Recently, I was asked the question: "Why did you decide to learn Data Science?" The first things that came to mind were events like teaching myself Python during the downtime of my old security job, writing Python scripts to input and display company traveler data on a flight-map, or just how much fun I had making reports on which doors were used most frequently at my work building. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that these were contributing factors to my decision to study Data Science, not the primary reason. The primary reason comes from a story that has stuck with me since I first heard it. In 2007 Japanese tech company Brain Co. Ltd. had seen moderate success selling software to big companies.

Scanning a tissue sample for cancer cells is a painstakingly time consuming process. A pathologist has to look over the sample slide in a microscope, checking each cell to see if there is an abnormality. However, a surprising Japanese artificial intelligence (AI) machine called BakeryScan that identifies bakery items has come to the rescue. According to an article reported in The New Yorker, a doctor once walked into a Tokyo bakery in 2019. There, he saw a multitude of pastry items he could choose from and got excited. But it was the checkout process that impressed him the most.

An artificial intelligence system that was originally designed to distinguish between different types of pastry in Japan in 2013 was adapted to identify cancers, The New Yorker reports. The system, called "BakeryScan," was first launched back in 2013 by Hisashi Kambe, a computer systems engineer. The system, which is still around and can be bought for roughly $20,000, gives local bakeries a hand by doing basic tasks like distinguishing croissants from bear claws. It can cut down on employee training and make the checkout process more hygienic, according to the company. But several years later, a doctor from the Louis Pasteur Center for Medical Research in Kyoto realized that the clever tool could be used for a very different purpose as well: recognizing cancerous cells in microscope slides.

Artificial intelligence designed to recognize different type of pastries could be a vital tool in the medical world. BakeryScan, developed by Japan-based Brain Co., scans baked good on a tray with a camera and uploads the official name of each to a system for easy checkout at a bakery – but scientists found it can also identify cancer. A doctor from the Louise Pasteur Center for Medical Research in Kyoto had the system revised to spot cancerous cells on a microscope slide with 99 percent accuracy. Instead of investigating doughnut holes and bread ridges, the redesigned system, called Cyto-AisCAN, analyzes a urinary cell to identify and measure its nucleus to determine if it is diseased. BakeryScan, developed by Japan-based Brain Co., scans baked good on a tray with a camera and uploads the official name of each to a system for easy checkout at a bakery – but scientists found it can also identify cancer.

Faces are far from the only thing artificial intelligence researchers want computers to recognize. One Japanese tech company has created an AI-powered camera system, called BakeryScan, that is able to recognize different types of breads and pastries. Developed by Japanese tech and media firm Brain Co., the scanning tools are currently installed in more than 400 retail locations across Japan. One of the technology's biggest clients is the Andersen Group, a chain of high-end Danish-inspired bakeries that operate across Japan, according to a report from The Asahi Shimbun. BakeryScan works through a camera that's mounted above a backlit checkout tray.

Before Hisashi Kanbe in 2013 introduced BakeryScan, the world's first image recognition checkout system designed specifically for bread, it was the job of every bakery worker in Japan to memorize the assorted prices of each baked good -- from baguettes back to bagels. Unlike shrink-wrapped food, whose prices are easy to calculate by scanning barcodes, bread is usually displayed sans packaging because "it sells better that way," said Kanbe, CEO of a Hyogo-based company Brain Co. "But in a store with as many as 100 kinds of bread, it's virtually impossible for inexperienced workers to remember all of their prices." But with BakeryScan, even novices can handle purchases by placing a tray of bread under a scanner, which identifies every item based on shape and color, calculates the prices and displays the total on a screen -- all in just one second, eliminating the need for workers to manually enter prices piece by piece at the cash register. "Many bakery owners say our product has made their job much easier and much more efficient," he said, adding that the system is already used by about 250 bakeries nationwide. BakeryScan could be a game-changer for the nation's service industries, which are struggling with the worst labor shortage in a quarter of a century.