TUNA SCOPE was developed by Japan-based international advertising and public relations joint stock company Dentsu Inc. in partnership with its subsidiary, Information Services International-Dentsu, Ltd., and trading company Sojitz Corporation as an AI-based system capable of judging the quality of wild-caught tuna using cross-sectional images of their tails. The goal of was to pass down the tuna evaluation skills of experienced graders amid a shortage of successors.
To build the app, more than 4,000 cross-sectional tuna tail samples were photographed at one of Sojitz’s client fisheries. With the photos, the partners built a four-stage quality assessment system, which they used as the basis for their smartphone application.
In March 2019, a fish processing plant at the port of Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture – a base for Japan’s distant-water tuna fishery – implemented the TUNA SCOPE system to evaluate yellowfin tuna. The system was able to match the quality assessments conducted by tuna wholesalers with 35 years of experience, with 85 percent accuracy.
The tuna that underwent quality analysis using TUNA SCOPE were certified as “AI Maguro,” (maguro means tuna) and were sold in a promotional sampling. The AI Maguro-branded tuna sold over 1,000 plates at a sushi restaurant located at Tokyo Station. About 80 percent of customers who ate the tuna described it as “even more delicious as normal tuna sold at the same price.”
High-end tuna like bluefin and bigeye are subjected to more detailed grading by experts, including inspections of the collar (for color), belly wall (for fattiness), overall size, a core sample, and a tail cut (rather than cross-section), which may also be touched to understand texture.
For lower-value species like yellowtail, the selling price does not always justify the manpower for detailed inspection by a skilled grader – TUNA SCOPE may fill this void, according to its developers. Sojitz Corporation, in a May 2019 press release, announced this development, and noted that it would continue to pursue new AI and IoT (Internet of Things) business initiatives via its subsidiary, Sojitz Tuna Farm Takashima.
“In the future, Sojitz plans to expand new technologies for overseas application, usage of this technology to other species of fish, and so forth, in order to provide solutions to issues in the marine products industry and contribute to greater value creation,” the firm said.
However, a spokesman for Sojitz Tuna Farm Takashima said that no further developments had been made by Sojitz. The tuna farmer raises bluefin, while TUNA SCOPE is currently only capable of analyzing yellowfin tuna, so the app is not currently being used by the producer.
On the other hand, Dentsu, which was behind the original idea, is actively promoting the use of TUNA SCOPE. Dentsu Creative Director Kazuhiro Shimura, who is responsible for the development and IP management of TUNA SCOPE, said installations are in progress.
“In regard to locations that have been installed overseas, we began installation at a fish factory in Dailan, China starting November 2019. The system can be used again in Yaizu once we receive incoming orders of AI Tuna. In addition, we began selling tuna that has been qualified guaranteed by TUNA SCOPE in New York and Singapore starting this January; we are currently underway to expand more stores overseas to utilize TUNA SCOPE,” Shimura said. “In regards to the utility of the system, the ones installed in Dailan and Yaizu use yellowfin as sample data. However, by inputting data from fisheries dealt with in factories, TUNA SCOPE can accommodate qualifying other types of fishes; such as bluefin and bigeye tuna.”
“By installing the TUNA SCOPE app on one's smartphone and taking a picture of the cut-down surface of tuna tail, quality determination on par with professionals in Japan is possible by anyone, and anywhere. We are currently in negotiations with other companies, as we are able to deliver elsewhere than Sojitsu,” he added.
Photo courtesy of TUNA SCOPE
