Japan to get robo-staffed hotel

Depending on where you stand when it comes to robots and artificial intelligence, the following piece of news will either make you giddy with excitement or terrify you. When a new Japanese hotel opens its doors in July this year, it will do so with robot staff.

According to The Telegraph, the Henn-na Hotel, currently under construction in Nagasaki, will be partially staffed by “actroid” androids.

The actroids are designed to look as much like humans as possible and will be capable of doing everything from making coffee to greeting guests and carrying luggage to their rooms.

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They are also generally modeled on a young Japanese woman and are reportedly set to be constructed by Kokoro, a sub-division of the company that licences Hello Kitty. First unveiled in 2003, Actroids have steadily become more and more capable at performing a multitude of tasks. In addition to the tasks lifted above, the ones staffing the Henn-na Hotel will also be able to communicate with guests in a variety of languages, including Japanese, Chinese, Korean and English.

The hotel, situated in a Dutch-inspired theme park will also reportedly use facial-recognition technology to provide guests with access to their rooms, rather than key cards. CNN meanwhile reports that room temperatures will be monitored via a radiation panel which measures heat and that guests will be able to request extra amenities using a tablet provided by the hotel.

“We will make the most efficient hotel in the world,” company President Hideo Sawada told a news conference. “In the future, we’d like to have more than 90 percent of hotel services operated by robots.”

Image: Huis Ten Bosch