A woman clad in a traditional Kimono is greeting shoppers at one of Tokyo's famous retail stores. Her name is Aiko Chihira and she's unlike any other receptionist. Aiko is actually a humanoid robot.
Last year, tech giant Toshiba developed a prototype of Aiko, and on Monday, she debuted for "work" at the Mitsukoshi department store, greeting and seemingly interacting with shoppers.
Designed with a human-like appearance, Aiko speaks in the native language. But she has been programmed for other languages as well, such as Chinese, and eventually Korean. She can also do Japanese sign language, as Aiko has 43 functioning motors for movement, according to Reuters.
Her function has some limitations, however, as she has yet to be programmed to reply to questions from customers. "It still does not have this function, but we are working on it," said Toshiba's Taihei Yamaguchi, via the Reuters report. Yamaguchi works in research and development.
Aiko will be at Mitsukoshi for two days only, then she will be showcased at an upcoming Toshiba event. She was with Japanese opera singer Shoko Iwashita who performed during the unveiling. Aiko lip-synced to Iwashita's voice and even asked the singer to applaud her.
Yamaguchi further said that the humanoid, who resembles a realistic looking 32-year-old woman, was not intended to be solely a receptionist. "We want to introduce it to social care institutions for the elderly in the future so that it can talk to and help them," clarified the developer. There are also plans to develop the robot for the 2020 Olympic Games.
Aiko is not the first robot to work in a retail store, however, as reports say that Nestle also unveiled its humanoid robot named Pepper to help with the sale of its coffeemakers. Pepper made the rounds of appliance stores in Japan last year.
Watch a video of Aiko at the Japanese store below:
