Using YarakuZen to translate digital signage

Digital signage can be seen everywhere in stores, such as shops, commercial facilities, public spaces, etc. In addition to conventional outdoor advertising usage, bi-directional information transmission combined with mobile and tablet, unattended guidance incorporating speech recognition such as AI, etc. are being examined for future diversification.
Mr. Kazuhiro Murasugi, producer of Systemic Engineering Department, PIDCY Co., Ltd., the largest digital signage company, and Mr. Masao Matsuo of the promotion & service department.

Can you introduce your business?

Our main business is to sell digital signage. I think that there are many people who have experienced looking for a place of interest on a touch panel display as large as 55′ installed in a commercial facility. In general, it is called “touch panel type floor guide”, but in addition to that, we provide various information displays with LED display etc.
Since about two years ago, there has been an increasing demand for “new forms of guidance displays that can be used more easily” in these commercial establishments, for the purpose “to guide quickly when speaking in ordinary words”. We realized we can combine the services with AI technology which is currently drawing attention.

That is our “OneGATEAI”.

Currently, our service is expanding not only at commercial facilities but also at tourist information centers at tourist information centers. For example, in August 2018, we introduced “Tourism Guidance Multilingual AI Concierge” in Ehimeji, Fukui Prefecture.

Multilingual support such as English, Chinese, Korean is a challenge

How about translating needs?

To date, for clients who have introduced “AI Concierge”, customers have been considering introduction, as a common requirement to foreigners visiting Japan. There is also a need for a tool to promote optimization of human resource placement, but the highest need is multilingual communication for foreigners visiting Japan. If you are Japanese, everyone else can speak Japanese, but there are only a few people who can speak various languages such as English, Chinese, Korean, and even Japanese who can speak several languages by themselves.
“OneGATEAI” supports Japanese, English, Chinese (Simplified / Traditional), Korean 4 languages in 5 languages. For this purpose, translation to foreign languages is required.

Accurate answers are essential, but costs are inconsistent.

What were the tasks of the business and how did you introduce YarakuZen?

It is natural that we respond to questions in Japanese, but how to respond to foreigners visiting Japan accurately is required at the same time. However, in order to realize a highly accurate answer, it is essential for the user to accurately supplement the context of the question in its natural language, so the question is understood.
For example, “Where is the toilet?”, “What is the location of the restroom?”, “I need to go the bathroom”, etc. all ask for the location of the toilet, but since this is a problem before translation, to describe it also requires certain experience and skills. Also, no matter how much you prepare the question text in Japanese, if you translate it, it is highly likely that it will be aggregated as “where is the toilet?”
Thinking that way, all the translation work has to be done by manual translation, but then it does not meet customer’s request in terms of cost. Therefore, by introducing and utilizing YarakuZen which operates with “hybrid translation” with initial translation by machine then manual checking, it is now possible to balance the quality and the cost.

Phrases and Glossary are shared within the company.

What are the effects and future possibilities after introducing YarakuZen?

With introducing YarakuZen, we have promoted sharing within the team by registering a large number of Phrases and Glossary, and have aimed at realizing improvement in translation quality and productivity.
Furthermore, regarding the cost of human translation, it is also attractive to be able to obtain estimates in real time on YarakuZen’s application. In the past, it took time just to estimate with an external contractor.
However, as currently the main usage is at the individual level, I would like to further promote the sharing with the whole team in the future and increase work efficiency.