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An Animation Character Robot That Increases Sales

2022; Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute; Volume: 12; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3390/app12031724

2076-3417

Reo Matsumura, Masahiro Shiomi,

Multimodal Machine Learning Applications

Performing the role of a shopping assistant is one promising application for social robots. Robot clerks can provide a richer experience for customers and increase sales; however, the scant opportunities for interaction with customers in real shopping environments is a typical drawback. We solve this problem by developing a unique networked salesclerk system that consists of a virtual agent that acts through the customer’s smartphone and a physical agent that performs as a robot salesclerk in an actual store environment. Toward this capability, in cooperation with Production I.G. Inc., an animation production company, we adopted a character named Tachikoma from “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex” (commonly known as the S.A.C. series) when designing the appearance and features of both agents. We conducted a field test to investigate how our system contributed to the sales of Ghost in the Shell anime-themed products, and the results showed the advantages of our system for increasing sales.