SoftBank’s humanoid robot Pepper knows how you’re feeling | ComputerWorld

Pepper is a cute, wisecracking personal robot designed to bring joy to everyone, and Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank wants people to start buying it next year for the price of a high-end PC.

Its NAOqi operating system, a nod to Aldebaran’s pint-sized Nao robot, has an “emotion engine” as well as cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) to help it understand people and respond to them.

“With cute robots, so cute that people want them at home, very easy to interact with and which are connected to the Internet, look at this potential we are opening,” said Aldebaran CEO Bruno Maisonnier. “Many things can be done to improve education, healthcare, entertainment, flow management, you name it.”

It will go on sale in Japan in February 2015 with a base price of AY=198,000 (US$1,929).

 
Read more by Tim Hornyak on ComputerWorld

If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

• SoftBank + Aldebaran = Pepper
• NAO Next Gen now available for a wider audience
• Rethink Robotics and Aldebaran both launch robots for research, teaching and custom development
• “A Paro walks into a club…” (or, Notes on the design of automated body language)

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Hallie Siegel robotics editor-at-large

Hallie Siegel robotics editor-at-large