Hitachi is a multinational conglomerate and one of the most prominent ultrasound machine manufacturers and diagnostic imaging machines manufacturers which offers lots of products and services including operational products and services, and IT-related digital technologies. They offer AI and big data analysis. Their AI and machine learning technologies are so influential that they not only impact their own products and services but also how another industry operates as well. “H” is an AI technology developed by Hitachi. It has a wide variety of use and today we talk about it here.
Hitachi’s AI Technology “H”
H was announced by Hitachi in 2015. It’s a smart AI technology that was not built for a specific application. It can be applied to many applications. H has the capability of creating hypotheses from the given data and select the best options given to it by humans and it supports a wide range of applications. Hitachi ran an experiment in which a robot that had the H technology in it taught itself to swing!
That experiment started with inconsistent movement that didn’t create an effective swinging motion but in a small period of time, H first tested the hypotheses, learned from the given data and changed the robot’s motion to finally create a swinging motion. That swinging motion was even more effective than the ones produced by humans. Hitachi has applied H in 57 projects so far in 14 areas that range from a warehouse management system to ultrasound machines, retail sales, finance, water plants, etc.
How H Works
H takes natural language processing and deep learning, and then combine them to process information from different sensors and data points in order to find patterns in the data that humans would usually miss. H doesn’t need human assistance to set up a hypothesis in advance, it can grow itself according to the situation.
Screen Cancer
Hitachi thinks that H is capable of helping to fight cancer. In order to find signs of breast and colon cancer, Hitachi is screening urine samples that are collected by individuals at their homes. This trial is one of the first of its kind. Hitachi collected donated urine samples from cancer patients and the research revealed 1300 metabolites, among them 30 are considered biomarkers of the disease. After analyzing the urine samples, H looks for those biomarkers that show the body has cancer.
These tests are conducted for a couple of years and one of the most recent trials was conducted to determine if room temperature samples are suitable for analysis. If these trials become successful, this can be a game-changer in early cancer detection, which will increase life expectancy, save lives, and reduce the cost of treating cancer by a lot.
Conclusion
H has shown its capabilities in lots of fields as mentioned earlier. They have improved productivity by 8% in warehouses, increased 15% sales in retail, and boosted 27% order rates in call centers. Hitachi, one of the leading handheld ultrasound device manufacturers in the world, is trying to use H in more areas and make it more powerful. Since H was made for general purposes, it can be used as such and we can expect more great things from it in the future.
