Tokyo firm Softbank has unveiled a robot called “Pepper”
which says Pepper can read human emotions. A cooing, gesturing humanoid on wheels that can decipher
emotions has been unveiled in Japan by billionaire Masayoshi Son who says
robots should be tender and make people smile.
Son, who told the crowd that his longtime dream was to go
into the personal robot business, said Pepper has been programmed to read the
emotions of people around it by recognizing expressions and voice tones.
The 121cm (48 inch) tall, 28kg (62 pound) white Pepper,
which has no hair but two large doll-like eyes and a flat-panel display stuck
on its chest, was developed jointly with Aldebaran Robotics, which produces
autonomous humanoid robots.
Besides featuring the latest voice recognition, Pepper is
loaded with more than a dozen sensors, including two touch sensors in its
hands, three touch sensors on its head, and six laser sensors and three bumper
sensors in its base.
