Public transport service providers and other concerns in Japan are introducing artificial intelligence to categorise and catalogue lost items and provide information on where to return them.
Some 30 organisations have introduced a “lost-and-found platform”, developed by Tokyo-based information technology firm Find, at about 2,300 stations and other locations.
They include the Sapporo City Transport Bureau and Tokyo’s Haneda airport, as well as the Tokyo police force and the Oita prefectural police.
Tokyo-based railway operator Keio has seen its rate of return of lost possessions increase to 30 per cent, up from less than 10 per cent before the adoption of the system.
When a lost item is turned in, transport or other workers take a picture of it with their tablets. Find’s AI-based system then registers the colour, shape and other features of the item before storing the information along with the photos in a database.
