- The following is content from the press release -
(Head Office: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Kentaro Yamanaka; hereinafter referred to as "Torinku") will start to deploy its AI technology for childcare photography developed through its AI photo service "Torinku" to childcare ICT providers and photo sales service providers. As a first step, we are pleased to announce that image recognition AI technology provided by Torinku has been introduced in the "photo sharing and sales" function of CoDMON, a business support system for childcare and educational facilities.
Background on External Provision of Childcare Photography AI Technology
Torinku is a childcare xAI company with advanced image AI technology developed by its parent company, ExaWizards Inc. from its establishment until November 2024. In July 2023, Torinku began full-scale provision of its "AI Photo Service Torinku," which uses this technology as its source of value, and has been adopted by many facilities in a short period of time.
However, the pace of AI evolution in recent years has been remarkable. On the other hand, it tends to take longer than in other industries for highly innovative services to spread to childcare and education facilities, which are highly public in nature. Under these circumstances, we believe that the way to maximize our impact on society is to focus our management resources on technology and product development, and to work with partner companies that have close relationships with childcare and educational facilities, such as childcare ICT providers and photo sales service providers, to spread Torinku's technology and value to the childcare industry. We thought this would be the way to maximize our impact on society.
In the future, Torinku will maintain open and flat relationships with childcare and childcare support businesses, including childcare ICT providers and photo sales service providers, as well as Codomon.
Background of the introduction of Torinku's technology to Codomon
Codomon" has been developing a service that allows parents to easily share and sell photos taken at their facilities through the "Codomon" application. There is a high demand for sharing photos taken at facilities with parents, and communicating how children are doing during childcare hours is an extremely important initiative for strengthening cooperation with parents.
On the other hand, the work of taking photos in parallel with childcare operations, organizing and sorting them, and distributing and selling them to parents is often done manually and visually, placing a heavy burden on the staff and contributing to the workload at the site.
To solve these issues, Codomon considered various options for the use of AI, including in-house production, and decided to introduce the "Torinku" AI photo service, which it judged to have the industry's top-level recognition accuracy and cost performance in its proprietary AI dedicated to childcare.
Torinku" functionality to be introduced to Codomon
1) Facial recognition that requires no pre-registration and supports growth
In ordinary face recognition, each child's face photo is registered in advance to enable recognition. In contrast, in "Sensei Photo," where "Torinku" was introduced, AI automatically detects children's faces from the photos taken daily by employees of childcare and educational facilities and registers each child's face data, enabling face recognition without prior registration of face photos. When registering a new child's face data, the AI checks it against all children's face data already registered, preventing duplicate registration of the same child's face data. This enables highly accurate identification of children.
Another important feature of Torinku is that it continues to learn on a daily basis, so that even if children's facial features change as they grow, errors in facial recognition are unlikely to occur.
(2) Automatic photo sorting by class
By linking with the class data in the kindergarten children's ledger, the system can automatically sort the recognized photos by class. This eliminates the need for manual or visual sorting, which is conventionally done only once a year for maintenance of the child registry.
(3) Visualization of bias in the number of pictures taken for each child
When sharing photos with parents, if the number of photos is uneven, we may receive comments such as, "There are not enough photos of my child! When sharing photos with parents, if the number of photos is unbalanced, we may receive comments such as, "There are not enough photos of my child! With AI facial recognition, the number of photos for each child can be automatically counted, reducing the workload.
Regularly checking the number of copies for each child will help prevent bias and, at the same time, provide hints about the children's personalities in the process of investigating the causes of bias.
④Automatic photo upload
Using a dedicated smartphone application, photos taken with a smartphone are automatically uploaded to the Codomon management screen. This prevents photo capture omissions and makes it easy to sell and share photos.
Future Development
Torinku will provide only some of the functions of the "AI Photo Service Torinku" to Codomon. In collaboration with Codomon, we aim to provide even greater added value by offering more advanced technology. On the other hand, we will also deepen partnerships with childcare ICT providers and photo sales service providers other than Codomon. We will use Torinku's technologies and functions to solve the issues faced by our partners and create a greater social impact. In parallel, we will work to expand our partnerships.
Torinku Corporation Company Profile
◆Location: 10F Gotanda JP Building, 8-4-13 Nishi-Gotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo
◆Capital: 10 million yen
Representative: Kentaro Yamanaka, Representative Director
◆Establishment: May 17, 2021
◆Business activities: Development and sales of AI-based services such as "Torinku" AI photo service
