Japan’s ridiculous robot hotel is actually serious business

“My name is Yoshiyuki Kawazoe. This is my hotel.” The University of Tokyo’s associate professor of architecture gestures behind himself to a flat, two-story building that doesn’t really look like a hotel. “Two-hundred people were involved in making this happen,” he says. “Experts in environmental design, engineering, architecture, robotics and construction … it’s their hotel.” The “Hen-na Hotel” will go down in tourist guides as the robot hotel, but there’s more being invested in here than just talking robots: The minds behind it hope the facility will change the world of low-cost hotels — and save the world. (Well, at least a little.)

The aim of the hotel, as CEO Hideo Sawada puts it, is a serious one: to be the most efficient hotel in the world. He draws on comparisons with low-cost airlines that “changed how we travel.” Two years ago, as hotel prices continued to rise, the CEO (who runs the nearby Huis Ten Bosch theme park) began discussions with robotics and engineering experts with the aim of creating an efficient hotel, one that costs (both fiscally and environmentally) less.

If you thought Hen-na Hotel was a kitschy gimmick, well, that’s partly true. (The receptionist is an English-speaking dinosaur and there’s a talking tulip in each room.) Still, the bigger picture here is that researchers from Japan’s largest, most influential university are involving themselves and testing out cutting-edge green technology, as well as trying to create a space where both robots and humans can move around and do what they want (or need) to do. Robots could help reduce staffing costs, as well as help to run a hotel more efficiently. (To some extent — human workers are still required — just less of them). The entire premise might scream wacky Japan, but it’s also testing the boundaries of robot-human interaction in the field — and trying to make a profit as it does.

The Hen-na Hotel is actually Hotel Zero, a proof of concept: Everything that goes down here will inform the next stage. Sawada-san is planning to roll out the Hen-na Hotel concept to two more hotels: another somewhere in Japan, and one overseas, although he wouldn’t be drawn to exactly where. “Given the philosophy behind the hotel, the location of the site will have a large effect on what the hotel will look like, how it’ll be built.” The CEO didn’t discount the idea that a hotel could be made inside a city center, while Kawazoe added that design considerations could make future hotels substantially different from this real-world proof of concept. Rents are at a premium in built-up areas.

The layout of the four-building complex is arranged in a way to let air flow through the entire thing. That’s important, because there’s no air conditioning. Dealbreaker? Given that the hotel is on Kyushu, the hot, humid main southern isle of Japan, that sounds insane. However, while outdoor temperatures reached 93 degrees Fahrenheit, the place was reassuringly cool. That’s done through a network of high-end radiator panels, combined with heat-absorbing bricks, special reflective paint and solar panels on the roof, as well as sensors to monitor temperatures down to the individual room. (The architecture team even took inspiration from Japanese tearooms to design roofs at an angle that lets in winter sun, but blocks summer rays.)

The company expects to reduce energy costs by around 30 percent compared to typical hotels and these temperature considerations are a major part of how it’ll do that. Those cost savings also tie into how Hen-na Hotel is trying to pitch itself as a clean, stylish-but-low-cost hotel: Amenities are bare minimum, with extras sold in vending machines. Room cleaning only happens if you pay for it or stay for longer than a week, but that all translates to room prices that are cheaper than the local competition.

Hagi-San, another expert from the University of Tokyo, was brought onto the project to “integrate robots and architecture.”

There’s another crucial design difference in comparison to other hotels: This one isn’t only designed for humans. Hagi-San, another expert from the University of Tokyo, was brought onto the project to combine the robots and architectural design of the hotel. “I don’t think this combination [of robots and building design], while working to provide a service [to humans], exists anywhere else in the world. … The problem has been integrating these designs with human-centric ones. For the porter robots, we designed the hotel to include wide paths.” Two paths slope around the hotel lobby: One inches up to the second floor, while another follows a gentle decline to guide first-floor guests (slowly, but with their baggage) all the way to their room.

Design considerations dovetail into sensors and infrastructure too, like the hotel’s face-detection locks on each room. While you don’t need your keycard (your beautiful face will suffice), the design of the hotel had to account for this, with low-power LED lighting located both at check-in (where your face gets scanned in), and next to each guest room entrance. During check-in, the process is distributed among multiple machines, working in tandem with each other. Face-scanning software interacts with the touchscreen console, while directions are delivered (and questions answered) by enigmatic robotic receptionists. The performance of these robots is monitored, and that will inform changes in design in the future.

That’s where big challenges likely lie: This was a hotel on opening day, with everyone looking to give the best first impression. How will the hotel handle the realities of day-to-day hospitality? With normal visitors (and less staff around when accidents happen), it’s likely to be a steeper learning curve than the inclines on those gentle slopes to the first floor. What happens when kid hopped up on one too many soft drinks consistently gets in the way of the porter robot? Is the drone going to fly through your window? What happens when you just need some air-con? Lots of questions, and plenty of challenges for robotics experts (as well as architects, hoteliers and engineers) to tackle.

Quotations in this article have been translated, condensed and edited.

