Alex's summer writing :
Essay #2
Pepper the Robot
Within a minute, the man-like robot
had sold out. This bionic machine works by reading people’s emotions. The
company had built 1000 of these automated machines, which sold out very quickly.
One of these robots costs 198,000 yen and this is equivalent to $1,600 in
America. In addition, every month the consumer has to pay 24,600 yen which
equals to $200.
Pepper is the name of the robot
which interacts with people by observing the tones of voice and people’s facial
expressions. Furthermore, this robot is equipped with cameras, touch sensors,
accelerometer and other senses in its “endocrine”. Pepper can not only read
people’s emotions but develop his own as well. “Pepper has his own evolving emotions
which are influenced by facial expressions and words, as well as his
surroundings”. Other than this, people think robots can’t make mistakes but
this robot can make mistakes. At this time, the company is implementing new
languages into his system such as English, French, Japanese and Spanish.
The Soft Banks Robotic Company has a
partnership with Foxconn an Apple manufacturer and Giant Alibaba Chinese e
commerce. “Each company had agreed to invest 14.2 billion yen for 20 percent of
the shares in the Soft Bank Robotics Industry”. This was
the first step in making Pepper available worldwide. The company wants to sell
Pepper at an affordable price. This would bring in more profit to the company
when the robot becomes a worldwide phenomenon. This mechanized robot has made
an advance in society and more of these inventions will soon come.
