Japanese Airline’s Robot Called Newme Helps You Travel At Home

All Nippon Airways (ANA) has recently introduced a telepresence robot that can help you travel to remote lands from home, instead of having to book a flight ticket and waste too much time on flights. The leading airline in Japan calls it Newme.

The robot is capable of transmitting HD 2K videos and allows users to watch and more notably, interact with the surroundings. All Nippon Airways is expecting to launch up to 1,000 Newme robots in summer 2020 in a bid to help users take part in sporting events, as well as go shopping remotely.

Newme is designed with a rather special look: it reminds us of a tablet that is attached to a movable base. The robot is an initiative of OhmniLabs, Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (CEATEC) in Tokyo. According to ANA HD’s President & CEO Shinya Katanozaka

Before the “Newme” robot, a similar idea appeared in a movie named Surrogates produced in 2009. In this science fiction movie, humans live isolatedly and can just contact with the real world via surrogate robots. Bruce Willis acts as an FBI agent named Tom Greer who is in charge of investigating robot surrogates’ murders in the city.

In fact, telepresence robots haven’t been applied to tackle murders; however, ANA hopes to send its advanced robots to some dangerous destinations where humans can feel difficult or impossible to approach. The moon and the ocean’s bottom are two typical examples.

Additionally, this airline has researched more practical solutions that can help humans deploy the potentials of these kinds of robots more easily. For example, many Japanese cafes are using telepresence robots as waiters, instead of humans.

Both All Nippon Airways and OhmniLabs haven’t yet given any response when being requested for comment.