EMIEW3
(Tech Xplore)—
EMIEW3—the name does
not easily roll off the tongue but it is the name of a people-friendly robot.
Hitachi showed the robot along with its associated customer service platform
earlier this month. The red and white cutie was designed to be helpful to
customers, for providing service and guidance at public facilities as well as
stores.
Why is the number 3 in the name? In Nikkei
Asian Review, Nikkei staff writers Tomohisa Takei and Satoshi Morotomi
said, "The new robot marks the third generation, and first commercially
viable member, of a series that began with an experimental model in 2005."
Key characteristics are the wheels
on both of its feet and how it is fed data on its surroundings by cameras and
microphones.
Hitachi said the remote brain platform
is connected to intelligent processing systems which are cloud-based.The
platform is also connected to a remote operation system, said the company,
which can monitor and control robots at various locations. What is more,
"restoration instructions can be sent from a remote location to quickly
resume services, thus improving the operation availability of robot services."
What's next for this helper?
Tokyo-based Hitachi will start proof of concept on the robot services, together
with customers. The company seeks to put it on the
market in 2018, said Nikkei Asian Review.
According to Jun Hongo in The Wall
Street Journal,"The price of the robot
hasn't been decided, but it will be on sale for business use and not for
consumers, said Hitachi spokeswoman Tomiko Kinoshita."
In fact, the company put the
prototype through a situation recently, reported Nikkei Asian Review,
where the prototype surveyed its surroundings and approached an actress playing
a lost foreigner. "Is there something I can help you with?" the
machine asked her in Japanese. "Where is the tourist information?"
the woman asked in English. The robot switched to her language and led her to
the place she was looking for.
EMIEW3's capabilities summarized: It
can identify a person requiring assistance, autonomously approach the person
and initiate customer services, share information with other EMIEW3 units to
ensure smooth service continuation, and, if knocked over, it can resume a
standing position.
How would the robot know if a
shopper was looking for some assistance? Hitachi said, "by linking human
movement and network cameras for environmental recognition, the robot can
identify customers requiring support and autonomously initiate customer
services."
No problem if the customer is in an
environment with lots of noise—Hitachi said there is "voice and language
processing technology" involved which enables voice recognition and
translation.
The robot's
features include a height of 90cm, weight of 15kg, and an ability to keep pace
with humans.
Whereas we often read news about
robots designed for purposes of security, rescue, defense and industrial work,
Japan has kept an impressive focus on robots which can talk with people and
express themselves through gestures.
In just a few years," remarked
Takei and Morotomi, EMIEW3 "will provide customer service in airports,
hospitals, train stations and other facilities, speaking four languages so that
it can even serve the masses of foreign tourists streaming into Japan."
http://techxplore.com/news/2016-04-emiew3-robot-duty-customer-role.html
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