Research News
*The information and links in the topics is current on the date of announcement, but is subject to change without prior notice.
Year
Month
23 May, 2022
TOKYO—Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) has developed artificial intelligence (AI) for detecting anomalies during infrastructure inspections. With only a few reference images of inspection targets and no real-world training, the technology can accurately detect cracks and rust as well as leaks, adhesion of foreign material, detachment of parts, and other infrequent, untrained anomalies.
This new AI not only reduces inspection workloads—particularly those that imperil workers or require travel, such as atop steel towers in the mountains, under elevated bridges, on slopes, and under solar panels—it also performs well in real-world situations where the scarcity of images from the field has hampered past efforts to use AI.
The technology uses features from pre-trained deep learning models to compare inspection photographs against reference images, and thus does not require real-world training as in the case of conventional AI. Toshiba’s proprietary correction technology enables the new AI to detect anomalies with high accuracy even when inspection photographs are taken from different angles than in the reference images, and also limits false positives in the case of unique patterns that are actually normal. In an assessment based on a public dataset, the AI was 91.7% accurate, the highest figure ever recorded. The new technology automates inspections, reduces workloads, and expedites the discovery of anomalies, helping ensure stable long-term operation of infrastructure.
Toshiba is scheduled to give a presentation on the details of this new AI on May 25, 2022 at ICIAP 2021, the 21st International Conference on Image Analysis and Processing, in Italy.
18 Mar, 2022
TOKYO—Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) has revealed major advances in shrinking the laser projector unit of its LiDAR to one quarter the size of the previous version released in June 2021. Using two of the new projector units, the new LiDAR is just 206cm3 in volume that can fit comfortably into the palm of the hand. Its range has been pushed out to 300m, the world’s longest with an industry-leading image resolution of 1200x84 pixels. It can be configured with flexible combinations of projector units to handle a variety of long-range and wide-angle detection applications.
24 Feb, 2022
At the Toshiba Co-creation Center “Creative Circuit,” which opened last February as a base for co-creation activities in the Toshiba Group, Toshiba has implemented functions using the company’s latest video recognition AI to create new value with co-creation partners through experiencing the latest technology.
As a first step, Toshiba has implemented four functions at Creative Circuit: crowding detection, suspicious behavior detection, unnatural posture detection, and individual recognition. By allowing co-creation partners within and outside of the Toshiba Group to experience AI technology, Toshiba will work with its co-creation partners to create new value from AI technologies, leading to earlier social implementation of Toshiba AI.
Furthermore, to make Creative Circuit a safer, more secure, and more creative environment during the COVID-19 epidemic, the company has developed a communication-activity monitoring system that uses a crowding detection function and is operated within Creative Circuit. This system detects the state of crowding while also calculating and displaying communication activity levels to support active communication while preventing excessive crowding, thereby increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of co-creation activities.
Toshiba plans to continue introducing new AI functions at Creative Circuit, which will also be used as a base for value creation using AI technology with its co-creation partners, contributing to the creation of innovative solutions for solving social issues and realizing a sustainable society.
14 Jan, 2022
TOKYO―Nomura Holdings, Inc. (President and Group CEO, Kentaro Okuda, hereinafter Nomura HD), Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. (Representative Director and President, Kentaro Okuda, hereinafter Nomura Securities), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (President, Hideyuki Tokuda, Ph.D., hereinafter NICT), Toshiba Corporation (Representative Executive Officer and President and Chief Executive Officer, Satoshi Tsunakawa, hereinafter Toshiba), and NEC Corporation (President and CEO, Takayuki Morita, hereinafter NEC) have jointly verified on the effectiveness and practicality of quantum cryptography for future social implementation using the stock trading operations as a use case, where high-speed, large-volume, low-latency data transmission is strictly required. The test which started in December 2020 is the first in Japan to verify the low-latency and large-volume transmission tolerance of highly secure data transmission conforming to the message transmission format (FIX format), which is a standard format used in actual stock trading operations. As a result, in our assumed use case, we were able to confirm the following two points: (i) the throughput is maintained at a level of a conventional system even if quantum cryptography is applied, and (ii) even if a large number of stock orders are placed, highly secure and high-speed quantum cryptographic communication can be realized without depleting cryptographic keys. The success of this test is expected to accelerate the social implementation of quantum cryptography including the broad range of sector other than finance.
27 Dec, 2021
Toshiba Group has announced the world's first demonstration of HDD recording performance improvement with Microwave Assisted Switching-Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording (MAS-MAMR), a next-generation magnetic recording technology. The demonstration confirms that the technology delivers substantial storage capacity gains, and Toshiba now aims to realize early commercialization of nearline HDDs with capacities exceeding 30TB.
22 Dec, 2021
TOKYO—Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) today announced that it has successfully raised the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of its transparent Cu2O solar cell to 8.4%, the world’s highest level for a reported Cu2O solar cell. With the cell positioned as the top cell over a 25% PCE silicon cell (Cu2O-Si tandem cell), Toshiba estimates that an overall PCE of 27.4% can be achieved, notably above the 26.7% highest PCE reported for any standard silicon cell.
15 Dec, 2021
TOKYO─Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) has developed “Electricity markets trading strategy AI” for renewable energy aggregation that supports strategic trading by electricity market operators. The AI bundles renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power and simultaneously makes strategic trading decisions that support profitable trading while avoiding supply imbalances. By realizing stable supply of highly variable renewable energy and promoting its use as a primary power source, the AI will help to advance carbon neutrality.
