Japanese personnel placement agency People Staff will soon start dispatching robots as well as humans. Robots may be sent to retirement homes, offices, hospitals, hotel reception areas, etc. This service called “Robot Dispatch” will start next month.
[left: hello kitty robo, right: yorisoi ifbot]
The company will dispatch Hello Kitty Robo (related entry here) as receptionists. When Hello Kitty Robos detect visitors with sensors, they say “Welcome!”, capture the image/voice of the visitors using cameras/microphones, and send the data to a personal computer. They can work at offices, hospitals, and hotels (at night).
Yorisoi ifbot (cuddling up ifbot) is another robot “hired” for this service. They may go to retirement homes since they can, for example, quiz the elderly to help them prevent decline of cognitive abilities.
It costs about 45,000 – 53,000 Japanese Yen (US$375-440) a month to have such a robot from People Staff. If you really like the robot, you can buy it too.
Japan has a large elderly population; however, the number of the young is decreasing. So, the idea of this business arose.
via People Staff’s Press release Sankei Shimbun slashdot.jp.
In english: Japan Today and Kyodo News.