Robot Babysits Kids in Japan

By Mariella on Monday, March 31st, 2008 comments

Day care centers and play pens are very common in Japan. They're everywhere--in subway stations, malls, and stores. In a store in Fukuoka prefecture, the owner seem to have employed a very unusual help.

Standing a mere 1.4 metres and coloured white and yellow is the babysitter who's made of metal. Created by Tmusk, a leading Japanese robot maker, this babysitter robot can interact with kids and even say their names. Each child which is left into its care is pinned with a nametag containing codes the robot can understand. One of its eyes is equipped with a camera which could take pictures, and the other, with a projector with which it could project the pictures. This robot was created so children would be used to mingling with robots since Japanese establishments have started using them as security guards, receptionists, and the like, to compensate for the declining number of their labour force.

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