Pepper - The First Human-Like Robot

 

A Japanese company has just introduced Pepper, a human-like robot. He has arms and hands but not legs. Pepper can speak 17 languages and has a display on his chest in which you can type in commands. The revolutionary robot’s artificial intelligence system can read recognize different kinds of human emotions. It can also read, answer questions and react to the feelings of people.

Pepper gets its information from a series of cameras, as well as facial and voice recognition software. It is connected to the internet from where it gets information from a gigantic database. Special safety features makes it almost impossible for the software to crash. Pepper is a learning robot that constantly becomes better and better in recognizing human behavior.

 


The company that created Pepper, Softbank, envisions a world in which robots will play an ever-increasing role in doing daily chores in the household. According to the company they will play a major part in caring for old people.

According to market experts, the demand for robots is growing and because of its rapidly ageing population, Japan is one of the largest markets in the world. Businesses are also interested in robots like Pepper, which can help firms cut costs by taking over tasks that humans are currently doing.


While many companies have been developing robots for industrial work and military purposes, very little has been done to get robots to work on the emotional scale. Pepper is the first machine that can do just that. The new robot will be on sale in Japan for about 2,000 dollars.

 

 

 

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Words

  • according to = as said by …
  • artificial intelligence = system of making computers do intelligent things that people can do, such as think and make decisions
  • behavior = the way someone acts
  • business = company
  • care for = look after
  • chest = front part of your body between your neck and your stomach
  • chore = job, task
  • command = instruction
  • constantly = all the time
  • crash = it suddenly stops working
  • cut = lower
  • database = large amount of information stored on a computer
  • demand = need
  • develop = design or make a new product
  • display = small screen
  • envision = imagine, dream about
  • ever increasing = here: to become more and more important
  • facial = about the face
  • impossible = not possible
  • introduce = to show to the public for the first time
  • on sale = you can buy it
  • purpose = use
  • rapidly = fast, quickly
  • recognize = see, observe
  • revolutionary = something very new
  • safety feature = elements in the system that protect it
  • scale = level
  • series = many
  • task = job, something that must be done
  • voice recognition = when software can recognize  what you are saying