Showa Denko K.K. (SDK; TSE:4004) and Cinnamon Inc. (Cinnamon) will jointly develop a database system equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) to register technical documents. This development program has been accredited as a project to be subsidized by the New Energy and Technology Development Organization (NEDO) as a part of NEDO's "Program to Support Joint Development of AI Systems*."

Technical documents accumulated by Japan's manufacturing industry contain a massive amount of knowledge. However, most of those documents are stored as data on paper. If we want to make the most of the technical knowledge of our forefathers and utilize them as a source of new value, we should convert "analog data" into "digital data" and store it on electronic databases.

It is difficult to manually convert massive amounts of paper-based data. Moreover, existing optical character reader (OCR) technology cannot read technical documents containing handwritten characters with enough accuracy. Thus it has been difficult for us to accurately convert technical documents accumulated as data on paper into digital data and store them on electronic databases.

SDK and Cinnamon have agreed to jointly grapple with the above problem and will promote the development of a database system with the object of utilizing technical documents. The system will be equipped with AI-based automatic OCR technology to accurately digitize data on paper containing handwritten characters and highly convenient data search function.

The two parties will aim to create an intensely practical database system through close cooperation between Cinnamon, which has deep expertise and programming technology on AI and image analysis, and SDK, which holds abundant real data (technical documents) that contain expertise in many fields including petrochemical, carbon, and aluminum products.

*For the detail of NEDO's "Program to Support Joint Development of AI Systems," please refer to the following URL: http://www.nedo.go.jp/koubo/CA2_100167.html

Outline of Showa Denko
Company name: Showa Denko K.K.
Address: 13-9, Shiba Daimon 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Established: June 1939
Representative: Kohei Morikawa, President and CEO
Scope of business: Production and sale of organic/inorganic chemicals, ceramics, electronic materials, aluminum products, etc.
URL: http://www.sdk.co.jp/

Outline of Cinnamon
Company name: Cinnamon Inc.
Address: 6th floor, Higashi-azabu Building, 9-16, Higashi-azabu 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Established: October 2016
Representative: Miku Hirano, CEO
Scope of business: Artificial intelligence products, Consulting on artificial intelligence
URL: http://www.cinnamon.is/

About Showa Denko K.K.

Showa Denko K.K. (SDK; TSE:4004, ADR:SHWDY), a major manufacturer of chemical products, serves a wide range of fields from heavy industry to electronics and computer industries. The Petrochemicals Sector provides cracker products such as ethylene and propylene, the Chemicals Sector provides industrial, high-performance and high-purity gases and chemicals for semicon and other industries, and the Inorganics Sector provides ceramic products, such as alumina, abrasives, refractory and graphite electrodes and fine carbon products. The Aluminum Sector provides aluminum materials and high-value-added fabricated aluminum, the Electronics Sector provides HD media, compound semiconductors such as ultra high-bright LEDs and rare earth magnetic alloys, and the Advanced Battery Materials Department (ABM) provides lithium-ion battery components. For more information, please visit www.sdk.co.jp/english/.

Source: Showa Denko K.K.

Contact:

Showa Denko K.K.
PR Office
Phone: 81-3-5470-3235
Facsimile: 81-3-3431-6215

Cinnamon, Inc.
PR Representative
Phone: 81-3-6807-4091
Facsimile: 81-3-6807-4092
E-mail: contact@cinnamon.is