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Pepper, Your Robot Companion

Pepper is a new robot, the latest from our friends at Aldebaran (the robotics firm, not the stellar system). They claim it is the first robot designed to live with humans.


(Pepper the Aldebaran robot video)

The latest creation from Aldebaran, Pepper is the first robot designed to live with humans. At the risk of disappointing you, he doesn't clean, doesn't cook and doesn't have super powers... But he talks, can read your emotions, move and live autonomously.

Engaging and friendly, Pepper is much more than a robot, he’s a companion able to communicate with you through the most intuitive interface we know: voice, touch and emotions.

Maybe you'd trust Pepper enough to take care of your children, like the nanny robot imagined by Philip K. Dick in his 1955 short story Nanny:

"Of course, robots are a common sight these days. Certainly more so than a few years ago. You see them everywhere you go, behind counters in stores, driving buses, digging ditches - "

"But Nanny is different," Tom Fields murmured.

"She's - she's not like a machine. She's like a person. A living person. But after all, she's much more complex than any other kind. She has to be..."

Pepper knows what state you are in, using his knowledge of universal emotions (joy, surprise, anger, doubt and sadness) and his ability to analyse your facial expression, your body language and the words you use. He will guess your mood, and will even adapt to it. For example, he will try to cheer you up by playing your favourite song!

Pepper also can express emotions, and this is what makes him so cute! We can say he has a real personality, expressed by his body language, his funny gestures or his voice.

You might even say it has it's own personality.

Read more about Pepper at Aldebaran Robotics - Who is Pepper?.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 6/5/2014)

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