Fujifilm Press Releases

FUJIFILM Creative AI Center ‘Brain(s)’ is a New Development Center for the Next Generation of Advanced AI Technology to Be Used in the Field of Photography Including the AI-Enabled “Year Album”, a Photobook Service Developed by Fujifilm

The following video presents Can computers be creative? | Ed Rex | TEDxLondonBusinessSchool:
Computers can drive cars and beat people at the toughest board games, but can they be creative? As a composer and entrepreneur, Ed Rex believes we are heading towards a world where AI will master creativity, and he has founded a startup to find out more. In this talk, he reframes the question by asking what we really mean when we say that humans are creative, and examines how far computers have come in replicating this process and what it will mean for us as they continue to improve.

As a composer and entrepreneur, Ed Rex believes we are heading towards a world where AI will master creativity, and he has founded a startup to find out more.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

Fujifilm has been involved in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) capable of reading various information from images, principally employing this technology in the fields of image diagnostics and photography.

  • To further improve AI-based technology and provide innovative products and services that can resolve ever more sophisticated social issues, Fujifilm has decided to launch Brain(s) as a new research and development center which can enhance collaborative research with academic institutions and combine different sources of expertise in state-of-the-art AI-based technology.
  • Within Brain(s) Fujifilm will set up display and collaboration areas featuring Fujifilm’s latest AI-related products, services and technology including the AI-enabled “Year Album”, a photobook service developed by Fujifilm.

The Year Album

If you think it is time-consuming to select from a gallery of pictures, try selecting the ‘period’ when the pictures are taken and ‘number of pages’ you prefer. The image selection and layout creation will be done automatically. The time taken to create a Year Album can be as short as 5 minutes*.

※Standard time to create a 16-page album for 500 pictures of 2-3MB size with Core 2 DUO or higher CPU.
※It is the time needed to input contents before clicking on the order button.

The following video presents FUJIFILM Year Album Version 3.0:
FUJIFILM Year Album Software Version 3.0 now available with new features including new colours for current cover designs, new cover designs, new inner page designs, new stamps and new font colours!

For more information, please visit www.year-album.sg.

PRESS RELEASE

Fujifilm launches the FUJIFILM Creative AI Center ‘Brain(s)’

-a new development center for the next generation of advanced AI technology enhances collaboration with academic institutions to resolve the issues facing society
-Fujifilm to also open the FUJIFILM AI Academy for fostering internal and external AI experts

October 1, 2018
FUJIFILM Holdings

FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation (President: Kenji Sukeno) has launched today the FUJIFILM Creative AI Center ‘Brain(s),’ a new center to research and develop the next generation of advanced AI technology through collaboration with academic institutions. It will be based in Marunouchi, Tokyo.

Fujifilm has been involved in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) capable of reading various information from images, principally employing this technology in the fields of image diagnostics and photography. Over the coming years, Fujifilm intends to accelerate the development of AI-based technology capable of supporting clinicians or workers in the field through comprehensive analysis and decision-making on the basis of various data collected through Fujifilm’s business activities such as, for example, through a process of combining biological information with diagnostic imaging data. In addition, Fujifilm will also work together with academic institutions to develop the next generation of AI technology capable of resolving various issues facing society by linking its technology with documented knowledge — such as diagnostic reports and medical literature –, and human knowledge from experience. Fujifilm intends not only to harness Brain(s) as a center for research and development by AI engineers from the Fujifilm Group, but also intends, to develop the center as a forum for close research cooperation with academic institutions, promoting efforts to combine the respective knowledge of “brains” of Fujifilm and these institutions to develop the next generation of AI technology.

The name of Brain(s) derives from the concept of fusing AI with human brainpower and wisdom.

The name of Brain(s) derives from the concept of fusing AI with human brainpower and wisdom.

Fujifilm is involved in various different businesses including the healthcare business including medical systems business, providing medical devices, and the pharmaceutical products, regenerative medicine, bio-CDMO*1 businesses, the highly functional materials business, including the display materials and fine chemicals businesses, and the document solutions business. In recent years, Fujifilm has engaged in the development of AI-based technology for the analysis of data where expert knowledge is required, such as the diagnostic information and images used in inspecting tunnels and other social infrastructure, in order to meet various user needs and to help resolve social issues. To further improve AI-based technology and provide innovative products and services that can resolve ever more sophisticated social issues, Fujifilm has decided to launch Brain(s) as a new research and development center which can enhance collaborative research with academic institutions and combine different sources of expertise in state-of-the-art AI-based technology.

