Tokyo, Japan – May 9th, 2022– Morpho AI Solutions, Inc. (hereinafter “Morpho AIS”), responsible for AI business in the Morpho Group, announced that it has been commissioned by the National Diet Library to conduct “OCR research and development for creating data to aid the visually impaired 2022 (hereinafter “Project”)”.
As part of “Vision 2021-2025: The Digital Shift at the National Diet Library”, the National Diet Library is working on a project to realize universal access to provide a variety of information resources to all users throughout the future. They are also working on projects to expand the national digital information infrastructure serving permanently for this purpose.
“Vision 2021-2025: The Digital Shift at the National Diet Library”: https://vision2021.ndl.go.jp/en/
On June 21, 2019, the Act on Promotion of Reading Environment for the Visually Impaired (Reading Barrier-Free Law) was passed and enacted at a plenary session of the House of Representatives and promulgated and enforced one week later on June 28. Through this project, Morpho AIS will work to achieve compliance of the Reading Barrier-Free Law, which “promotes the comprehensive and systematic development of reading environments for the visually impaired and others and contributes to the realization of a society where all citizens, regardless of disability, can equally enjoy the benefits of the written and printed word through reading” (*1).
Upon preparing the proposal for the Project, Morpho AIS sought the cooperation of Toppan Inc., which has experience in constructing OCR learning data sets, and commissioned the Project. Partnering with Toppan Inc., Morpho AIS will work on the commercialization of AI-OCR based on the knowledge acquired through this project.
(*1) Noguchi Takenori
Background, Contents, and Issues of the Reading Barrier-Free Law: https://current.ndl.go.jp/ca1974
In this Project, the OCR processing program developed by the National Diet Library in 2021 will be further enhanced with additional functions and performance improvements to realize text generation that can be used not only for text searches but also for text-to-speech for the visually impaired.
Morpho AI Solutions is a company engaged in the commercialization of AI (Artificial Intelligence). We promote the introduction and actual operation of cutting-edge AI technologies, including AI-OCR, in the areas of social infrastructure such as government, electric power, transportation, and manufacturing.
For more information, visit https://www.morphoai.com/.
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