A Japanese Cafe Has Found An Ingenious Way To Employ People With Disabilities

This futuristic idea allows people with disabilities to gain independence.

Rachel

• Published in Funny
• December 16, 2018

Robot waiters are a common part of films set in the future or in space. But what if this intergalactic idea was implemented on Earth, right now? One cafe in Japan has tried to do just that. The Dawn Ver Beta cafe in Tokyo opened for just two weeks while they trialled a unique idea.

The cafe used Orly Lab robots to serve customers. The most interesting part? The robots were remotely controlled by people with severe disabilities. The idea was that such a concept would allow people with disabilities to be able to gain some independence. The ten employees operating robots suffered from diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other spinal cord injuries.

The robots were controlled by computers which tracked the eye movements of the bed-ridden employees to allow them to talk to customers, pick up items and move the robots. Effectively, the disabled employees were able to use the robots as "proxies."

Kentaro Yoshifuji the CEO of Orly Lab who produced the robots, said, "I want to create a world in which people who can’t move their bodies can work too."

The robots that the employees operated were four feet tall and the employees were paid 1,000 yen an hour (about $9).

The cafe was only open for two weeks for testing purposes, but the creators are now trying to raise enough funds to open permanently in 2020.

Watch the video below for more on how it works

Rachel