人形機器人驚豔柏林國際旅遊展

Chihira Kanae is greeting visitors to the world's biggest travel fair in Berlin this week, answering questions and guiding people in the right direction. But one passer by's attempt to ask her out for dinner is met with silence.

在本週於柏林舉辦的世界規模最大的旅遊博覽會上，Chihira Kanae熱情接待到場的訪客們。此外，她還回答訪客們的問題併爲人們指明方向。不過當一位路人試圖邀請她吃晚飯時，她卻只以沉默迴應。

That's because Chihira Kanae, despite her lifelike features and long brown hair, is a robot, the third version of a robot in human form developed by Toshiba and can only answer pre-programmed questions.

這是因爲，儘管Chihira Kanae外表栩栩如生，留着一頭棕色長髮，但“她”卻是個機器人。她是東芝研發的第三代人形機器人，並且只能回答程序提前設置好的問題。

She was joined at the ITB fair on Thursday by another robot host Mario, a small red and white robot made by French Aldebaran Robotics, showing how they might be put to use in the travel industry, such as checking in hotel guests.

週二，她和另一個機器人Mario一起參加了ITB博覽會。Mario是一個紅白相間的小型機器人，由法國的亞爾迪巴朗公司製造。本次展覽顯示出了機器人將在旅遊業中能夠發揮什麼樣的作用，比如說爲酒店旅客辦理入住。

"The point is to make people smile and give them a unique experience. It's not to take the place of employees," Fabrice Goffin, co-founder of QBMT whose software powers Mario, told Reuters at the fair.

QBMT的聯合創始人法布里斯·戈芬在博覽會上向記者表示：“放置機器人的目的是讓人們微笑着獲得獨特的體驗。我們並沒有用機器人替代人類僱員的意思。”

The Marriott hotel in Ghent has been trialling Mario, using him to hand out room keys, high-five guests and liven up meetings held in the hotel by reading out presentations. Marriott was keen to stress that Mario will not replace any human staff.

根特市的萬豪酒店已經在試用Mario，讓他遞交房門鑰匙、和顧客擊掌，以及在酒店承辦的會議上朗讀展示稿來活躍氣氛。同時，萬豪酒店也強調，Mario並不會取代任何人類員工的崗位。

"For now it's a great add-on service," Roger Langhout, general manager of the Marriot in Ghent, said.

該酒店的總經理Roger Langhout表示：“現在這只是一種擴展服務。”

A survey of travelers across Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Japan, the U.S. and China, done by online travel and entertainment deals site Travelzoo showed that 80 percent of consumers expected robots to play a big part in their lives before 2020.

在線旅行娛樂網站Travelzoo對英、法、西、德、加、巴、日、美、中的遊客們進行了一項調查。結果顯示，80%的消費者期待在2020年之前讓機器人在他們的生活中發揮重要的作用。

However, the survey also showed people still wanted the human touch when on holiday and in certain countries, such as Germany and France, consumers were more skeptical.

不過，調查結果也顯示，人們在度假中仍然需要和人類的接觸。而在一些如德、法之類的特定國家，消費者們對機器人存有更多的疑慮。