We’ve probably all watched those Hollywood sci-fi movies where humanoid robots co-exist with human beings, and they have interesting adventures with unpredictable outcomes.
Well this isn’t the big screen. This is reality, and we all have front row seats to experience history in the making: Africa’s first humanoid robot was officially unveiled at the world’s biggest technology event, Gitex, which took place at Dubai World Trade Centre, from October 10th to 14th.
The humanoid robot named Omeife, was created by Uniccon Group of Companies, one of Nigeria’s fastest growing technology startups that offers eclectic, innovative technology solutions to businesses and government agencies across Africa.
Omeife is a 6-foot-tall female, African humanoid that provides language as a service for businesses needing to integrate native African audiences. She is also a multipurpose and assistance robot. She speaks African languages and is programmed to have a deep understanding of African culture and behavioural patterns.
Here are some more things Omeife is able to do:
Movement
1. Terrain intelligence: Knowing the level of ground and stability of itself on the floor, this will help it navigate on non-flat surfaces and maintain good balance.
2. Position awareness: GPS for location and State-management for knowing whether the system is standing, walking, talking e.t.c.
3. Advanced Gestures: Expression while talking, hand illustrations, smile and other bodily gestures.
4. Grip: Ability to size, understand shape and how to hold things with hand.
Conversation
1. Realtime understanding: Active listening and ability to focus on a specific conversation thread as its happening.
2. Multilingual: Ability to switch languages and interact with the specific gestures.
3. Native Accent: Pitch and Vocabulary detailed pronunciations of words, sentences and even phrases.
Vision
1. Face detection: Identifies and atgs humans through face and facial expressions.
2. Subject focus: Paying attention to a specific item when required.
3. Object detection: Identifies objects and knows their characteristics.
4. Distance analysis: Calculates positions and distance of objects it sees.
Social Interactions
1. Discussion awareness and focus: Pays attention to a specific person to keep the conversation alive.
2. Politeness: Careful and aware of words, phrases, sentences and expressions that are
not polite in African cultures.
3. Safe for kids: Smooth interaction and not reactive.
4. Knowledgeable in various fields and always teachable: Learning pipeline to always
improve and understand new things from conversations.
5. Retention: Ability to recall, understand old concepts better with new information.
Speaking on the Omeife project, Chuks Ekwueme, CEO of Uniccon Group of Companies says:
“Africa is fast being recognized for its contribution to the global tech ecosystem. Through Omeife and other projects, we’re happy to play a part in helping businesses and people all over Africa to achieve their fullest potential by providing access to the most innovative technologies for efficiency.”
At Gitex, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications & Digital Economy, Professor Isa Pantami, lauded Uniccon Group’s commitment to playing a vital part in advancing technological innovations in Africa.
Get a sneak peek at Omeife here: