April 3, 2019, Tokyo Japan – Preferred Networks, Inc. (PFN, Head Office: Tokyo, President & CEO: Toru Nishikawa) will start providing Crypko™️ technology, a character generation platform, as part of the PFN Creative Project.

In May 2018, a beta version of Crypko was released to the public as a Web service utilizing deep learning technology. The service ended in March 2019 while receiving many positive reactions from the users.  Moving forward, PFN will provide the Crypko technology initially to businesses that produce animation, illustration, and games, while continuing to do research and development to improve the technology.

Crypko uses state-of-the-art deep learning technology to generate high-quality characters in an infinite number of ways (Video 1). Further, it can fuse several characters into new characters inheriting, their distinctive features (Figure 1).  

In addition, Crypko applies the blockchain smart contract technology※1 to manage the history of generated/fused characters and the linkage between the users and characters, providing a system to guarantee the value of each character. A combination of these technologies on the Crypto platform has made it possible to create a unique character that will exist nowhere else in the world.

• Crypko  character generation platform  https://crypko.ai

Video 1: Examples of generating characters

Figure１: Examples of fusing characters

PFN will continue to apply deep learning technology to areas such as animation, illustration, and games to drive technological innovations in the creative fields.

※1  Crypko records data of transactions, such as generation, fusion, and exchange of characters, on the blockchain, in a way that allows the transaction data to be made publicly available on the network. The data becomes valid only after all Crypko participants have verified and agreed on the validity of the transaction record. The processed data is distributed and stored across many nodes on the network. Therefore, while data on some nodes can be tampered with, it is virtually impossible to falsify all the records on the network, leaving little room for foul play.

＊Crypko™ is the trademark or registered trademark of Preferred Networks, Inc. in Japan and elsewhere.