The Fembot Receptionist

One of the indisputable highlights of my weekday mornings has been my perilous journey past the company receptionist as one never quite knows whether she’s going to be in a good mood or a bad mood. And, frankly, it’s hard to say which is preferable as it boils down to either having to endure an extensive update concerning her love life, and its highs and lows over the last twenty-four hours, or a look that could kill from one hundred paces on account that I’ve forgotten my access security card again and have to be buzzed in.

And now it would seem that in the future we will be forced to endure the same kind of social water torture every morning with, not a human, but a robot who, it would appear from the video below, is almost indistinguishable from the real thing (and just as capable of talking the hind legs off a donkey). That said, I am yet to see a video of this robot either painting her nails or dumping the boyfriend (again) via the telephone for the whole office to hear – but I’m sure a basic software upgrade will be forthcoming.

Created by Kokoro, the Actroid DER2 Fembot is available to rent for functions and events (or as a receptionist replacement) for a basic fee of around $3500 for five days though this price does not include technical backup or any requested changes to the software – so getting her to gesticulate wildly every time someone asks for the key to the stationary cupboard is going to cost you.

You can see the Actroid DER2 Fembot in action in the video below which you can view directly as a stream by clicking on the picture, or you can download via the supplied link.

Unfortunately (or, rather, perhaps fortunately) though she is capable of speaking a wide range of languages she is speaking in Japanese in this clip, however, it is not at all difficult to add your own commentary (for example – complaining that whatever someone has just asked her to do is not in her role specification, the fact that her cat “Co-Co” was run over by the ex-boyfriend this morning so she’s left him again, or how generally cute dolphins are).

[etv]

Of course, one of the benefits of this fembot receptionist is that she can be turned off (though, for some reason, I’ve never actually fathomed how to achieve this with her real life counterparts).