The Fujifilm Group develops products that address a variety of risks to create a safe and secure society. In FY2018, we started research into upgrading the efficiency of the Infrastructure Photo Analysis Cloud Service that had already introduced in collaboration with Nagasaki University and the Nagasaki Prefectural Government. We have also entered the market for long-range surveillance cameras, a product that is growing in demand in recent years as a security measure. It is an innovative product that resolves the problems of conventional long-range surveillance cameras through a combination of our unique optical technology and cutting-edge image processing technology to bring outstanding vibration resistance and high-speed and high-accuracy autofocus. In September 2019, we launched the FUJIFILM LTO Ultrium 8 (LTO8) Data Cartridge with a storage capacity of 30 TB, twice the capacity of the previous generation. Fujifilm has introduced a magnetic tape with the fine barium ferrite (BaFe) magnetic particles with outstanding magnetic properties and long-term storage performance and launched the first commercial BaFe data storage cartridge in 2011. Fujifilm has consistently developing highperformance and high-quality magnetic tapes with large storage capacity. In the future, LTO8 is expected to used with data archiving storage systems to satisfy the needs of mass data storage with low energy consumption.
Fujifilm has taken steps to address the problem of deterioration in the social infrastructure and introduced in April 2018 a new Infrastructure Photo Analysis Cloud Service “Hibimikke (Crack Finder)” that utilizes the high precision imaging technology we developed for our medical diagnostic imaging systems. The service helps halve the inspection period for bridges, tunnels and other similar structures and more than 500 companies have registered for this service.
Fujifilm set up Brain(s) Kyushu in Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture in March 2019. The objective of the project is joint development of AI technology designed for social infrastructure inspection through integration of Fujifilm Group’s diagnostic imaging and AI technologies and expertise in civil engineering and social infrastructure maintenance and management at Nagasaki University. Furthermore, the cooperation of Nagasaki Prefecture has been secured to conduct a demonstration experiment with the developed AI technology planned for bridges and related facilities in this prefecture, which has the largest number of islands in Japan and numerous bridges connecting these islands. At present, we are working on AI used to determine the crack severity level and Multipurpose Inspection AI that covers severity of damage in five other important categories including concrete peeling, steel frame exposure and water leakage. We are conducting demonstration experiments on a number of bridges in Nagasaki Prefecture for practical application in the future.