Society 5.0 Town Turns Heads At Japan's CEATEC Tech Show

We've all tried Google Street View before, but what if you could explore the world and see faraway places through the eyes of a roving machine? At the recent Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (CEATEC) outside Tokyo, telepresence robots equipped with displays showing their remote users were turning heads on the show floor. These simple machines are basically webcams on wheels, but they formed a striking example of how a system that combines hardware in the physical world with online users and cloud-based artificial intelligence will become part of everyday life. Akira Fukabori, director of ANA HOLDINGS INC.'s Avatar Division, shows off an all-terrain Avatar robot at CEATEC 2019. Developed by OhmniLabs and ANA HOLDINGS INC., the parent company of All Nippon Airways, the newme Avatar telepresence robots are up to 150 cm tall and roll around on a wheeled base at speeds up to 2.9 kph.