Seafood lovers know the fatty marbling is what makes tuna sashimi and sushi so tasty, so for the industry, it is the fish’s level of fattiness that is used to judge its quality and pricing.
Usually, several people assess how fatty a tuna is by cutting the tail with a giant saw-like knife, an operation that takes about 60 seconds per fish.
However, now a machine called Sonofai uses ultrasound waves to do the job in 12 seconds, operated by a person without prior knowledge of how to carve fish.
Photo: AP
Fujitsu, the Japanese company behind the technology, invited reporters this week for a demonstration of Sonofai, a word blended from “sono” referring to “sound,” “f” for Fujitsu, and “ai,” or artificial intelligence. The name refers to its components but also stands for “son of AI.”
A conveyor belt transports a whole frozen tuna fish, about 1m in size, into a machine that beams ultrasound waves. Sensors pick up the waves to draw a zigzagging diagram on a screen to indicate the fish’s fattiness.
Fatty meat absorbs fewer sound waves than lean meat and AI sorts real data from misleading “noise,” or irregularities.
Hisashi Ishida, president of Sonofai, the start-up behind the technology, who also heads Ishida Tec Co, which makes food-manufacturing equipment, says it is safer, more sanitary and efficient.
“Fatty fish tastes good, feels better on your tongue and is called toro,” he said. “Overseas needs are growing, because sushi culture is now appreciated around the world.”
Beef has a grading system for fat and expected flavor, but being able to gauge the quality of tuna is new, said Hideto Okada, who oversees AI at Fujitsu.
Sonofai uses the same technology as medical ultrasound scans where high-frequency inaudible sound waves are absorbed or bounced back to create video-like images of things that are not visible, like a fetus inside a mother’s womb. Unlike the CT scan or X-ray, it does not use radiation, which can harm tissue.
Chris Edwards, a medical doctor and professor at Queensland University of Technology, who trains sonographers or healthcare professionals who specialize in ultrasound, has studied how ultrasound can be used to see the fattiness of a human liver, linked to diabetes and other health problems.
“They can look at one fish and compare it to another and say: ‘Oh, that one’s definitely got more fat than that one,’” he said.
However, Sonofai would not be at your neighborhood sushi chef.
Fish-processing outfits and fishing organizations are the likely buyers. The machine is set to go on sale in June for about ￥30 million (US$209,000) each, at first in Japan but expanding to the US and other places later. They would also work on upgrades to test for freshness, firmness and other characteristics of tuna and other fish varieties.
UNCERTAINTY: Innolux activated a stringent supply chain management mechanism, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure optimal inventory levels for customers Flat-panel display makers AUO Corp (友達) and Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said that about 12 to 20 percent of their display business is at risk of potential US tariffs and that they would relocate production or shipment destinations to mitigate the levies’ effects. US tariffs would have a direct impact of US$200 million on AUO’s revenue, company chairman Paul Peng (彭雙浪) told reporters on the sidelines of the Touch Taiwan trade show in Taipei yesterday. That would make up about 12 percent of the company’s overall revenue. To cope with the tariff uncertainty, AUO plans to allocate its production to manufacturing facilities in
Taiwan will prioritize the development of silicon photonics by taking advantage of its strength in the semiconductor industry to build another shield to protect the local economy, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said yesterday. Speaking at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee, Liu said Taiwan already has the artificial intelligence (AI) industry as a shield, after the semiconductor industry, to safeguard the country, and is looking at new unique fields to build more economic shields. While Taiwan will further strengthen its existing shields, over the longer term, the country is determined to focus on such potential segments as
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS