A new humanoid service robot that can communicate with people has the potential to work in hospitals and offices.
On Tuesday, Hitachi Ltd. showed media the EMIEW2, which can recognize objects based on an image database containing some 100 million items and determine its location in a room by cross-checking the data with photos taken by indoor cameras. It can also guide people to objects when asked.
In a demonstration in an office at the company's research laboratory in Tokyo, when asked about the location of a watch, the robot answered, "I will guide you." Moving to a desk where the watch was located, the robot gestured and said, "It is here."
The company added the new functionality to the original EMIEW2 developed in 2007. The robot, weighing 14 kg and 80 cm tall, can recognize faces and voices, and can travel at a maximum speed of 6 kph.
A Hitachi official said, "We want to verify the safety of the robot so it can coexist with humans."
