Japan robot hotel: Robot workers, human customers (videos)

This summer robots will be serving humans at a hotel near Nagasaki in Japan, carrying bags, checking guests in, serving food and cleaning rooms.

HOTELS & TOURISM

Japan set to open hotel staffed entirely by robots

Adapted from AFP Relaxnews

TOKYO, Feb 1 — After robot servers and concierges, Japan is set to open a hotel staffed entirely by robots.

When the Hen-na Hotel opens this summer, guests will hand over their luggage to robotic porters, and present themselves to a front desk staffed by blinking, beeping robots, reported The Japan Times.

Rooms will likewise be cleaned by robots, and coffee poured by AI (artificial intelligence).

The Hen-na hotel near Nagasaki will feature an all robot staff with skills to replace workers such as receptionists, cleaners, food servers and porters.

Likewise, the "cutting edge" hotel will use the latest in facial recognition technology and allow guests to open their door by simply presenting themselves in front of their room, without a key.

The Hen-na, which means "strange" in Japanese, will be the newest addition to the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Sasebo, Nagasaki, a head-scratching concept for the outside observer.

Built as an ode to the Netherlands, the park recreates Dutch streetscapes with life-sized replicas of old Dutch buildings and even a mock-up of The Hague, adds RocketNews.

In addition to attracting guests for its novelty factor, replacing humans with robots is part of a larger strategy aimed at reducing labour costs.

“We will make the most efficient hotel in the world,” company President Hideo Sawada said in a news conference.

The robots being used are called Actroids and are human-like robots which look and behave like a human. They were developed from research at Osaka University and manufactured by a company named Kokoro. The first models came out in 2003 featuring a Japanese woman who speaks Japanese, Chinese, Korean and English with the ability to make hand gestures and eye movements. The Henn-na hotel will feature three receptionist robots as well as robots serving as porters and working as cloak room attendants and cleaners.

Over in California, not far from Apple’s corporate campus, Aloft Hotels put what they called the world’s first robotic butler at the front desk last year. Botlr is used to shuttle amenities to guest rooms and acknowledges requests with peppy beeps and flashing lights.

Meanwhile, South Korea is set to open the world’s first theme park devoted entirely to robotics and artificial intelligence. Robot Land is set to open in 2016.

Room rates at the Hen-na Hotel start at ¥7,000 a night. — AFP-Relaxnews

Robot bartender of the future:

http://www.geeksnack.com/2015/02/04/worlds-first-hotel-run-actroids-will-japan/

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