Avatar robot allows Hiroshima students to attend classes from hospital beds

The education board in Hiroshima Prefecture has pioneered the use of a pint-sized "surrogate robot" to realize what was previously considered impossible: allowing hospitalized students to take classes remotely without being monitored by teachers. The success of the board's tech-savvy initiative, considered an educational first in Japan, has prompted the education ministry to relax rigid requirements that have long prevented many hospitalized high school students from qualifying for class attendance. Under the board's initiative, jointly developed with Hiroshima University Hospital, a 23-centimeter-tall robot called Orihime is placed in a classroom to act as an avatar for an ill student in the hospital. The Orihime robot simultaneously records and broadcasts the content of each class for hospitalized students to watch on their tablets, enabling them to take part in classes in real time. Students not only can watch real-time footage but speak to their classmates or teachers through the robot as well. They can also command Orihime to move and make a variety of gestures, such as turning its head sideways and waving.