Human-like robot greets Tokyo shoppers

Toshiba recently introduced an android named Aiko Chihira, above, at a customer service desk inside Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo. / Courtesy of Twitter

Japanese electronics maker Toshiba has launched a humanoid robot at a busy Tokyo mall.

Online media said the 165-centimeter robot, Aiko Chihira, was clad in a traditional Japanese silk kimono and stationed at the information reception desk of Mitsukoshi department store to help shoppers.

Hitoshi Tokuda, Toshiba's head of new business development, made Chihira with a team of programmers. She is meant to resemble a 32-year-old woman.

Forty-three motors that respond to data transfers 30 times a second power Chihira’s movements. The mechanism makes her actions, including bowing and blinking, appear real, Tokuda said.

Shoppers at the mall were fascinated. One said she never imagined an android would look so human. Many only noticed Chihira was a robot when they got close.

Toshiba plans to introduce more androids, which the company is considering referring to as Chihira’s “sisters.”