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The
robot with a friendly face rolled into Times Square on Monday to
help provide information about the new virus.
Curious passersby stopped, filled out a short questionnaire on
an iPad-like touch screen attached to the robot's chest, and
even had a conversation with the machine.
Promobot was created by a Philadelphia-based startup that makes
autonomous service robots for businesses and is run by a group
of Russians.
"We did a special software to detect coronavirus symptoms," the
company's chief business development officer, Oleg Kivorkutsev,
told Reuters.
"We understand how this problem is important, how people are
nervous, people are afraid of this. But if they understand a
few, simple things, for example, what symptoms coronavirus has,
what they should do to prevent (it), everything will be fine and
everyone will be happy."
The robot does not actually detect the virus. It asks if a
person has common symptoms such a fever and the person has to
hit "yes" or "no" on the touch screen, after which they receive
a reassuring message if they chose no.
"This thing is very clever. It's really, really clever," said
Tara Healy, who was visiting New York from London.
Others were not so easily impressed. "A bit mental," said Thomas
McAlinden from Scotland. "But sums up New York for me."
(Writing by Mark Porter and Aleksandra Michalska; Editing by
Bill Berkrot)
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