Robots helps the eldery and disabled with their shopping

The Japan Times notes that a new robot that helps eldery and disabled shoppers made its dubut on Thursday at a major shopping complex in Kasuya, Fukuoka Prefecture.

The robot is 1.7 metres tall and was developed by tmsuk Co. and NTT Communications Corp. They've placed it in the Diamond City Lucle shopping comples to see if the robot can be put to practicle use.

How it works is that immobile shoppers touch the screen on the robot to select a store and the robot takes them to the right place. It also has the facility to be romotely operated from a person's home to allow them to see what's in store. Even more interestingly, it can take photos and talk to instore humans.