AFP, Tokyo :
She can smile, she can sing and this robot receptionist who started work in Tokyo today never gets bored of welcoming customers to her upmarket shop.
“My name is ChihiraAico. How do you do?” she says in Japanese, blinking and nodding to customers in the foyer of Mitsukoshi, Japan’s oldest department store chain.
Clad in an elegant traditional kimono, ChihiraAico a name that sounds similar to a regular Japanese woman’s name breaks into a rosy-lipped smile as would-be shoppers approach.
Unlike her real-life counterparts almost always young women who welcome customers to shops like this, ChihiraAico cannot answer questions, but simply runs through her pre-recorded spiel.
The android, with lifelike skin and almost (but not quite) natural-looking movements, was developed by microwaves-to-power stations conglomerate Toshiba, and unveiled at a tech fair in Japan last year.
“We are aiming to develop a robot that can gradually do what a human does,” said Hitoshi Tokuda, chief specialist at Toshiba.
She can smile, she can sing and this robot receptionist who started work in Tokyo today never gets bored of welcoming customers to her upmarket shop.
“My name is ChihiraAico. How do you do?” she says in Japanese, blinking and nodding to customers in the foyer of Mitsukoshi, Japan’s oldest department store chain.
Clad in an elegant traditional kimono, ChihiraAico a name that sounds similar to a regular Japanese woman’s name breaks into a rosy-lipped smile as would-be shoppers approach.
Unlike her real-life counterparts almost always young women who welcome customers to shops like this, ChihiraAico cannot answer questions, but simply runs through her pre-recorded spiel.
The android, with lifelike skin and almost (but not quite) natural-looking movements, was developed by microwaves-to-power stations conglomerate Toshiba, and unveiled at a tech fair in Japan last year.
“We are aiming to develop a robot that can gradually do what a human does,” said Hitoshi Tokuda, chief specialist at Toshiba.
