The latest addition to the staff at this Tokyo Primary school won’t be another stern faced teacher but an android capable of teaching young children. The Robot named Saya (oddly translated roughly to “Swift Arrow”) will be capable of speaking multiple languages, do the morning register and give out homework.
Saya is the brainchild of one Professor Hiroshi Kobayashi at the University of Tokyo, and has been under development for the last 15 years. The robot can even express “emotion” through it’s 18 facial motions which tries to mimic human emotions, including anger.
This is part of an initiative by the Japanese Government to extend Robotics into every home in Japan by 2015 and has thrown financial bulk behind the move with around $35 million of investment. The argument for this is that with an ageing population being a worry for the short to medium term future, it aims to cut down on the welfare bill with the help of robots. By their estimation, 1 in 4 Japanese people will be aged 65 and over and no economy can run with this weighing it down.
Already in Japanese society, robots are being used to help direct traffic on the streets, lure graduates to university with fancy robots, robots that strut their stuff down a catwalk and one that simply provides company for the bored and elderly.
One step closer to having Terminators overrun the Earth? Someone get me John Connor on the phone. Pronto.
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