Emerging Technologies Blog

Remember SoftBank Pepper the emotion sensing humanoid robot? That 4-feet tall robot being used by Nestle to sell its coffee machines in electronics stores all over Japan? Well, It went up for sale online on Saturday for $1600. And guess what? One thousand units of the Pepper humanoid robot sold out  within a minute after they were made available to purchase , according to its maker SoftBank Robotics Corp.  Whoa!That's the entire order for the month of June they guzzled up in one day.

Pepper, which has a tablet-like screen straps to its chest and gets energy from a lithium-ion battery, is able to read your emotions, facial expressions, sing, dance etc. and could even give you a bear hug if you need one, all thanks to its sensors, cameras and touch  sensors. It can speak English,Japanese, French and Spanish as well as recognises your tone of voice.That's makes pepper the humanoid robot a true companion.

Oh I  would like to have a robot that does all that in my home. Good! But Pepper doesn't come cheap. The robot's base retail price is actually only about $1600, but because it runs on cloud-based AI(artificial intelligence) it is very expensive to own. For example you have to sign up for a monthly $200 subscription fee that comes to $4,350 over 3 years, as well as insurance fees.
The robot is quite expensive but the company is not making a profit off Pepper. In fact, SoftBank says it's cost more to build the robot than the amount it is selling it. They just want to make the robot less expensive so that everyone can have one as a pet--maybe in place of a dog.

If you are among those wanting to get their own Pepper robot, you will have to wait until June. SoftBank Robotics says the next flash sale will begin next month. However, pay attention to  SoftBank  announcement because they won't produce higher than 1000 units.

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