Ever feel like no one really understands you well? "Pepper" could be about to change all that. Pepper is the first robot to read human feelings. Using its emotion recognition functions(情 感识别功能), Pepper can react to people when they are near them--making jokes, dancing and even singing in Japanese.
The man-like robot looks like a small girl. It is four-feet tall with a tablet computer(平板电脑)set to its chest. It has human-like hands, a girl-like body and baby-like voice. It was shown to curious people in Tokyo stores on Friday by Softbank, a Japanese robotics company.
Pepper can examine facial expressions(面部表情), human voice and signs, then make an answer. Pepper is able to communicate about everything from the weather to more serious topics like the latest information in the stock(股票) markets. Yet the great difference is that Pepper can make eye contact when meeting people.
The creators believe that robots like Pepper will make a great difference to our daily lives as the PC, Internet and mobile phones did. Pepper is designed to be a family robot, but it isn't like Rosie who can do housework on the cartoon. Pepper gets power from love inside a family. It can not only make jokes and make people laugh but also help people in natural disasters and comfort those people who are sad or lonely, encourage them or make them laugh.
Pepper went on sale in Japan for around $2, 000 in February 2015. For now，several Peppers are at Softbank stores in Tokyo for people to visit. The creators said they wanted the robots to store more knowledge, to do better in getting along with human.