FUJIFILM Creative AI Center ‘Brain(s)’ will engage in the following projects
1. Development of next generation AI technology through joint research with academic institutions
Fujifilm is already involved in various projects for the development of AI-based technology together with academic institutions. These initiatives include the RIKEN AIP-FUJIFILM HD Collaboration Center, which was established within the RIKEN Center for Artificial Intelligence Project and the establishment of Social Corporation Program within the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo. With this new project, Fujifilm aims to continue developing even more sophisticated next-generation AI technology capable of resolving the issues facing society. This will be accomplished by making use not only of Fujifilm’s profound knowledge of the challenges in medical clinics or workplace for infrastructure inspections acquired through its business activities, but also by making use of fundamental technologies developed by academic institutions including natural language processing and multimodal*2 AI. In addition, Fujifilm will also, during this month, adopt one of the world’s fastest supercomputers for deep learning, building one of Japan’s leading AI research environments to further accelerate the development of AI technology.

2. Training of AI/ICT experts
Fujifilm is also launching another new project, the FUJIFILM AI Academy. This institution will give researchers from both Fujifilm and third parties the opportunity to interact with leading researchers and gain experience with state-of-the-art AI technology. Through these initiatives, Fujifilm will aim to train AI/ICT experts capable of occupying leadership positions in future Japanese industries.

3. ‘ICT Open Innovation’ combining Fujifilm technology and products with ICT expertise from third parties
Brain(s) will make use of its location in Marunouchi in the heart of Tokyo to promote collaborations with parties including startup companies engaged in AI research. Within Brain(s) Fujifilm will set up display and collaboration areas featuring Fujifilm’s latest ICT-related products, services and technology including REiLI which represents Fujifilm’s global medical informatics and imaging AI technology Initiative to open new medical frontiers, the AI-enabled ”Year Album”, a photobook service developed by Fujifilm, and a service for image diagnosis of engineering infrastructure, which greatly raises the efficiency of structural inspections designed to find cracks. Encouraging collaborators to see and experience Fujifilm’s latest technology will help Fujifilm and various third-party corporations jointly develop new business ideas.

Fujifilm Group is deeply involved in the development of AI technology applications for use in a wide range of different fields, working to provide innovative products and solutions that can resolve the issues facing society.

1. FUJIFILM Creative AI Center Brain(s)
Name Brain(s)
Address Marunouchi Kitaguchi Building, Marunouchi 1-6-5, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo (WeWork workspaces)
Area Approximately 400m2
2. FUJIFILM AI Academy
(1) Brain(s) will help educate students with talent in the field of AI/ICT through various events and programs for undergraduate and graduate students including internships and hackathons*3.
(2) Brain(s) will invite leading academic researchers from institutions such as RIKEN Center for AIP, The University of Tokyo and Waseda University as lecturers providing free seminars and lectures to students and information systems engineers working for various companies. Participants in these events will have the opportunity to experience and learn about state-of-the-art technology.
(3) Fujifilm Group will also provide employees with a forum for learning about the latest AI/ICT, fostering the accelerated development of AI/ICT experts within the company.
3. Information will be provided via the Brains website https://brains.fujifilm.com (Japanese only)
The Brain(s) website, which will include information on Brain(s) Projects and speaking events at the FUJIFILM AI Academy will go live from today.
*1CDMO stands for Contract Development & Manufacturing Organization. CDMO provides clients such as pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with a wide range of services from cell line development in the early stage of pharmaceutical development to process development, stability testing, investigational drug development / manufacturing and commercial drug manufacturing.
*2 Multi-modal approaches refer to approaches for learning through a combination of different information media including not only, for example, images, but also sound, movement, and language information. This approach aims to develop even higher-precision AI technology.
*3 The word “hackathon” is a combination of the words “hack” and “marathon”. At these events, groups of software engineers work together on intensive projects to develop programs or come up with new services, competing against rival groups to produce the best products, solutions or ideas.

For inquiries on information in this media release, contact:
FUJIFILM Holding Corporation
Corporate Planning Division, Corporate Communications Office
TEL:+81 3-6271-2000