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Japanese Robot Receptionists For Hire
Tokyo (AFP) June 14, 2007 Wanted: new receptionist. Must have wheels, sensors and face recognition technology. Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. said Thursday that it had started renting out its "wakamaru" robots to work at the front desk of offices, hospitals and other places in need of the humanoid touch. The robot, which is one metre (three feet) tall and weighs 30 kilogrammes, is available to rent for a mere 120,000 yen (1,000 dollars) a day for up to five days, although the daily price drops to 20,000 yen for three weeks to a month. The bright-yellow robot recognises about 10,000 words necessary for daily life and can speak basic sentences and move around on its own at one kilometre an hour, avoiding any obstacles in its path. It is unlikely to call in sick. Mitsubishi already put the robot on sale in 2005 with a 1.575 million yen (13,000 dollars) price tag, and it have been used at dozens of events including the 2005 World Expo in central Japan. Japan leads the world's robotic industries in fields ranging from manufacturing to entertainment and security. Robot use is expected to grow as Japan grapples with labour shortages due to an ageing and shrinking population. Last October a Japanese hospital introduced a trio of robots produced by another company to work as a receptionist and porters.
Source: Agence France-Presse Email This Article
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Japanese Researchers Help Robots Brush Up Communication Skills
Tokyo (AFP) June 13, 2007Japanese researchers said Wednesday they had developed a new system that would allow robots to learn their own communication skills and conversation patterns. The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology said the system, which it described as a world first, allows robots to move beyond recognition of only certain nouns to understand even ambiguous phrases. |
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