Filed under: Misc, Robots

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Source: Hen-na Hotel

These disposable vapes let you huff your caffeine instead of drink it

Dammit, Logan. I’m glad it’s your first day working at this coffee shop; congrats on getting hired and all. But dude, seriously, I don’t have time to waste waiting for you to fish that beard hair out of my coffee. I’m “latte” enough for work as it is. That’s why, for a full week, I tried switching from my normal intake of three to four caffeinated beverages a day to Eagle Energy caffeine vaporizers. Oof, my heart is still racing.

Eagle Energy vapes are self-contained atomizers that operate much like Blu disposable e-cigs or the Blackout X hash pens, except that it’s loaded with caffeine instead of nicotine or THC. Each EE pen measures about five inches in length and is maybe a half-inch in diameter. Inside, a small reservoir holds about 3ml of liquid and 0.08 percent caffeine per milliliter. This liquid passes through a small atomizer driven by a non-rechargeable lithium ion battery where it is converted into a vapor and inhaled.

According to the included documentation, regular coffee drinkers will need about 10-20 puffs to notice the effects — a figure I found to be pretty accurate during my testing. Each pen is rated to last about 500 puffs before the battery conks out, which seems about right as well.

Eagle Energy’s kick comes from a mixture of caffeine (guarana extract), taurine and ginseng — basically the same stuff as in a Red Bull. Unsurprisingly, these things taste uncannily like the popular energy drink. The vapor does not, however, contain sugar or calories. But man, these pens gave me heartburn something awful. Even when huffing the recommended number of times over a three- to five-minute span, I immediately felt as if I’d just chugged a Big Gulp’s worth of espresso or a carton of apple juice on an empty stomach.

I also noticed that the kick didn’t last as long as a standard cup of coffee. I mean I typically average a 350 ml mug of Peet’s Major Dickason blend every hour for the first three hours of my workday with each cup’s effects lasting around an hour. According to Caffeine Informer, a 16-ounce cup of this blend contains 267 mg of caffeine. As such, Eagle Energy’s kick isn’t nearly as potent as the coffee’s. There isn’t the sip-sip-wheeeeeomgthisisawesomeImhavingeverythoughtinthewoooooooorld feeling you get with a good cup of coffee. It’s subtler and less of a jolt, though that also means there’s less of a crash later.

Overall, I rather like these things. They’re obviously never going to be a 1-to-1 replacement for my morning coffee and I can’t absentmindedly puff on it as I would a hash pen, but for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up or an emergency morning kickstart, you could do worse. Eagle Energy is currently running an Indiegogo campaign to fund both the 3-pack and 10-pack options, although the company’s rep has assured me that it will move forward with the 3-packs regardless of whether the campaign funds. They’re expected to retail for $9 apiece, $20 a 3-pack and $75 for 10.

Filed under: Misc

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HBO is selling ‘Game of Thrones’ S5 downloads earlier than usual

In another sign that HBO is trying to convert some of the numerous Game of Thrones pirates into paying customers, the network announced that season five will be the first one available for downloaders to own before it hits DVD and Blu-ray. It’s actually going on sale via download way before the discs, with a digital release of season five due August 31st, just two months after the finale aired. The Blu-ray version is still on deck for next March as usual, but you can pre-order the digital season pass (including extras, listed after the break) from outlets like Amazon, iTunes, Vudu and Google Play for $39 (HD) — unless of course you live in another country like Australia, where season five has been on sale since it finished airing, or are already subscribing to HBO Now. Of course, you don’t really need to hurry, as HBO announced during yesterday’s TCA panel that it expects the series to last about eight seasons.

Send a raven. For the first time, #GoTSeason5 is available early for digital download on 8/31. http://t.co/7uGr0IlWK0 pic.twitter.com/xvQcj92CNS

– Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) July 30, 2015

Game of Thrones S5 extras (* marks digital exclusives)

• Introduction to Dorne* – Visit the kingdom of Dorne in this special that delves inside the impressive realm and its many colorful characters, including Prince Doran Martell (Alexander Siddig) and the fiery Ellaria Sand (Indira Varma) and her venomous Sand Snakes (Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rosabell Laurenti Sellers and Jessica Henwick).
• Poisons of Westeros* – Explore the devious methods of poisoning seen throughout Game of Thrones in this featurette.
• Invitation to the Set – Visit the set of Game of Thrones for this intriguing preview.
• A Day in the Life – Glimpse the epic scale of Game of Thrones in this featurette that spends one day touring various Season 5 sets in Croatia, Spain and Ireland. See cast members preparing to shoot scenes while prominent members of the show’s massive crew talk about the many jobs they must oversee-sets and costumes, hair and makeup, and much more-to keep the production operating smoothly.
• Set Design – Production designer Deborah Riley reveals the thought process behind the impressive sets used to create the territory of Dorne in Season 5.
• The Weapons of Dorne – Game of Thrones weapons master Tommy Dunne takes a close-up look at the razor-sharp armaments he created for the Sand Snakes and other inhabitants of Dorne in this featurette.
• New Characters & Locations – Take a tour of the new locations in Season 5 and meet some of the new players in this featurette. Included are visits to the sets of Dorne and the House of Black and White as well as introductions to Doran Martell, the Sand Snakes, the High Sparrow, and more.
• Season 4 Recap – Revisit every twist and turn from the thrilling fourth season.
• Trailer – Whet your appetite for Season 5 with this exhilarating glimpse at things to come

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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