If dogs could speak...

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Meow I help you?
A Japanese design firm is offering for sale or lease a robot receptionist -- the cost is 50000 yen or about US $425 per month, which they claim is 1/6 the cost of a human receptionist. If you have ever been to Japan, you'd know that the receptionist in many stores is there to just smile, and say "Welcome" when a customer walks in, and "Thank you very much" when he leaves. In Japanese, of course. In busier shops, they have two or three receptionists, and sometimes the store owner and the staff in the back also chime in, so you get "Welcome" in stereo, with Dolby 5.1 clarity. Quite impressive I think. And they do this with a lot more enthusiasm than an Alaska Airlines flight attendant greeting you onboard. Hundreds of times a day if they must.

So the requirements for a Japanese receptionist are tough. How do you clone a smile that says nothing of substance but appears pleasant and comforting all day long? The obvious answer is a cat. In this case it's a plastic cat, but they probably could have used a live cat with the same cheap effect. The company, Business Design Laboratory, came up with a Hello Kitty Robo, modeled after that well known Hello Kitty cat that is so loved by Japanese kids and adults alike, for reasons I will never understand.

You can go to their web page to learn more about the cat's personality (she loves baking cookies and her most prized possession is an album full of memories, just like Miss Universe, but she didn't say that she wants to help the children of the world). You can also hear short snippets of her voice. Turn the speakers down though -- she sounds shrill even for a cat, and she says things like "I can't wait to come to your home and talk with you." Whoa there, helloooo Kitty. There is also a whole page on how she displays her emotions by turning her head, raising her arms, or flashing her whiskers. Go ahead, try it, you can spend hours engaging Kitty in a very illuminating conversation. Just be careful -- she might know shorthand.

For me, I don't know. There is always this dog-cat rivalry thing. I might get in trouble for attacking her the first time she meows at me. I think I'd prefer something more like a Walmart greeter.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 6:05 AM

Comments:

A Hello Kitty in every store. That would be enough to make me stay home and buy through amazon.

# posted by

Anonymous : 29 January, 2006 12:18

Hmmm. Sometimes a story is just so very odd that I have no response. Robot cats as greeters . . . if this were southern Califonia, I'm sure the kitties would be looking for Sarah Conner . . .

# posted by

John : 29 January, 2006 17:44

Connecticut,
I really don't understand the Japanese obsession with Hello Kitty either. But of course I think all cats are dumb, live or robot.

John,
More likely they'd just curl up and purr... Dumb beasts.

# posted by

Woofwoof : 01 February, 2006 22:17

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