a business’s time to
scale, it tends to come at a cost. More accurate data generally improves model
predictions, so despite its high cost, the value that it provides is usually well worth
the investment. Since data annotation provides more context to datasets, it enhances
the performance of exploratory data analysis as well as machine learning (ML) and
artificial intelligence (AI) applications. For example, data labeling produces more
relevant search results across search engine platforms and better product
recommendations on e-commerce platforms. Let’s delve deeper into other key
benefits and challenges:

Benefits

Data labeling provides users, teams and companies with greater context, quality and
usability. More specifically, you can expect:

 More Precise Predictions: Accurate data labeling ensures better quality

assurance within machine learning algorithms, allowing the model to train
and yield the expected output. Otherwise, as the old saying goes, “garbage
in, garbage out.” Properly labeled data provide the “ground truth” (i.e., how
labels reflect “real world” scenarios) for testing and iterating subsequent
models.
 Better Data Usability: Data labeling can also improve usability of data
variables within a model. For example, you might reclassify a categorical
variable as a binary variable to make it more consumable for a
model. Aggregating data in this way can optimize the model by reducing the
number of model variables or enable the inclusion of control variables.
Whether you’re using data to build computer vision models (i.e. putting
bounding boxes around objects) or NLP models (i.e. classifying text for
social sentiment), utilizing high-quality data is a top priority.
Challenges

Data labeling is not without its challenges. In particular, some of the most common
challenges are:

 Expensive and time-consuming: While data labeling is critical for machine

learning models, it can be costly from both a resource and time perspective.
If a business takes a more automated approach, engineering teams will still
need to set up data pipelines prior to data processing, and manual labeling
will almost always be expensive and time-consuming.
 Prone to Human-Error: These labeling approaches are also subject to
human-error (e.g. coding errors, manual entry errors), which can decrease the
quality of data. This, in turn, leads to inaccurate data processing and
modeling. Quality assurance checks are essential to maintaining data quality. 

Best practices for data labeling

No matter the approach, the following best practices optimize data labeling accuracy
and efficiency:

 Intuitive and streamlined task interfaces minimize cognitive load and

context switching for human labelers.
 Consensus: Measures the rate of agreement between multiple
labelers(human or machine). A consensus score is calculated by dividing the
sum of agreeing labels by the total number of labels per asset.
 Label auditing: Verifies the accuracy of labels and updates them as needed.
 Transfer learning: Takes one or more pre-trained models from one dataset
and applies them to another. This can include multi-task learning, in which
multiple tasks are learned in tandem.
 Active learning: A category of ML algorithms and subset of semi-
supervised learning that helps humans identify the most appropriate datasets.
Active learning approaches include:
o Membership query synthesis - Generates a synthetic instance and
requests a label for it.
o Pool-based sampling - Ranks all unlabeled instances according to
informativeness measurement and selects the best queries to annotate.
o Stream-based selective sampling - Selects unlabeled instances one by
one, and labels or ignores them depending on their informativeness or
uncertainty.
Collect diverse data

You want your data to be as diverse as possible to minimize dataset bias. Suppose
you want to train a model for autonomous vehicles. If the training data was collected
in a city, then the car will have trouble navigating in the mountains. Or take another
case; your model simply won’t detect obstacles at night if your training data was
collected during the day. For this reason, make sure you get images and videos from
different angles and lighting conditions.

Depending on the characteristics of your data, you can prevent bias in different
ways. So, if you’re collecting data for natural language processing, you may happen
to be dealing with assessment and measurement, which in turn can introduce bias.
For instance, you cannot attribute a higher possibility of heinous crime commitment
to minority group representatives just by taking the number of arrest rates within
their population. So, eliminating bias from your collected data right off is a critical
pre-processing step that precedes data annotation.
Collect specific/representative data

Feeding the model with the exact information it needs to operate successfully is a
game-changer. Your collected data has to be as specific as you want your prediction
results to be. Now, you may counter this entire section by questioning the context of
what we call “specific data”. To clear things up, if you’re training a model for a
robot waiter, use data that was collected in restaurants. Feeding the model with
training data collected in a mall, airport, or hospital will cause unnecessary
confusion.

Set up an annotation guideline

In today’s cut-throat AI and machine learning environment, composing informative,

clear, and concise annotation guidelines pays off more than you can possibly expect.
Annotation instructions indeed help avoid potential mistakes throughout data
labeling before they affect the training data.
Bonus tip: How to improve annotation instructions further? Consider illustrating the
labels with examples: visuals help annotators, and QAs understand the annotation
requirements better than written explanations. The guideline should also include the
end goal to show the workforce the bigger picture and motivate them to strive for
perfection.

Establish a QA process

Integrate a QA method into your project pipeline to assess the quality of the labels
and guarantee successful project results. There are a few ways you can do that:

 Audit tasks: Include “audit” tasks among regular tasks to test the human
laborer's work quality. “Audit” tasks should not differ from other work items
to avoid bias.
 Targeted QA: Prioritize work items that contain disagreements between
annotators for review.
 Random QA: Regularly check a random sample of work items for each
annotator to test the quality of their work.

