Sunday, April 1, 2012

Hologram Cafe


It only looks like an ordinary maid cafe from the outside but upon entering you will be greeted by an anime character! This is Cure Hologram Cafe. It's a concept cafe which Cure hopes to revolutionise the maid cafe industry.


The technology used here is similar to the one used in Hatsune Miku’s concerts; virtual maids are projected from various arrays on special glass. And since there's glass on just about every corner of the cafe, virtual maids can saunter around as they take orders from their customers. Food will be served via a machine that moves by a rail on the ceiling. What's more, for every table there’s another piece of this special glass, making it possible to have the company of a virtual maid during your meal. To maintain the sense that the virtual characters are really there, the cafe owners plan to only allow a single projection for each character throughout the entire cafe. Hence, if the character you want to dine with is busy attending another customer, then you will have to wait for your turn, just like a real maid!


A speech recognition system allows for a more immersive interaction. The customer can give simple responses such as yes and no. Hence the virtual maids would be the one doing most of the flirting. For example, the maid can ask, “Would you like to put in the power of love into your coffee?” Here the customer can reply, “Yes,” of which the virtual maid would then request the customer to follow their hand gestures. On the other hand a customer who answers “No,” can result in the virtual maid reacting all moe with “Aww, why don’t you want to?” or a more tsundere virtual maid can react “Fine! See if I care! Hmph!”

Like a regular maid cafe, there will be themes to celebrate certain anime or games, but this time with a difference: you will be attended by the authentic characters themselves. Expect to meet the cast of Evangelion, Azumanga Daioh, Star Driver, and Shining Tears in the following months of its opening. For the opening month itself however—expected to be in the first quater of 2013—Cure Hologram Cafe will be introducing a line of staple maid characters which serves as mascots of the cafe, each with their own unique personality. So the question is, do you mind the glass?


2 comments:

White Shinigami said...
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White Shinigami said...

Cool idea, although if this were to exist, it's very likely that hardly anyone would visit it. Given how terrifying it would be to some. Cool concept though, I'd visit it if it were real ^_^

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