Cinnamon Co., Ltd. and Showa Denko Co., Ltd. will begin joint development of a technical document utilization system using artificial intelligence (AI).

Showa Denko Co., Ltd. (President: Kohei Morikawa, hereinafter referred to as Showa Denko) and Cinnamon Co., Ltd. (Representative Director: Mirai Hirano, hereinafter referred to as Cinnamon) have decided to jointly develop a technical document utilization system that utilizes AI. This development has been selected as a subsidized project under the "AI System Joint Development Support Project*" of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

The technical documents that Japan's manufacturing industry has accumulated over the past several decades contain a lot of valuable knowledge, but much of it is stored as paper documents. In order to make the most effective use of the knowledge of our predecessors and use it as a source for creating new value, it is desirable to convert that "analog data" into "digital data" and store it as an electronic database. It will happen. On the other hand, it is realistically difficult to manually digitize huge amounts of paper materials, and in the case of technical documents containing handwritten characters, existing automatic character recognition (OCR) technology cannot provide sufficient reading accuracy. Up until now, it has been difficult to create an electronic database of technical documents stored in paper media.

This time, Showa Denko and Cinnamon are jointly working on the above-mentioned issues, with the aim of utilizing technical documents that have the ability to automatically read technical documents containing handwritten characters with high precision and convert them into electronic text using AI, as well as a highly convenient search function. We will work on developing a database system based on the above. Cinnamon, which has deep knowledge and advanced programming technology in both AI and image analysis, and Showa Denko, which has a wealth of real data (technical documents) in a wide range of fields such as petrochemicals, carbon, and aluminum products, are working closely together. By proceeding with development, we aim to create a highly practical system.

*Please see this URL for NEDO's "AI System Joint Development Support Project":

http://www.nedo.go.jp/koubo/CA2_100167.html

■Joint development scheme

■Example of handwritten technical document (excerpt)

[Showa Denko Company Profile]

Company name: Showa Denko Co., Ltd.

Address: 1-13-9 Shiba Daimon, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Established: June 1939

Representative: Kohei Morikawa, Representative Director and President

Business: Manufacture and sale of organic and inorganic chemicals, ceramics, electronic materials, aluminum, etc.

URL:http://www.sdk.co.jp/

[Cinnamon Company Profile]

Company name: Cinnamon Co., Ltd.

Address: 6th floor, MTP Higashiazabu Building, 1-9-16 Higashiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Established: October 2016

Representative: Mirai Hirano, Representative Director and CEO

Business content: Artificial intelligence product business, artificial intelligence consulting business

URL:https://www.cinnamon.is

[Contact information]

Showa Denko

TEL: 03-5470-3235 FAX: 03-3431-6215

Person in charge: Public Relations Office

cinnamon

TEL: 03-6807-4091 FAX: 03-6807-4092 E-mail: contact@cinnamon.is

Person in charge: Public Relations