The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, Rwandan High Commissioner to Nigeria, Stanislas Kamanzi, and other eminent personalities are expected to be present at the unveiling of Africa’s first humanoid robot named ‘Omeife’ in Nigeria on Friday.
This was disclosed in a statement issued on Thursday in Abuja by the CEO of the Uniccon Group of Companies, Chuks Ekwueme, noting that the six-foot-tall female African humanoid provides language as a service for businesses that need to integrate native African audiences, adding that she is a multipurpose and assistance robot.
According to Ekwueme, “It identifies and tags humans through face and facial expressions, paying attention to a specific item when required.”
“It Identifies objects, knows their characteristics and also calculates positions and distances of objects it sees.”
He further said “It pays attention to a specific person to keep the conversation alive. It is careful and aware of words, phrases, sentences and expressions that are not polite in African cultures.”
“It is safe for the kid’s smooth interaction; it is not reactive and it is knowledgeable in various fields and always teachable.”
He added “To improve and understand new things from conversations, it has the ability to recall, understand old concepts better with new information”.
Ekwueme highlighted some of robot’s features to include terrain intelligence, position awareness, advanced gestures, grip and it is also programmed to have a deep understanding of African culture and behavioral patterns, adding that it speaks languages like English, French, Arabic, Kiswahili, Pidgin, Wazobia, Afrikaans and Igbo.
According to him, “For terrain intelligence, knowing the level of ground and stability of itself on the floor, this will help it navigate on non-flat surfaces and maintain good balance.”
“For position awareness, the GPS for location and state-management is for knowing whether the system is standing, walking or talking.”
“Advanced gestures are the expression of talking, hand illustrations, smile and other bodily gestures.”
“Grip is the ability to seize, understand, shape and how to hold things with its hand.”
Ekwueme noted that Africa’s contributions to the tech ecosystem are well recognised globally.
He said “Africa is fast being recognised for its contribution to the global tech ecosystem”, adding “Through Omeife and other projects, we are happy to play a part in helping businesses and people all over Africa to achieve their fullest potential by providing access to the most innovative technologies for efficiency”.
The Nigerian News gathered that the global unveiling of Omeife took place in October at the world’s biggest technology event, GITEX, in Dubai.
Uniccon group, which is one of Nigeria’s fastest growing technology startups that offers eclectic, innovative technology solutions to businesses and government agencies across Africa, said the theme for the forthcoming event is: “The Future of Artificial Intelligence in the African Tech Ecosystem”.
