In a press release discussing the acquisition Walgreen suggested that Duane Reade's recent efforts toimprove the customer shopping experience were in line with its own work to revitalize customer interaction with its stores.
Aside from providing the world with great gadgets, entertainment devices and robots -- the Japanese have now answered the question that every robot enthusiast since Isaac Asimov has been trying to answer: how do we improve robot-humanoid interaction?
For example, since 1998, Genevieve Bell, the Director of Interaction and Experience Research at Intel Labs, has led a team of fellow anthropologists toimprove the design and functionality of smartphones and home management systems.