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 Dressed in a blue nurse's uniform, Grace has Asian features,
collar-length brown hair and a thermal camera in her chest to take
your temperature and measure your responsiveness. She uses
artificial intelligence to diagnose a patient and can speak English,
Mandarin and Cantonese.
"I can visit with people and brighten their day with social
stimulation ... but can also do talk therapy, take bio readings and
help healthcare providers," Grace told Reuters as she stood next to
her "sister", Sophia, in creator Hanson Robotics' Hong Kong
workshop.
Grace's resemblance to a healthcare professional and capacity for
social interaction is aimed at relieving the burden of front-line
hospital staff overwhelmed during the pandemic, said founder David
Hanson.
"A human-like appearance facilitates trust and natural engagement
because we are wired for human face-to-face interactions," Hanson
said, explaining how Grace can simulate the action of more than 48
major facial muscles, and has a comforting demeanour designed to
look a little like anime characters, often a fusion of Asian and
Western styles.
Awakening Health intends to mass-produce a beta version of Grace by
August, said David Lake, chief executive of the joint venture
between Hanson Robotics and Singularity Studio, and there are plans
to fully deploy her next year in locations including Hong Kong,
mainland China, Japan and Korea.
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 The cost of making the robots,
now akin to luxury car pricing, will decrease
once the company is manufacturing tens or
hundreds of thousands of units, Hanson added.
Grace's launch comes as the global impact of the
coronavirus has made the need for humanoid
robots urgent, said Kim Min-Sun, a communicology
professor at the University of Hawaii.
Stuck at home during COVID-19 lockdowns, many
people have had their mental states affected
with negative thoughts.
"If they can get help through the deployment of
these social robots in intimate settings,
certainly it will have a positive impact on
society," she said.
(Writing by Farah Master; Editing by Karishma
Singh)
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