The Robot Airport Workers of Seoul
The soulless workforce getting you on your flight out of Seoul
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Are you heading to Seoul, South Korea anytime soon?
If you are, you might want to look around for AIRSTAR, the Incheon International Airport Robot Assistant.
AIRSTAR is the second generation robot assistant produced by LG and stationed at Incheon Airport.
He exists to help passengers get wherever they need to go, take selfies, and answer all your questions.
“Although other airports around the globe have operated robots on a demonstrative level, AIRSTAR is the first to be operating on a regular basis”
Quote from Hong Seo-Yeon in an interview with Korea Biz Wire
Interaction
Interacting with AIRSTAR is pretty simple. He speaks English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. You can simply talk to him in the language you prefer.
He has multiple cameras and advanced facial recognition technology, which the airport talks about broadly in press conferences.
His facial recognition ability should mean that once he’s met you, he’ll remember you during future interactions.
He’ll probably also use this technology to guess which language to address you with.
I would’ve made the assumption that the airport would upload him with the information and faces of First Class passengers, but that would never work.
First Class passengers expect human servants, their hearts would collectively stop beating after being talked to by a machine.
Touch
If you can’t understand AIRSTAR, you can just touch him.
His stomach is a big touchscreen monitor.
You can find whatever you need on his belly interface, including a selfie option. Select the selfie menu and AIRSTAR will pose with you.
You could instead choose the portrait…
