Students in Japan will be able to send a robot to school in their place when they’re sick

A school district in Japan has begun a pilot program that will let sick school children send a robot to the classroom in their place.

The program is being conducted at the Tomobe-Higashi special support school in Kasama, a city 60 miles north of Tokyo.

The robot model is called Ori Hime, and is developed by Ory Laboratory.

The Ori Hime robot is a small bust-sized robot designed to be placed on a counter top or desk.

It has two flap-like arms and a camera mounted in its head, all of which can be controlled remotely via a touchscreen tablet interface.

Since October 31, sick students at Tomobe-Higashi school have each been assigned their own Ori Hime stand in, which is placed on their desk, giving them a live feed of the classroom through the head-mounted camera.

Remote students will be able to speak into a mic and the Ori Hime will broadcast their voice through built-in speakers.

Students will also be able to rotate the robots head to look at different areas of the class room, as well as command it to perform simple emotive gestures like waving, pointing, and clapping.

‘It’s fun to turn the robot in directions I want to look in,’ Kanae Sudo, an eleven-year-old student who’s used the Ori Hime to attend a science fair from a nearby hospital room, told the Asahi Shimbun.

School administrators had previously allowed remote study with stationary camera feed, but the ability to directly control the view and make the robot gesture has greatly improved the results according to school administrators……..read more

 

Source: Daily Mail

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