Japan is known for its cultural quirks. Be it the food, the growing gaming culture or the expanding robot arsenal, Japan never fails to set your imagination alight. Now, the country will be introducing multilingual robot concierges that would welcome visitors at a Tokyo Metropolitan Government's building to test their practical usage ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. The trial is part of the metropolitan government's efforts to help accelerate developments of such robots for use by foreign tourists visiting Japan, according to a news report published by NHK World. The government wants to slowly introduce these bots into Japan's everyday life to help commuters and people get information faster and more efficiently.

East Japan Railway Co., on Monday started a pilot project under which a humanoid robot serves visitors in English, Chinese and Japanese. Placed in front of the travel service center at the Marunouchi north exit, the 90-cm, 15-kg Emiew3 can respond questions on directions on trains leaving and arriving at the station as well as shops and restaurants within the station. It can also provide information on tourist attractions around the station. The robot, developed by Hitachi, Ltd., will be in service on weekdays through Oct. 28, for JR East to test its ability to comprehend questions and whether it can recognize people's voices in a crowded, noisy environment. Emiew3, which can also show maps through a screen on its back, is also being tested at Haneda airport.

Visitors arriving to Japan through Tokyo's Haneda airport will soon be greeted by a fleet of tiny humanoid robots. Standing just 90 centimetres tall, the humanoid named'EMIEW3' will guide users to the proper destination at the terminal and has the ability to communicate in both Japanese and English. Hitachi Ltd began its trials with the robots on Friday, and it's hoped that these assistants will be able to perform autonomously as early as December. Visitors arriving to Japan through Tokyo's Haneda airport will soon be greeted by a fleet of tiny humanoid robots. Standing just 90 centimetres tall, the humanoid named'EMIEW3' has the ability to communicate in both Japanese and English Trials will run through December at the airport's domestic Terminal 2, The Japan Times reports.

Getting lost in an international airport is never fun -- but if you're lost in Japan's Haneda this month, you'll at least be able get help from an adorable talking robot. From now until the 14th, Hitachi is testing its EMIEW3 humanoid robot in the airport's passenger terminal. Over the course of two weeks, EMIEW3 will direct visitors to an information display and answer questions in both English and Japanese. It's a modest test, but it's ramping up to something much more impressive: In December, the robot is scheduled to return to the airport as a guide. Visitors will be able to ask for directions to say, the currency exchange counter, and EMIEW3 will physically lead them there.

I'm not sure if there's any sort of metric for how successful Aldebaran Robotics' Pepper robot is at working in customer service. People are certainly buying them, but by itself, that doesn't say much about whether it works and whether people actually like it and find it effective. In any case, Hitachi wants to get a piece of whatever Pepper's going after, and to do so, they've upgraded their EMIEW robot for a customer assistance role. At first glance, the new(ish) EMIEW3 looks almost identical to EMIEW2 (which is about a decade old at this point), but the differences are significant once you notice them. EMIEW2 had single wheels for feet, while EMIEW3 uses what look a bit more like rollerblades, which I bet make balancing much easier.

SoftBank's Pepper robot may still be the better-known contender, but a new humanoid device from Hitachi aims to be the in-store sales rep of the future. Called EMIEW3, the roughly 3-foot-tall unit can determine when customers need help and then approach them autonomously, Hitachi said on Friday. Using what it calls "remote brain" technology, the company developed the robot with customer service in mind for use in stores and other public venues. EMIEW3 is actually the latest iteration in a series following Hitachi's introduction of the original EMIEW back in 2005. EMIEW2, announced in 2007, featured capabilities such as the ability to move at a brisk human walking pace and to distinguish the human voice from background noise. EMIEW2 could also use indoor network cameras as "eyes" to locate objects.

Hitachi recently announced the development of "EMIEW3," a humanoid robot, and its "remote brain" robotics IT platform. This platform was developed to provide necessary services and guidance in stores and public facilities. Enhanced by the "remote brain" consisting of a robotics IT platform connected to cloud-based intelligent processing systems and a remote operation system to monitor and control multiple robots at various locations, EMIEW3 is able to provide high quality services. Since the announcement of "EMIEW" in 2005, Hitachi has continued to develop human symbiotic robots that can safely co-exist with humans, providing robot-based services with advanced communication capabilities. Using EMIEW2, first announced in 2007, Hitachi developed functions necessary for customer and guidance services, and demonstrated capabilities which include autonomous mobility at a brisk human walking pace, isolation of human voice from background noise, accessing information from the Web to identify objects and using indoor network cameras as "eyes" to locate objects. More recently, artificial intelligence technology was applied for functions requiring advanced intelligent processing such as for dialogue with appropriate response to questions posed in different forms and predictive function to avoid collision with moving objects which may suddenly appear from blind angles.

Hitachi Ltd. is offering new competition to SoftBank Group Corp.'s humanoid robot Pepper in the market for robot assistants. Hitachi's Emiew3, revealed last week, can be controlled through centralized software that uses a network camera to detect people in need of help. The system can dispatch the humanoids for assistance. They can travel at 3.7 miles per hour–or about three times the speed of SoftBank's Pepper. The Emiew3 can communicate with humans and answer their questions in four languages, including English and Chinese, the company said.

Tokyo, April 8, 2016 - Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501) today announced the development of "EMIEW3," a humanoid robot, and its "remote brain"*1 robotics IT platform. EMIEW3, capable of autonomously approaching customers requiring assistance, was developed to provide necessary services and guidance in stores and public facilities. Enhanced by the "remote brain" consisting of a robotics IT platform connected to cloud-based intelligent processing systems and a remote operation system to monitor and control multiple robots at various locations, EMIEW3 is able to provide high quality services. Since the announcement of "EMIEW" in 2005, Hitachi has continued to develop human symbiotic robots that can safely co-exist with humans, providing robot-based services with advanced communication capabilities. Using EMIEW2, first announced in 2007, Hitachi developed functions necessary for customer and guidance services, and demonstrated capabilities which include autonomous mobility at a brisk human walking pace, isolation of human voice from background noise, accessing information from the Web to identify objects and using indoor network cameras as "eyes" to locate objects.

In just a few years, it will provide customer service in airports, hospitals, train stations and other facilities, speaking four languages so that it can even serve the masses of foreign tourists streaming into Japan. It is Hitachi's Emiew3 -- a smaller, faster and more agile competitor unveiled Friday. The new robot marks the third generation, and first commercially viable member, of a series that began with an experimental model in 2005. The company seeks to put it on the market in 2018. In a demonstration Friday, an Emiew3 prototype surveyed its surroundings and approached an actress playing a lost foreigner.