GOLOVNIN Vasily
In Japan, there are about a million hikikomori – voluntary hermits who lock themselves at home, refusing to go to work and school, because they are afraid of other people. However, many of them would like to overcome painful complexes and fears, return to communication and find their place in active life. These people should be helped by tiny robots “Orihime”, which allow contact at a distance. As conceived by the developers, the devices can be used for a variety of purposes of remote, but emotional communication.
“In December, we start recruiting hikikomori willing to take part in our experiment,” Yumiko Usui, a welfare officer at the municipality of the large Japanese port city of Kobe, told me. we invite them to send their avatar for this, which is capable of a lot. “
The powered robot “Orihime” is only 23 cm high and 17 cm wide with folded arms. It is equipped with a high-quality powerful camera, microphones and speakers through which the owner can confidently convey his words even in a spacious room. Orihime has expressive eyes, capable of changing the intensity of the glow in accordance with the emotions of its distant host. The robot is not devoid of expressing feelings through gestures – it raises its hand to ask for the floor, is able to applaud or move its hands in time to its words.
Hikikomori, who decided to take part in the experiment, will need to download a special program into his smartphone or laptop that allows him to control the robot, which can be anywhere – in a room with potential friends, in the university auditorium, at a concert. A video camera will allow you to perfectly observe what is happening, microphones will catch all sounds.
The most shy ones may at first just silently observe what is happening, but enthusiasts from the city of Kobe are sure that these people will gradually be able to talk, and then they will be drawn into active activity, be it studies or other activities. So far, the municipality has rented only one robot for the experiment, but as the project expands, their number may increase.
Robots are not for sale
However, the Ori Institute company, which created these devices, assumes a much wider range of purposes for them. In Japan, for example, it is very common practice to send an employee of a company for six months or a year to the other end of the country to a regional branch of an organization or a government agency. At the same time, his family remains at home – his wife is not ready to quit a good job, the children go to a carefully selected school, where it is not easy to get a job. With the help of his avatar, the father of the family will be able to remotely participate in joint dinners, watch TV with the children, exchanging funny remarks.
“Orihime” is proposed to be used during travel – it will be useful, as its creators assure, patients in a hospital bed, residents of nursing homes. Such devices can also be used for business purposes – as avatars of remote participants in work meetings or, say, speakers at scientific conferences.
“Our robot avatar can be used wherever communication with people at a distance is required,” Keiko Hamaguchi, a spokeswoman for the Ori Institute, told me. works. “
By the way, robots are not for sale – only the system of rental and technical support of such devices operates. The founders of the Ori Institute emphasize that their goal is not a sale, but the fulfillment of a kind of social mission, designed to help people make contact and find mutual understanding more easily. With an annual contract, renting one device will cost somewhere in the $ 195 per month.
Avatar Cafe
Orihime is the name of a beauty from an old Japanese legend who is separated from her lover. By the will of magic, they turned into constellations that occur in the sky only once a year, around July 7. Therefore, Orihime, as they explained to me, is a symbol of distant emotional communication, because even separated lovers never stopped their dialogue for a minute.
“But this does not mean that Orihime is only a female creature,” explains Ms. Usui from Kobe Municipality. “The device can easily, depending on the owner, become a man, perfectly conveying his feelings and intonation.”
The Ori Institute, by the way, opened a cafe in the center of Tokyo, where visitors can communicate with friends at a distance through robotic avatars. This enables people to have a virtual lunch or coffee together, even if they are thousands of kilometers away.
However, enthusiasts from the city of Kobe hope that Orihime will first of all help solve the problem of the hikikomori’s painful loneliness in some way. According to researchers, it is greatly exacerbated in these difficult times, when the onset of COVID-19 already makes it difficult for human communication.
Courtesy: (TASS)
