I was reading in France 24 this morning about the new robot which has just been launched in Japan. Obviously its still a work in progress....see some of the reporter's comments below, but it makes you think that Star Wars type robots, or Millenium Man may be approaching at reasonable prices very soon.


A cooing, gesturing humanoid that can decipher emotions has been unveiled in Japan mobile phone company, Softbank.

Son’s mobile phone company Softbank said Thursday that the robot it has dubbed Pepper will go on sale in Japan in February for 198,000 yen ($1,900). Overseas sales plans are under consideration but undecided.

The wheeled machine appeared on a stage in a Tokyo suburb, cooing, humming and “gently” gesticulating with its hands. It dramatically touched hands with Masayoshi Son, chief executive of Softbank, in a Genesis or “E.T.” moment.

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.

“Our aim is to develop affectionate robots that can make people smile,” he said.

Meet ‘Pepper’

The 121 centimetre (48 inch) tall, 28 kilogram (62 pound) white Pepper has large, doll-like eyes and a flat-panel display stuck on its chest. It was developed jointly with Aldebaran Robotics, which is already in the business of producing autonomous, humanoid robots.

Besides featuring the latest voice recognition technology, 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.

It also has two cameras and four microphones on its head and has wifi and Ethernet networking capabilities. Up close, it bears a resemblance to C-3PO in “Star Wars.”

‘I could not hear you’

But a demonstration Friday at a Softbank retailer in Tokyo highlighted the robot’s shortcomings as much as its charm.

Voice recognition takes a while to kick in, when its eyes light up in a listening mode after the robot stops talking, making for less than spontaneous dialogue, similar to the frustration one experiences when talking with iPhone’s Siri.

Pepper was more fluid with its own chatter, such as asking “Do you do Twitter?” or “Is this the first time you ever spoke to a robot?” But it wouldn’t really wait for an answer, rattling on to the next topic.

Sometimes the robot failed to catch a speaker’s words and would say: “I could not hear you. Could you say that again?”

When a person shouted to test out how well it read emotions, it didn’t do much except to say: “You look like an honest person.”

In Thursday’s demonstration, Pepper sang, “I want to be loved,” and it did more singing and gesturing with its hands Friday.

But all its song-and-dance acts seemed to prove was that the machine needs to learn a lot more tricks to impress robot-savvy Japanese. The Softbank shop barely drew a crowd besides a pack of reporters with their cameras.

For the rest of the article check out this link
http://www.france24.com/en/20140606-affectionate-robot-japan-softbank-emotions/?f24_member_id=1063233267415&ns_campaign=nl_quot_en&ns_fee=0&ns_linkname=20140606_affectionate_robot_japan_softbank_emotions&ns_mchannel=email_marketing&ns_source=NLQ_20140607

It seemed to me that as we are living in a society where more and more of us live alone, robots who are friendly and react to our feelings will become common, and useful. And although I don't think that single households are yet the highest percentage of households in the UK, though they have been in Germany for over 20 years, the trend to living alone is increasing - in spite of house prices and rental prices. In this potential scenario of a "single" population I wondered how useful a robot like Pepper would be for us TG peeps? And I don't mean in a sexual sense, though doubtless the usual culprits will make smutty innuendos.

Seriously if you had a trans friendly robot - one who could perhaps give constructive advice on make up and which top looks good with which skirt - would you like one?

And if so why? Answers not on a postcard, but here......


hugs



Pauline xxxx

That looks fantastic, just to have someone that is very whether it be human or not is always a wonderful thing to have.

thats sooooo cute i want one xx