Korean startup Upstage has made a name for itself in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry by winning first place in four categories at the International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition (ICDAR) competition. The ICDAR is the most prestigious international competition in the field of optical character recognition (OCR), which detects and recognizes text in digital images and videos.
Since its inception in 1991, the ICDAR has been the stage for leading tech companies to compete against each other in 19 different categories. This year, Upstage triumphed over big tech companies such as Amazon, Nvidia, Alibaba, and Huawei in all four categories: HierText-1/2, VQAonBD, and IHTR.
OCR is a foundational technology for digital transformation, and Upstage’s victory demonstrates the company’s expertise in both text detection and recognition. Upstage explained that its OCR technology outperformed those of global big tech companies such as Amazon, Nvidia, Alibaba, and Huawei in both text detection and recognition.
Upstage has been quick to seize on the growing demand for OCR technology, which is becoming increasingly important for digitizing data assets. Earlier this year, the company developed an OCR pack and signed contracts with Hanwha Life Insurance and Samsung SDS.
In addition to its impressive performance in text detection and recognition, Upstage also won first place in the IHTR category, which involves processing 10 different languages used in India. Upstage also achieved a significant lead over its competitors in the VQAonBD category, which involves providing an answer to data within a given image.
Upstage CEO Kim Sung-hoon said, “With Upstage’s AI OCR, which has been verified as the world’s best technology, we will help with the digital transformation of all industries that require document automation and global AI innovation.”