TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Need temporary help on your company's reception desk? One Japanese employment agency is suggesting you try recruiting a robot.

For just under 50,000 yen (U.S. $430) a month, a fraction of the cost of a human temp, the PeopleStaff agency will dispatch Hello Kitty Robo, a robotic receptionist capable of sensing a visitor's presence, greeting him or her and holding simple conversations.

The Nagoya-based agency is also offering the services of Ifbot, an elderly-care robot that chats and poses riddles and arithmetical problems to train the brain and help avoid dementia.

Spaceman-like Ifbot, which also quizzes people about their health, is aimed at hospitals and old peoples' homes.

A spokeswoman for PeopleStaff said it would cost more than 300,000 yen a month to employ a person for this type of work, but warned that the robots were not capable of doing everything human employees can do.

 

Oh My Friggin GAWD I need that!!!


Imagine if I had that at my house? My cat would freak out!!!

 

$430 a month? That's a bloody car payment!

 

is that the going rate for one these days?

is this a stop this year at wtd '06?

 

When you put it that way...That's close to double my car payment on the red rocket.

 

It's been a while but I don't think I dropped that much... of course that might be why they never work.

 

Can we teach it to sell corrugated fireplaces??

 

i thought they came with a warrenty..

 

30 days/10 orgasms. After that who knows WTF is going on.

 

damn, that's a pretty weak ratio. I'd expect more happy endings than that.