Next Kraftwerke Toshiba Corporation and Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation are participating in a demonstration experiment using the AI that began on December 1, 2021, as part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s Renewable Energy Aggregation Demonstration Project.
07 Dec, 2021
TOKYO—Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) has developed a new anomaly detection AI that enables large-scale industrial plants to overcome a widespread and growing challenge: using a small workforce to achieve constant and effective monitoring of thousands of sensors, and the accurate detection of anomalous signals hidden among small variations in sensor values. The AI can currently be applied to power and industrial plants that use pumps to move fluids, and is the first of its kind to realize high-level accuracy in detecting anomalies in the complex interactions between plant operating conditions and massive sensor values. Toshiba will present the technology at the 21st IEEE International Conference ICDM2021 LITSA Workshop on Data Mining on December 7.
22 Nov, 2021
TOKYO— Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) has developed a world-first AI technology that can determine actual-scale 3D measurements from only monocular camera images taken under various conditions, such as those taken from a distance with a zoom lens or with autofocus. Using several photos taken from a distance by a monocular camera during infrastructure inspections, this AI facilitates easy measurements of the size of areas for repair without the need to approach dangerous and difficult-to-inspect areas such as high places and inclinations.
The conventional use of only a monocular camera provides only relative values, requiring gyroscope to obtain absolute values or basic information about sizes. However, the developed AI can provide absolute values by combining relative depth information obtained from multiple viewpoints of a monocular camera with blur information contained in the captured images. Considering that the average age of infrastructure facilities in Japan now exceeds 35 years, this AI can be used to develop efficient maintenance plans that prioritize and realize appropriate repairs without excess or deficiency. Toshiba has been developing robot-integrated management and inspection image analysis technologies like those shown in Figure 1 to save labor and automate infrastructure inspections, and the newly developed technology improves performance in size measurements.
Toshiba will present the details of this technology on November 22 at the British Machine Vision Conference 2021 (BMVC 2021).
05 Nov, 2021
TOKYO─Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) has developed the AI technology that automatically generates physical models for detecting equipment abnormalities and determining the causes of those abnormalities in social infrastructure equipment. The AI automatically generates a physical model that describes the states and motion of a target device from measured time-series data. In addition, the AI shows not only abnormalities in equipment but also the cause of the occurrence of abnormalities based on physical phenomena, which has been difficult in the past. For example, the model made by the AI might indicate that an increase in equipment temperature is due to clogging dust, making improvement measures easier to formulate. The AI responds to complicated phenomena such as sudden changes in temperature and airflow, and can be applied to the maintenance of infrastructure equipment with complicated mechanism of abnormalities offurencethat is abnormalities with complicated occurrence mechanisms. It will improve reliability of facilities and contribute to resilience in social infrastructure. Toshiba will present the details of this technology on November 5 at IMECE 2021, which will be held online.
29 Oct, 2021
TOKYO─Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) has demonstrated the world’s first successful fabrication of high-performance circuits with analog–digital integration on a single chip driver integrated circuit (IC) for controlling next-generation power semiconductors. The developed IC detects the voltage and current status of power semiconductors at ultra-high speeds of 2 µs or less, and fine control reduces noise generated by power semiconductors by up to 51%. Theoretical calculations also confirm that power loss when driving the motor can be reduced by 25% compared with equivalent noise reduction by conventional methods. In the event of a short circuit or other malfunction, the power semiconductor can be immediately protected to prevent damage to it.
28 Oct, 2021
Toshiba Europe has been awarded a prestigious Institute of Physics Award for Business Innovation. This recognises Toshiba’s pioneering Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology developed over two decades of research, protecting communication infrastructure from present and future cyber-threats, and commercialising UK-manufactured products which pave the road to the quantum internet. The Institute of Physics (IOP) is the professional body and learned society for physics, and the leading body for practising physicists, in the UK and Ireland. With a rich history of supporting business innovation and growth, it is committed to working with ‘physics-based’ businesses, and companies that apply and employ physics and physicists.
21 Oct, 2021
Cambridge, UK, 21 Oct 2021: Toshiba Europe Ltd today announced it has developed the world’s first chip-based quantum key distribution (QKD) system. This advance will enable the mass manufacture of quantum security technology, bringing its application to a much wider range of scenarios including to Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.
22 Sep, 2021
TOKYO─Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) has successfully developed draw solutes , an osmotic pressure material for the forward osmosis membrane method to concentrate and extract components or substances (valuable materials) from aqueous solutions. This material both reduces energy consumption to one-fourth and increases the concentration rate by 2.4-fold compared with conventional concentration methods. Conventional concentration technologies rely on evaporation or application of high pressure, and thus require a huge amount of energy. On the other hand, this newly developed technology uses the principle of osmotic pressure causing spontaneous removal of water from aqueous solutions, thereby achieving energy-saving concentration. After being used for concentration treatment, the newly developed osmotic material can be separated from water and then reused.
This technology can be used in the manufacturing of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, effluent treatment, and recovery of rare metals. It will also enable the reuse of water and the sustainable use of natural resources and reduce the burden on the environment, thus contributing to a recycling society.
Toshiba will present details of this technology online at the 52nd Autumn Meeting of the Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan (September 22-24, 2021, Tsushima Campus, Okayama University).
15 Sep, 2021
TOKYO─Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) has developed the world’s most versatile and accurate Visual Question Answering (VQA) AI, able to recognize not only people and objects, but also colors, shapes, appearances and background details in images. The AI overcomes the long-standing difficulty of answering questions on the positioning and appearance of people and objects, and has the ability to learn information required to handle a wide range of questions and answers. It can be applied to a wide range of purposes without any need for customization.