No, seriously, I totally did!
The Starbucks near campus is in the same building as a Mitsubishi showroom, and about two months ago, they tore down the wall separating the cafe and the showroom so you can sip coffee while gazing at shiny new cars. Mel, Sarah, David and I were getting coffee when we noticed this short yellow robot gliding around the showroom!
We watched a salaryman try to speak to it briefly. It didn't seem like the robot responded, but it was so cool-looking we all wandered over to check it out. It happened to be standing near its own info panel which listed words and phrases that the robot, named Wakamaru, would respond to.
Sarah asked, "What time is it?" loudly in Japanese, and the robot responded with the correct time in a Japanese woman's voice. It was so cute! There is a panel on its chest that flashed pictures like the time, a heart, and its battery life. Sarah asked it several questions, like What are you doing, What is your name, etc, and it responded to each question with a really cute answer; to "What are you doing?", it replied, "I'm wandering around the room, smiling all the while." Chou kawaii!
But what made it really interactive was it has sensors on its head that allows it to locate whomever it is talking to it. Every time Sarah moved, Wakamaru moved its face to keep its focus on her.
Here is a link to Mitsubishi's Wakamaru website in English if you want to check it out: http://www.mhi.co.jp/kobe/wakamaru/english/
One more experience to check off on my Japan to-do list!
No comments:
Post a Comment