It’s only a matter of time before Hatsune Miku becomes a security guard.
Companies in Japan are already having to deal with problems caused by the country’s steadily shrinking population. With less people being born and an ever-increasing portion of the population retiring out of the workforce, industries are starting to have difficulty filling job openings. In an effort to deal with this issue, many industries are looking to the latest in technology. For example, the leading Japanese security firm Secom is working on a new system which will reduce the need for human security guards by providing clients with virtual ones that look straight out of a Japanese animated series.
Intended for use in places like lobbies, this new system will greet and interact with guests via a 3D anime-style life-size virtual security guard. The Virtual Security Guard System, which can be set to either a male or female version, is created via a high-tech large mirror display that in photographs appears to produce a hologram-like image.
The Virtual Security Guard System is fully capable of many of the basic functions you might expect a human guard to take care of. It can determine if someone should be granted access to restricted areas through the use of facial and voice recognition. It can also scan someone in order to detect if they are carrying suspicious items. And when it detects that someone is covering their face it will even ask them to remove the obstruction in order to scan the person’s face.
Of course, the Virtual Security Guard System will also be able to call for human assistance in the event that either someone needs to be subdued or there is a medical emergency.
In addition to its security duties, the Virtual Security Guard System will also be able to help visitors by acting as a receptionist thanks to its ability to answer simple questions.
And so as to not come off as intimidating the Virtual Security Guard will be able to do little things like adjust its gaze depending on the height of the person it is talking to and lean forward when, for example, talking to a lost child.
This Virtual Security Guard System is the product of a multi-company collaboration. Helping Secom on this endeavor is the telecommunications giant NTT Docomo, the mobile game publisher DeNA which handled the creation and speech capabilities of the virtual guard, and the glass manufacturing company AGC, which handled the creation of the mirror display.
Secom is planning to have the Virtual Security Guard System ready by some time in 2020, so you may just run into one of these if you plan to visit Japan during the 2020 Summer Olympics.
