Was Sarah Connor Right All Along? Are Skynet starting with cruises?

No this blog isn’t a late April fool’s joke.  Costa Cruises have today announced a new partnership SoftBank Robotics to purchase five of their latest robots for their flagship, The Costa Diadema.  From the information that has been released, it sounds like these are not robots to operate a bar, but rather walking robots that can navigate around the ship to entertain guests, and have been designed to recognise human emotions.  Apparently Pepper will be able to get your attention and will be able to ask you questions as well we answering any questions you may have for it.

Now to me, as a major technology geek this sounds like heaven, and I would be in my element with these wondering around on my cruise and would welcome Pepper, (of course they have named them) entertaining me throughout.  I would even pay specifically to rent one of these just for myself for my cruise (this option is currently not available), with what better way for me to combine my love of tech and my love of cruise.

Now although I would love this, on the flip side, I do see why some people would not welcome robots on their cruise who can read their emotions and ask them random questions.  Some people would ask if there was actually a need for something like this on a cruise, when all the staff are impeccably helpful, why would they employ a robot to do the job?  Another question raised also would be security.  If the robot is able to read your emotions from your face, what information are the cruise line then going to be storing about you?  Could they be storing information from your facial expressions on your favourite drink on the cruise, or how you feel about certain areas, and if so is this going too far on data capture?

I think if I look at it from a whole then yes I do think there is a market for something like this, and my excitement over this proves that.  I would think the cruise line should keep this in an area where people can opt into activities with this though as some people may not like or want to be involved for various reasons.

What are your thoughts, would you welcome something like this on your cruise? And is this the start of Robots taking over?