Shulou(Shulou.com)06/03 Report--

Produced by big data Digest

Author: Liu Junhuan

In a twinkling of an eye, it's Japanese graduation season again.

In Japan, graduation season is very ceremonial: the school will be full of little brothers and sisters dressed in bathrobes, holding diplomas, taking pictures under the cherry trees, and sleeping on the streets until they get drunk at night.

Photo Source: Japanese TV series "Sorry, Youth"

However, this year, due to the gradual aggravation of the epidemic, the Japanese government has taken "self-purging" measures. First, many enterprises have cancelled their membership, and then the graduation ceremony should be postponed indefinitely and those that should be cancelled have been cancelled directly.

In spite of this, there are still a few schools that do not believe in evil.

So, on March 28th, BBT (business Breakthrough University) of Japan University of distance Education officially tweeted, and the graduation ceremony was held as scheduled.

According to the subsequent announcement from BBT University, it is the first time that the "newme" robot independently developed by ANA has been used in a graduating university, which sounds very memorable.

However, judging from the reactions of Weibo netizens, it does not seem to be that simple:

What's it all about? Take a look at it with Digest bacteria!

BBT graduation style: the "zombie" representative came to the stage to get the diploma.

On the afternoon of March 28th, the graduation ceremony of BBT University was held as scheduled at the Grand Imperial Palace Hotel in Tokyo. Like many schools that insisted on holding the graduation ceremony, the school held it remotely.

But then, a magical scene appeared, and the photographer was greeting the students in the tablet. But the student's costume... How to say, to quote Weibo netizens, how so "the underworld"?

Full-body photos released by BBT University clearly show that the robot consists of a "head" of a tablet computer that plays videos of students' faces and a four-wheeled "leg". The "body" part is dressed like a graduate in robes and hats.

According to a subsequent announcement issued by BBT University, the whole "cloud graduation style" adopted the normal procedure. After the president's speech, four graduate representatives (two undergraduates and two graduate students) "took the stage" to receive their diplomas and complete the degree award.

But this robot? I'd like to ask the school leader how not to laugh.

The representative of the graduate who received the graduation certificate quickly slipped away:

No wonder netizens say "zombies". Isn't that the look of the classic zombie movies in Hong Kong in the 1980s?

Lin Zhengying wanted to applaud when he saw it.

Other non-representative graduates watch online through zoom and wonder if they will be a little glad that they were not selected when they saw the costume of the graduate representative.

However, in terms of experience, a BBT graduate said he was very "sour" after attending the "cloud graduation ceremony". "when I entered school, I never thought that one day I would have to manipulate my avatar robot to attend the graduation ceremony, but it was a new experience to be able to publicly get a diploma while staying at home."

According to BBT University, since many students want to attend the graduation ceremony, but are unable to come to the scene, there is a "cloud graduation ceremony."

The first popular avatar robot "newme"

The graduate robot used by BBT University is "newme", a virtual communication robot developed by ANA. It originally looks like this, but it is obviously a little fresh:

In addition to being spoiled by BBT University, "newme" also helps in all aspects of life in other areas. In the entrance ceremony of Ubu Polytechnic College, "newme" serves as the master of ceremonies; in the Botanical Museum around the World, "newme" shows the view of the museum to children who cannot go out, and feels that the latter is the right way to open it.

In October last year, in a keynote speech at CEATEC 2019, ANA President Shinya Katano and famous Japanese actress Ayase Yoshiya Ayase jointly introduced "newme" and said that "newme" could achieve the goal of popularizing 1000 units by April 2020.

According to the official website, "newme" is the first avatar robot with universal significance. As long as you put your avatar on the robot's screen, the robot becomes you, and what the robot sees and hears can be transmitted to the operator in real time, so that you can experience various ways of communicating in different places.

We have seen this way at the graduation ceremony of BBT University, and it is acceptable as long as we don't dress it up in a strange costume.

Because it is the "new self" (newme), ANA also pays great attention to the appearance and personality of the robot. Users can not only choose the colors of the robot independently and match colors at random in different parts of the robot, but also adjust the height of the robot to allow users to experience in the best posture.

In the specific data, the production material of "newme" is resin, which can be folded, and its walking speed is 2.9km/h. It has three sizes of 100cm, 130cm and 150cm. Corresponding to the weight of 14.5kg, 15kg and 15.5kg, it can shake its head up and down 60 °, or shake its head left and right. It can work for 3 hours on a single charge, but the price has not been announced yet.

Although the name of Avatar Robot is a bit middle-second, the company has always adhered to the concept of "breaking the distance and physical boundaries of objects", and many projects are in progress, such as the wearable device on the left, which supports remote interaction through the robotic arm, and the fishing device on the right, which allows you to fish at home.

BBT University: distance education is always in progress

BBT University, the protagonist of this "Zombie graduation ceremony", also has a long history.

When it comes to online education, domestic Mooces, NetEase and others have continued to push forward. More than 20% of the mainstream universities in the United States have implemented online education, and more than 100000 students in South Korea have received online education.

However, in Japan, where the term "online college" is not very common and this educational model has not yet been accepted by the mainstream, BBT is one of the few schools that have taken the lead in promoting online education.

BBT can be said to be a "100% online" university, not only classes, lectures, discussions, group activities, and even tests and exams can be conducted online.

In my impression, in addition to the above advantages, online education has many disadvantages, such as students' self-control is a very unstable factor. However, the mode of online education at BBT University is not based on watching video. After watching the learning video, students, teachers and special learning counselors will discuss the content of the course and summarize their views.

In addition to lectures, BBT also has an online discussion area called "Student Salon" where students can communicate, ask students questions or ask about activity plans.

The promotion of online education at BBT University has a lot to do with its parent company, Business Breakthrough, a telematics (online) education planning company founded in 1998, whose main job is to promote online education in Japan.

BBT University also attaches great importance to students' independent thinking ability, as President Ohmae Kenichi said, "at present, the biggest problem in Japanese education is the excessive emphasis on book knowledge. Schools measure students' learning ability by their grades, resulting in many students being unable to solve real problems. However, the reality is cruel, and students must learn to think independently and give their own answers."

It seems reasonable that BBT University was able to organize such a graduation ceremony.

On March 14, Japanese netizen "Shirahara Zhouping" tweeted that the graduation ceremony was held in "my World" because the children were so eager to attend the graduation ceremony.

The pupil contacted many friends who played "my World", worked with each other, and spent the whole day restoring the school auditorium, rostrum, student seats, red carpet, and wrote a big "Summer", which is probably what the children's ideal graduation ceremony should look like.

For the graduation ceremony, the primary school students all riveted their strength and held a unique "cloud graduation ceremony". The university said it couldn't watch it any more. how could the epidemic be a reason to cancel the graduation ceremony?

What do you think of this?

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