Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma : and Pixie Dust Technologies Sign Joint R&D Agreement on Communication Support Smart Glasses for Hard of Hearing People

September 3, 2021

Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd.

Pixie Dust Technologies, Inc.

Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and Pixie Dust Technologies Sign Joint R&D

Agreement on Communication Support Smart Glasses for Hard of Hearing People

Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Osaka, Japan; Representative Director,

President and CEO: Hiroshi Nomura) and Pixie Dust Technologies, Inc. (Head Office:

Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan; CEO: Yoichi Ochiai; hereinafter, "PxDT") announced today the signing of a joint R&D agreement for smart glasses that support the communication needs of hard of hearing people (hereinafter, "Smart Glasses for Hard of Hearing People").

In Japan, it is estimated that there are 14.6 million hard of hearing people, most of whom use a hearing aid to support their communication needs. But this handy tool is not without limitations in conferences and other settings that require one-to-many/many-to-many communication: It is difficult to hear clearly or identify who is speaking when more than one person speaks at the same time. Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and PxDT have joined forces to work on issues that are difficult for conventional hearing aids to address by developing smart glasses capable of converting utterances to subtitles so that users can see who is speaking and what they are saying.

Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and PxDT have jointly developed element technology and prototype of Smart Glasses for Hard of Hearing People and, through interviews with people using the prototype, confirmed the social need for their development. The two companies thus decided to conclude a new joint R&D agreement with a view toward improving the display user interface and usability for Smart Glasses for Hard of Hearing People.

Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and PxDT aim that the smart glasses with superb usability thus developed jointly will eliminate communication barriers for hard of hearing people, thus realizing a society where such people can give full play to their abilities.

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Reference

About Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd.

Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma defines its corporate mission as "to broadly contribute to society through value creation based on innovative research and development activities for the betterment of healthcare and fuller lives of people worldwide." By channeling our efforts into the research and development of new drugs, we aim to realize our corporate mission and provide innovative and effective pharmaceutical solutions to people in Japan and globally. Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma's goal is to create innovative pharmaceutical products in the focus research areas with high unmet medical needs of Psychiatry & Neurology, Oncology, and Regenerative Medicine / Cell Therapy. In business fields other than pharmaceuticals, too, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma is working on research and development and commercialization of innovative healthcare solutions under the framework of a frontier business, which goes beyond the traditional boundaries of a pharmaceutical company, with the aim of contributing to "wide-rangingwell-being."

About Pixie Dust Technologies, Inc.

PxDT is a university-launched venture company that takes a bird's eye view of the world from the perspective of Digitally Rebalanced where new equilibrium points are led by digital technologies and aims to be a driving force of that change. PxDT will realize this by researching and developing interface technologies that connects the digital and physical worlds and continuously implementing these technologies in society.

Contacts

Corporate Communications

Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd.

TEL: [phone] (Osaka); [phone] (Tokyo)

Public Relations

Pixie Dust Technologies, Inc.

Contact: https://pixiedusttech.com/contact/

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