Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry will be the lead manufacturer of SoftBank’s new humanoid robot named Pepper. In a press conference today SoftBank’s CEO, Masayoshi Son, revealed the waist-high, sleek robot.
For the first time in human history, we’re giving a robot a heart, emotions.
– SoftBank CEO, Masayoshi Son
Pepper is designed to recognize human emotions and learn from its surroundings, and respond pro-actively in order to help others.
With a huge aging population in Japan and other countries, Son hopes that robots can help take care of those that need it or help out in the ever shrinking workforce.
Besides, who wouldn’t want a robot helper around the house?
The robots will use cloud computing to share data so they can develop their emotional capabilities, but will not share their owner’s personal information.
Pepper will be able to communicate to its owner through speech, body language and emotions, and is equipped with sensors and microphones.
This week a prototype will be deployed at SoftBank mobile phone stores across Japan which will help serve customers.
SoftBank hopes to put Pepper on sale to the public next February for under $2,000. With a price like that, maybe I should start saving up for my very own robot servant!
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