Tech New app to decipher cursive characters in old Japanese documents

There are many materials in the possession of public institutions that have not been deciphered, and even if they are brought to research institutions, the organizations do not have the capacity to handle them. As a result, valuable materials, such as letters and records, are lost as they are disposed of or damaged without being read. For this reason, Toppan has been researching deciphering technology since 2015, and has developed the app in collaboration with the Kyoto municipal history museum, the Tokyo-based public interest incorporated foundation Mitsui Bunko and other bodies. The app is equipped with dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) that has memorized deciphered ancient documents. It analyzes the cursive characters captured by the smartphone camera, converts them into printed characters, and displays them on its screen. For documents from the Edo period, the decipherment accuracy is said to be about 90%, and it is possible to tell what is written to some extent.

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Majestic said:

I have been using an app called "Miwo". It is useful maybe 1/10th of the time, which I consider pretty decent. I mean, out of 100 documents that were completely inaccessible to me, I know have access to (or a partial understanding of) 10 of those documents. And this will only improve, so I am hopeful.
Actually I'm also somewhat apprehensive about this future. Its kind of a unique skill to be able to decipher handwritten Japanese texts, especially pre-war texts. The value of that skill is getting eroded year after year, which kind of makes me sad.

Miwo app here ↓

miwo: App for AI Kuzushiji Recognition

codh.rois.ac.jp

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