Chinese artificial intelligence pioneer SenseTime eyes expansion in Japan, with the company announcing on Friday that it was shortlisted to help a major Japanese enterprise upgrade its expressway monitoring system.

SenseTime said it was shortlisted as one of the finalists to partner with Central Nippon Expressway Company Limited (NEXCO Central Japan) to innovate the latter's expressway monitoring system for traffic tracking and analysis across Central Japan.

NEXCO Central Japan is a leading expressway company in Japan. Recent installation of CCTV cameras on its expressways aims to better manage and improve response times to different traffic situations.

Leveraging on its technology in deep learning and autonomous driving, SenseTime Japan, the company's Japanese unit, developed a traffic video analysis algorithm that is able to identify and track various types of vehicles over several lanes with high accuracy.

SenseTime said in a statement that such solutions also helped recognize the movements of the expressway workers and road debris, as well as detect traffic congestion and traffic incidents such as wrong-way driving, stranded vehicles, etc.

The algorithm has high robustness of object tracking under occlusions and the AI-empowered solution is not only cost effective but also durable, reliable and widely adaptable to different environments. Importantly, there is no need to replace existing cameras or alter the camera angles, the company added.

Lao Shihong, CEO of SenseTime Japan and General Manager of Automobile Business Division, said: "Following the establishment of the AI Autonomous Driving Park in Joso, Japan, last year, we are hoping to expand our global presence in the transportation field. We see this potential partnership with NEXCO Central Japan as a valuable opportunity to introduce our cutting-edge video analysis technology to Japan's transportation sector."

SenseTime Japan will collaborate with NEXCO Central Japan to test its intelligent video analysis solution for the monitoring of highway traffic.