Apply these methods and use the findings to improve your guidelines or train your
annotators.
Find the most suitable annotation pipeline

Implement an annotation pipeline that fits your project needs to maximize efficiency
and minimize delivery time. For example, you can set the most popular label at the
top of the list so that annotators don’t waste time trying to find it. You can also set
up an annotation workflow at SuperAnnotate to define the annotation steps and
automate the class and tool selection process.

Keep communication open

Keeping in touch with managed data labeling teams can be tough. Especially if the
team is remote, there is more room for miscommunication or keeping important
stakeholders out of the loop. Productivity and project efficiency will come with
establishing a solid and easy-to-use line of communication with the workforce. Set
up regular meetings and create group channels to exchange critical insights in
minutes.
Provide regular feedback

Communicate annotation errors in labeled data with your workforce for a more
streamlined QA process. Regular feedback helps them get a better understanding of
the guidelines and ultimately deliver high-quality data labeling. Make sure your
feedback is consistent with the provided annotation guidelines. If you encounter an
error that was not clarified in the guideline, consider updating it and communicating
the change with the team.

Run a pilot project

Always test the waters before jumping in. Put your workforce, annotation guidelines,
and project processes to test by running a pilot project. This will help you determine
the completion time, evaluate the performance of your labelers and QAs, and
improve your guidelines and processes before starting your project. Once your pilot
is complete, use performance results to set up reasonable targets for the workforce as
your project progresses.
Note: Task complexity is a huge indicator of whether or not you should run a pilot
project. Though oftentimes, complex projects benefit more from a pilot project as
you get to measure the success of your project on a budget. Run a free pilot project
with SuperAnnotate and get to label data 10x faster.

What should we look for when choosing a data labeling platform?

High-quality data requires an expert data labeling team paired with robust tooling.
You can either buy the platform, build it yourself if you can’t find one that suits your
use case, or alternatively make use of data labeling services. So, what should you
look for when choosing a platform for your data labeling project?

Inclusive tools

Before looking for a data labeling platform, think about the tools that fit your use
case. Maybe you need the polygon tool to label cars or perhaps a rotating bounding
box to label containers. Make sure the platform you choose contains the tools you
need to create the highest quality labels.
Think about a couple of steps ahead and consider the labeling tools you might need
in the future, too. Why invest time and resources in a labeling platform that you
won’t be able to use for future projects? Training employees on a new platform costs
time and money, so being a couple of steps ahead will save you a headache.

Integrated management system

Effective management is the building block of a successful data labeling project. For
this reason, the selected data labeling platform should contain an integrated
management system to manage projects, data, and users. A robust data labeling
platform should also enable project managers to track project progress and user
productivity, communicate with annotators regarding mislabeled data, implement an
annotation workflow, review and edit labels, and monitor quality assurance.
Powerful project management features contribute to the delivery of just as powerful
prediction results. Some of the typical features of successful project management
systems include advanced filtering and real-time analytics that you should be
mindful of when selecting a platform.

Quality assurance process

The accuracy of your data determines the quality of your machine learning model.
Make sure that the labeling platform you choose features a quality assurance
process that lets the project manager control the quality of the labeled data. Note that
in addition to a sturdy quality assurance system, the data annotation services that you
choose should be trained, vetted, and professionally managed to help you achieve
top performance.
Guaranteed privacy and security

The privacy of your data should be your utmost priority. Choose a secure labeling
platform that you can trust with your data. If your data is extremely niche-specific,
request a workforce that knows how to handle your project needs, eliminating
concerns for mislabeling or leakage. It’s also a good idea to check out the security
standards and regulations your platform of interest complies with. Other questions to
ask for guaranteed security include but are not limited to:
1) How is data access controlled?
2) How are passwords and credentials stored on the platform?
3) Where is the data hosted on the platform?

Technical support and documentation

Ensure the data annotation platform you choose provides technical support
through complete and updated documentation and an active support team to guide
you throughout the data labeling process. Technical issues may arise, and you want
the support team to be available to address the issues to minimize disruption.
Consider asking the support team how they provide troubleshooting assistance
before subscribing to the platform.
 CONCLUSION
Data annotation or labeling has always been an essential component in the field of
machine learning and AI. Before labeling tools existed, the manual effort that was
needed to label each data point in the dataset was tremendously inefficient, error-
prone, and difficult.
Now, with the state-of-the-art tools above, the process is much easier thanks to
automation, team management, prediction analysis, and iterative learning. In
consequence, datasets are much more accurate and optimized with different variable
changes.
These tools have made work easier for data scientists and ML developers. Datasets
for different applications are readily available. With the ability to pipeline labeled
datasets to machine learning models, the overall AI-based work and model creation
has become easier, more accurate, and optimized.