We are pleased to announce that EAGLYS Inc. and Safie Inc., the No. 1 cloud-based video management platform, have begun collaborative development of an AI image analysis service for restaurants. This effort will combine EAGLYS’ AI image analysis technology with the Safie cloud vieo capture services, and have started a proof of concept experiment at the Tsukada Farm Restaurant located at Mito Station North Exit.
Background of the Collaboration Project
In recent years, the working population has been decreasing due to the declining birthrate and aging population. In particular, the restaurant industry has been closed and operating hours have been shortened due to the spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) infection, but since the state of emergency and restrictions were lifted on October 1st, reactionary demand has led to an increase in the number of customers, and the wave of human resource shortages has resurfaced.
In October, the shortage rate of non-permanent employees was 63.3%, a sharp increase from the previous month (44.1%). Therefore it is necessary to secure human resources as soon as possible in anticipation to an increase in the number of customers toward the end of the year and to work on streamlining operations that have been handled manually. (1)
Under these circumstances, restaurants have been paying attention to “appearance” and “serving time,” which are two of the most important factors that affect the quality of service. They do this by assigning staff to visually check the quality of every dish. However, it has been difficult to maintain the same quality check system during busy times as during normal times, without incurring extra personnel costs just for quality checks in order to ensure smooth operations.
Safie, which has been providing cloud-based video management solutions to help restaurants improve their operations, and EAGLYS, which has high-precision and ultra-fast AI image analysis technology, have teamed up to develop an AI image analysis service for restaurants.
This collaboration combines the captured video data with high-precision AI analysis to help reduce the need for labor to check the quality of food. Restaurants will be able to instantly monitor the status of food preparation and the elapsed time after cooking for each dish, thus enabling them to serve quality-preserved meals to their customers and improve the overall quality of the service itself.
(1) https://www.tdb.co.jp/report/watching/press/p211105.html
About the PoC
With the cooperation of AP Holdings, which has more than 200 restaurants in Japan and overseas, including Tsukada Farm where the AI analysis service PoC will take place. At this establishment, the quality of the food served during peak times is visually confirmed by the staff, thus this AI image analysis implementation can be used to enable the staff to focus more on other aspects of quality of service.
Future Development
Based on the results of this proof of concept, we will not only respond to other issues and needs faced by each food establishment, but will also contribute to the implementation of operational improvements and the enhancement of corporate value, so that more restaurants will be able to cope with the decline of labor force in the service industry as a whole.
Comment from Ryuhei Sadoshima, President and CEO of Safie Inc.
In order to tackle this industry issue, it is essential to implement automation solutions that maintain the same level of customer service and quality, while reducing the need of manpower.
In order to improve the development technology of our cloud video service platform and solve the these issues in the in the food service industry, we dceided to partner with EAGLYS who has high-precision and ultra-high-speed AI image analysis technology. By reducing the number of manual operations we would like to create an environment where our customers can constantly strive for highly productive work that allows them to be creative and ingenious.
Comment from Chihiro Miyajima, Executive Director of EAGLYS Inc.
EAGLYS has the mission to safely utilize all types of data and turn it into value. Currently we are working on data security and data utilization solutions, AI design, and analysis support. What is more, we are highly regarded in the fields of AI image analysis for defect detection in manufacturing processes and automation of logistics processes in conjunction with shipping systems.
I am grateful to have the opportunity to contribute to the creation of prosperous society together with reliable partners in a new field, and I am very excited about this initiative. With this PoC as a starting point, we are determined to contribute to solving the challenges of more food service establishments.
About Safie Inc.
Safie is a cloud-based video management platform which brings our customers a new standard to manage their video assets anytime and anywhere.
