SoftBank CEO and Sprint chairman Masayoshi Son has announced a surprising new direction for his illustrious career:
the field of humanoid robotics. At a press conference in Tokyo, Son
revealed a human-like robot called Pepper that is capable of playing
multiple roles from babysitter to store staff. Pepper introduced itself
by bowing in the Japanese fashion before posing and encouraging the
audience to take more photos.
The "world's first personal robot with emotions"
Son describes Pepper as the
"world's first personal robot with emotions." The robot is said to learn
from human interaction and behavior, uploading its experiences to a
cloud AI system for other units to use. This is designed to teach the
robot quickly how to act in a natural manner. Son drew a distinction
between Pepper's "emotion engine" and the standard programming of other
humanoid robots.
Pepper reaches about two-thirds
of Son's height — himself not a tall man — with a tablet-style display
on its chest, and has fully articulated arms that move in a lifelike
manner. The robot doesn't have legs, however, looking more like a
mermaid on wheels. Pepper appeared to engage Son in natural-sounding
Japanese, but it's hard to tell how much was being processed in real
time. Pepper has around 12 hours of battery life, according to Son.
The robot is the result of a
collaboration between SoftBank and French company Aldebaran Robotics,
which has produced models like the Nao and the Romeo. SoftBank took a majority stake in Aldebaran in 2012. The Nikkei newspaper reported
earlier that production will be outsourced to Foxconn; founder Terry
Gou joined Son onstage to express his support for the project.
This is Son's first foray into
robotics, but the development is in line with his desire to produce
technology to address major issues facing Japan. He has previously been
an outspoken advocate for aggressively pursuing green energy to replace
the country's nuclear power plants, for example, and announced a move into healthcare with SoftBank. Nikkei reports that SoftBank will develop a robot to assist with care for the elderly at some point in the future.
SoftBank will place Pepper
units in two Tokyo stores from tomorrow before rolling them out to the
rest of the country. Perhaps the most notable element of Pepper is the
price: it will go on general sale in February for ¥198,000, or around
$1,930, for the base unit.
Written by Unknown
We are Creative Blogger Theme Wavers which provides user friendly, effective and easy to use themes. Each support has free and providing HD support screen casting.
0 comments:
Post a Comment