Sunday, 27 May 2012

Holographic avatars in New York City’s airports


This unique virtual assistant is able to answer travelers’ questions just about anything and everything concerning travel – ranging from luggage and gate assignments, to security and arrivals. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have proceeded with the installation of these virtual babes that are projected on a plexiglass cutout, and they will answer your questions ala Siri. Hopefully it can recognize the numerous accents that are spoken by tourists and those from outside of the city alike!
The cost does get prohibitive, however, where renting these will cost you $180,000 for 6 months’ “work”! Perhaps hiring humans will still be cheaper. What do you think of robots taking over the world in helping us be more efficient? Will there be a robotic revolution, where they become self-aware by sudden one of these days (and in retrospect, we would see that the danger signs are there all along), and start bossing us around? I do not think that a robotic apocalypse will happen, but having these digital avatars help lost tourists and passengers out at massive airports is definitely a good thing – at least they do not lose their cool and have a perpetual smile on their face, but the downside would be them being unable to answer any other questions unless if was programmed into them.

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