Meet Wakamaru, Uniqlo's Robotic New Hire
Wednesday, Sep 17, 2008 | Updated 1:22 PM EDT
Uniqlo, the Japanese Gap, now has a little yellow robot greeter named Wakamaru. Yesterday, we reported that Wakamaru is blogging; today we stopped by the store to "meet" the robot. Previous to our face to face interaction, we believed Wakamaru to be male, since according to the robot's "About" page it was named after "Ushiwakamaru, a young boy who later grew up to become known as Yoshitsune, a 12th century warrior." But Wakamaru has a distinctly feminine voice. When we dropped by the store earlier today, Wakamaru was resting on her recharging station, but still had enough energy to interact with some curious tourists. One bent down to say, "You're so cute" to which the robot responded "Thank you. I like hearing that." Another asked, "What can you do?" which got a stranger response: "I can play rock, paper and scissors." The robot then rolled its head around a bit and was still—big, glossy black eyes staring off into space. Salespeople, don't fear for your jobs just yet.
· Uniqlo's Robot Staffer Starts Blogging [Racked]
