April 3, 2019, Tokyo Japan – Preferred Networks, Inc. (PFN, Head Office: Tokyo, President & CEO: Toru Nishikawa) will start providing Crypko technology, a character generation platform, as part of the PFN Creative Project.

In May 2018, a beta version of Crypko was released to the public as a Web service utilizing deep learning technology. The service ended in March 2019 while receiving many positive reactions from the users.  Moving forward, PFN will provide the Crypko technology initially to businesses that produce animation, illustration, and games, while continuing to do research and development to improve the technology.

Crypko uses state-of-the-art deep learning technology to generate high-quality characters in an infinite number of ways (Video 1). Further, it can fuse several characters into new characters inheriting, their distinctive features (Figure 1).  

In addition, Crypko applies the blockchain smart contract technology※1 to manage the history of generated/fused characters and the linkage between the users and characters, providing a system to guarantee the value of each character. A combination of these technologies on the Crypto platform has made it possible to create a unique character that will exist nowhere else in the world.

• Crypko  character generation platform  https://crypko.ai

Video 1: Examples of generating characters

Figure１: Examples of fusing characters

PFN will continue to apply deep learning technology to areas such as animation, illustration, and games to drive technological innovations in the creative fields.

※1  Crypko records data of transactions, such as generation, fusion, and exchange of characters, on the blockchain, in a way that allows the transaction data to be made publicly available on the network. The data becomes valid only after all Crypko participants have verified and agreed on the validity of the transaction record. The processed data is distributed and stored across many nodes on the network. Therefore, while data on some nodes can be tampered with, it is virtually impossible to falsify all the records on the network, leaving little room for foul play.

＊Crypko is the trademark or registered trademark of Preferred Networks, Inc. in Japan and elsewhere.

投稿 Preferred Networks Creative Project: PFN releases Crypko technology, a character generation platform は Preferred Networks, Inc. に最初に表示されました。

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The Japan Media Arts Festival publicly honors highly creative, artistic works in four fields of media arts: Art, Entertainment, Animation, and Manga. The annual festival was first organized in 1997 and has since recognized and awarded outstanding works. This year, it has received 4,192 entries from 98 countries and regions around the world, the most in its history, and has announced a grand prize winner, four excellence award winners, and three new face award winners in each of the four categories.

PaintsChainer has drawn a huge reaction on Twitter and other social media sites the moment it was released in January 2017 as a free online service that colors black and white sketches automatically. It uses a deep learning technology to recognize faces, clothing, and other background objects on an uploaded sketch image or picture, and color them automatically or based on a specified color. Currently, it provides three different coloring models Tanpopo, Satsuki, and Canna.

https://paintschainer.preferred.tech/index_en.html

The jury cites the significance of providing an automatic coloring platform as a free web service as the main reason for giving the Excellence Award to PaintsChainer.

A commemorative photo of award winners taken at the press conference at the National Art Center, Tokyo. The fourth person from the left in the middle row is Taizan Yonetsuji.

PaintsChainer was developed by one of PFN engineers Taizan Yonetsuji, who has commented as follows:

It all started as my personal project, so I could also study deep learning. I feel very honored to receive such an award and am truly grateful to my senior colleagues who have taught me about deep learning, everyone at Preferred Networks who has supported the launch and operation of the service, and all the users who have said PaintsChainer was fun and enjoyed using it. We will make PaintsChainer even greater while continuing to take on other new challenges.

● Summary

•  Award： Excellence Award, Entertainment Division
•  Work： PaintsChainer
•  Creator：YONETSUJI Taizan
• http://festival.j-mediaarts.jp/en/award/entertainment/

● 21st Japan Media Arts Festival Exhibition of Award-winning Works

All the award-winning works that represent the media arts of the modern times will be shown to the public during the exhibition, which also includes symposia, artists’ talks, workshops, and other related events.

•    Venue：     The National Art Center, Tokyo (Roppongi)
•    Period：    Wednesday, June 13 – Sunday, June 24, 2018
• http://festival.j-mediaarts.jp/en/exhibit/outline/

※PaintsChainer is the registered trademark of Preferred Networks, Inc. in Japan and other countries. Other company names and product names written in this release are the trademarks or the registered trademarks of each company.

投稿 Preferred Networks’ automatic coloring service PaintsChainer receives the Excellence Award at the 21st Japan Media Arts Festival は Preferred Networks, Inc. に最初に表示されました。