世界首個懂人類情感機器人問世大綱

Ever feel like no one really understands you? Well "Pepper" could be about to change all that.

That's because Pepper is actually a robot and touted as the world's first with the ability to read emotions.

The humanoid robot -- which looks slightly like a shrunken Michelin Man -- was unveiled to curious onlookers in Tokyo stores on Friday by SoftBank, a Japanese telecom giant and Aldebaran, a French robotics company.

Pepper doesn't look much like its name. Standing under four-feet tall with a tablet computer mounted to its chest, it has human-like hands and a mermaid-like lower torso — though its toddler-like voice seems incongruous with this state-of-the-art facade.

Despite the high-pitched voice, Pepper is able to converse about everything from the weather, to more sophisticated topics like the latest fluctuations in the stock markets.

Yet the great differentiator is the fact Pepper is fully interactive, making eye contact when meeting people.

Pepper is "the first robot to read human emotions," said Softbank's CEO Masayoshi Son told reporters at a press conference in the Japanese capital on Thursday.

"Robots like Pepper are adding a new dimension in our daily lives. They would change it with the same magnitude as the PC, Internet and mobile phones did."

How Pepper reads your moods

Using its emotion recognition functions, Pepper can react to people in its vicinity -- making jokes, dancing and even rapping (in Japanese), as it did in an onstage demonstration on Thursday.

Pepper can analyze facial expressions, human voice tones and gestures, then react autonomously through algorithms, its creators say.

"Our vision is to create an affectionate robot that can understand people's feelings. Then autonomously, it will take action," said Son.

He envisions robots playing roles in education, healthcare and entertainment, but their primary goal isn't to work in the industry like existing robots.

"Our's is not aiming for productivity, but rather at the home or store, where we provide fun and entertainment," Son said.

Pepper is designed to be a family robot -- perhaps more like a sleeker version of Rosie, the household robot on the cartoon "The Jetsons."

"Pepper is powered by love inside a family," Son said. "Not only is he making jokes, making them laugh. The robot acts out at its own expense, in natural disaster, it can help them and also comfort those people who are sad or lonely, encourage them or make them laugh."

When Pepper goes on sale

Pepper goes on sale in Japan for around US$2,000 in February 2015. For now, several Peppers are at Softbank stores in Tokyo for spectators to visit. The creators say before releasing Pepper for sale, they want the robots to accumulate more knowledge, to evolve and get more sophisticated in its interactions with humans.

"Several thousand Peppers are going to learn at the store," Son said. "Everything they learned and gained, is going to be accumulated into the cloud-based service. So that can be accelerating the evolution of the collective wisdom."

Pepper functions through cloud-based artificial intelligence.

SoftBank and Aldebaran envision the robot being sold overseas eventually. After all, Pepper is quite the polyglot, speaking 17 languages.總是覺得沒人真正瞭解你？那麼“小辣椒（Pepper）”將會改變這一現狀。

因爲“小辣椒”其實是個機器人，被認爲是世界上第一款能讀懂人情感的機器人。

這款人形機器人看上去有點像迷你版的“米其林先生”（Michelin Man），在6月6號由日本電信巨頭軟銀公司（Softbank）和法國機器人廠商阿德巴蘭(Aldebaran)聯合在東京商場向參觀者揭開神祕面紗。

“小辣椒”看起來不太像它的名字。它有四英尺高，胸前有一臺平板電腦，有着類似人的手臂和像魚尾的身體——雖然它那像孩童一樣的聲音與它時尚感十足的外觀不太相符。

“小辣椒”的聲音雖然尖了點，但能聊小到天氣，大到股市最新波動等複雜的話題。

不過，最大的不同點是小辣椒互動性十足，在看到人時，能與人進行眼神交流。

“‘小辣椒’是第一臺能讀懂人類情感的機器人，”軟銀公司總裁孫正義6月5號在東京舉行的新聞發佈會上說道。

“像‘小辣椒’這樣的機器人能爲我們的日常生活增添了一個新的角度。它會像計算機、互聯網和手機那樣給我們的生活帶來翻天覆地的變化。”

“小辣椒”如何讀懂你的情緒

在發佈會當日，“小辣椒”在臺上展示它的功能，運用情感識別功能對附近的人做出反應：講笑話、跳舞，甚至說唱（用日語）。

研發人員稱，“小辣椒”可以分析面部表情、人的語調和手勢，然後通過程序自動做出反應。

“我們希望發明一個有感情的機器人，能懂人的感情，然後自主地做出反應，”孫正義說道。

他展望未來機器人能在教育、醫療和娛樂領域發揮作用，但他們的主要目標不是像目前存在的機器人那樣工作。

“我們的機器人不是爲了提高生產力，而是要在提供樂趣和娛樂的地方，如家裏或商場裏，發揮作用，”孫正義說。

“小辣椒”設計成家庭機器人——可能更像動畫片《傑森一家》（The Jetsons）裏的家庭機器人羅茜(Rosie)的時尚版。

“‘小辣椒’從家庭的愛獲得能量，”孫正義說道。“他不僅會講笑話，逗他們笑。這款機器人能夠自主地行動，在遇到自然災害時，它會幫助他們，還能安慰哪些傷心和孤獨的人，鼓勵他們，或逗他們笑。”

‘小辣椒’何時上市

“小辣椒”將於2015年2月在日本上市，售價約爲2000美元。現在，軟銀公司的東京商城有幾臺樣機供人蔘觀。“小辣椒”的研發人員稱，在“小辣椒”上市之前，他們想讓這些機器人積累更多知識，在與人交流時能演進，變得更老道。

“有數千臺‘小辣椒’機器人將在商場裏學習，”孫正義說。“他們學習和獲取的一切東西都將彙集到雲端服務裏。這會加快集體智慧的進化。”

“小辣椒”通過雲端人工智能運行。

軟銀公司和Aldebaran機器人公司期望這款機器人最後能銷往海外。畢竟，“小辣椒”通曉多種語言，能說17種語言。