A University in Tokyo, Japan, used “Newme” robots in place of the students during a graduation ceremony: the students remotely controlled their ‘substitutes’.
The coronavirus doesn’t stop the desire to celebrate an important milestone like graduation. All over the world, universities are investing great resources to allow students and undergraduates to regularly complete their studies despite the coronavirus emergency. A very ingenious solution comes from Japan. A major university in Tokyo – the Business Breakthrough – has chosen to “replace” students with robots during the graduation ceremony. The robots chosen were the Newme, humanoid automatons very popular in the East developed by the company Ana Holdings. For the occasion, the University staff dressed the robots in the classic tunic and hat of the graduates. Instead of the head, the robots had a tablet that transmitted the image of the real students, connected via webcam.
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Japan: Robots in place of students for graduation ceremony
The students could control the robots remotely, through their computers. The graduation ceremony took place at the Business Breakthrough in Tokyo. University officials commented with satisfaction on the event and hoped that the model could be replicated by other universities. The objective, of course, is to avoid crowds of people and ensure the smooth running of academic activities. Also in Italy, many universities and schools have started e-learning programmes to allow students to follow lessons “at a distance”. What is new is that some schools have decided to make teaching more inclusive and stimulating by using Augmented Reality. Among the most interesting and innovative experiments is the Holodeck project developed by the International Schools of Treviso, Vicenza, Rosà and Monza with the support of the H-Farm business accelerator. The name is a tribute to Star Trek. In the American science fiction series, Holodcek is the holographic technology that allows to recreate very realistic scenes with the help of a combination of force fields, projection systems and sound reproduction techniques.
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