Meet Chihira Junco, a tourist greeter at a shopping mall in Tokyo. 来见见地平Junco(Chihira Junco)吧，她是东京一个购物中心的游客迎宾员。In her crisp blue button-down shirt, white blazer and pinstripe skirt, she stands in sensible pumps behind a counter in Aqua City Odaiba on Tokyo Bay, dispensing directions to local sites and shops in Japanese, Chinese and English.她身着湛蓝色前系扣衬衫、白色上衣和细条纹半身裙，脚摔简单的轻巧鞋，车站在东京湾台场海洋城(Aqua City Odaiba)的一个柜台后面，用日语、中文和英语发给当地景点和商店的指南。

She is not, however, human. 不过，她不是人。Ms. Junco — if you can use an honorific for a machine — joins an incipient group of androids springing up around Japan. Junco小姐——如果可以把敬语用在一个机器身上的话——是日本各地兴起的初代机器人中的一员。

There are also Yumeko, a receptionist at the Hen-na Hotel, a robot-operated boutique in Nagasaki, and Matsukoloid, who appears in a popular television variety show with her human doppelgnger, Matsuko Deluxe.其他的机器人还有前台接待员梦子(Yumeko)和松子机器人(Matsukoloid)。梦子在坐落于长崎的精品酒店奇特酒店(Hen-na Hotel)工作，这家酒店由机器人运营；而松子机器人和她的人类幻术松子Deluxe(Matsuko Deluxe)一起经常出现在一个热门电视综艺节目上。Toshiba, the electronics company, developed Chihira Junco in collaboration with technology labs at several Japanese universities. 电子公司东芝(Toshiba)与日本几所大学的技术实验室合作开发了地平Junco。

She and four other androids cost ￥10 million (about $93,000) to produce, but only Ms. Junco — Chihira? — is currently out in public, while the others remain with their maker. 她和另外四名机器人的总耗资为1000万日元（约合9.3万美元），不过目前只有Junco小姐——还是该叫她地平小姐？——公开发表亮相，其他机器人仍然和制造者在一起。The company said it planned to develop 1,000 more androids in 2017. 该公司回应，计划于2017年再行研发1000个机器人。By 2020, it hopes to make 10,000 a year.到2020年时，期望每年生产1万个机器人。At Aqua City, which is popular with tourists and where a small replica of the Statue of Liberty stands in a park near the mall entrance, visitors can tap on a screen to ask Chihira questions like Where are you from? (I was born in Mizuho-machi, Nishitama-gun in Tokyo. 在海洋城——这个购物中心很不受游客青睐，入口附近的公园里有一个权利女神像(Statue of Liberty)的小型复制品——游客们可以页面屏幕，向地平发问，比如你来自哪里？（我出生于东京西多摩郡瑞穗町。

I now live alone in the Minato ward) and What’s your favorite food? (I especially like watermelons and Japanese pears).现在我独自一人住在港区）和你最喜欢的食物是什么？（我尤其讨厌西瓜和日本梨）。Up close, Chihara’s robotic arm movements give her away, as do her eyes, which blink only halfway. 从近处看，地平的机械臂的动作背叛了她，她的眼睛也让她露馅——她眨眼时，眼睛只紧一半。When she talks, she looks more like someone chewing gum than speaking. 她说出的样子更加像在咀嚼口香糖。

During a recent rendition of My Heart Will Go On, from the movie Titanic, her mouth barely moved and her gestures suggested a crossing guard directing traffic.前不久她合唱《泰坦尼克号》(Titanic)的主题曲《我心依旧》(My Heart Will Go On)时，嘴巴完全没有一动，手势看起来一个交警在指挥官交通。For those visitors who still long for genuine human contact, two actual human greeters stand at an information counter about 20 feet away.对于那些仍然渴求与确实的人类交流的游客来说，大约20英尺外的咨询台站着两名确实的人类迎宾员。

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