CHINA TOPIX

05/10/2024 11:59:50 am

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Pepper, Humanoid Dancing Robot 'Pepper' to be Sold For US$1,900 Next Year

If you're up to having a dancing robot as part of your entertainment, you got to read this!

The maker of the humanoid dancing robots called "Pepper" will start selling his invention at Sprint Stores by next year all over the United States.

Masayoshi Son said that the sale will be part of SoftBank's goal to take technology in general beyond the floors of a factory. Reports say that SoftBank has already been receiving over 300 inquiries with regard to Pepper being sold.

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The inquiries come from a wide range of customers including finance, food services and even education.

Son is said to be also aiming on creating a society where humans and intelligent robots coexist.  He said that he aims to replace 90 million jobs with over 30 million robots in order to improve labor productivity.

The chief executive officer of SoftBank, Fumihide Tomizawa, said that Pepper, who stands 4-feet, does not only dance; the robot even makes jokes and can read human emotions based on the expressions it sees.

Pepper is said to be equipped with lasers and also has a 12-hour battery life. The robot was unveiled in June this year and was initially made for families and the elderly. However, businesses are said to be interested in it, too.

It was revealed that the inspiration for the robot was the animated show "Astro Boy" who could not express its emotions.

Pepper will be on sale by February 2015 at €1,200 or US$1,900, although the U.S price has not been settled yet.

SoftBank is said to be investigating to further study robotics since Japan aims to double the value of their domestic production. The figure they expect is said to be 2.41 trillion Yen by the year 2020.

SoftBank has even developed an operating system that controls the robots, likened to Google Inc.'s Android software that runs android smartphones. 

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