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A Japanese Robot Is Learning the American Way
Developed for cute-centric Japan, a robot called Pepper is getting a personality adjustment for its launch in the United States.
In certain Japanese stores, Pepper the robot greets customers with a giggle, a polite bow, and a short song. When Pepper debuts in the United States, sometime in the next year, it is more likely to offer a fist bump and a sarcastic comeback.
“In Japan, because they have a very cute-centric culture, Pepper is much more silly and cute,” says Alia Pyros, international communications manager at Aldebaran Robotics, a French company that developed the robot in collaboration with the Japanese corporation Softbank before Softbank acquired it outright. “In the U.S., we have this kind of C3-PO idea, where he’s kind of snarky and kind of smart.”
When I saw Pepper at Aldebaran’s offices in Boston, where the company is exploring ways to introduce the robot to the U.S. public, some of this stateside attitude was on display. After being introduced in the lobby, Pepper offered several times to high-five me. And when asked if it was a Terminator, Pepper said curtly: “Do I really have to answer that?”
Pepper is one of several robots hitting the market that are designed to entertain and assist people in store showrooms, in offices, and even at home. The falling cost of sensors, actuators, and computers has made it possible to build something capable of basic navigation, simple voice and image recognition, and even a little conversation. But all these robots are still quite rudimentary (see “Personal Robots: Artificial Friends with Limited Benefits”).
Pepper is more sophisticated than most of its competitors, some of which are immobile and limbless. The white plastic robot is a little over a meter tall, and it moves around on wheels embedded in a stable base. Its eyes change color as it listens and speaks, and it waves its humanoid arms in a surprisingly expressive way as it talks, which can make Pepper feel strangely engaging. Like other robots, Pepper is prone to mishearing or misinterpreting words and phrases, which can be confusing and frustrating. But it’s less error-prone than other bots I’ve seen.
At least for now, it’s not meant to take on very complex tasks: its hands and arms are incapable of useful manipulation. When asked if it can do the dishes, Pepper told me, “I suppose I could try, but I don’t think it would be a good idea; I’d rather just be a friend.” But at some point its capabilities could increase: Softbank has released an application programming interface for Pepper so that software developers can create custom capabilities. Aldebaran’s U.S. team has collaborated with researchers from IBM to give Pepper the ability to devise recipes, using the Watson platform (see “New Answers from IBM’s Watson”).
Pepper costs around $2,000 in Japan and requires a monthly subscription fee for updates and maintenance.
Brian Scassellati, a professor at Yale University who studies how people and robots can interact, says significant progress has been made in the area in the last 10 years. “Human-robot interaction has really started to home in on the kinds of behaviors that give you that feeling of presence,” he says. “A lot of these are small, subtle things.” For example, Pepper can crudely read your emotions by using software that analyzes facial expressions. I found the robot to be pretty good at telling whether I was smiling or frowning.
However, Scassellati does not believe robots are ready to become constant companions or even effective salespeople. The robots that succeed “are going to be for very limited use,” he suggests. “They’re going to be for targeted use, and probably not with the general population.”
My short time with Pepper makes me think that targeting limited applications is a sensible move. The robot could prove a draw in stores (as a novelty if nothing else), and it could conceivably help a customer look up information about different products. But real robot companions are clearly still a ways off. As if to emphasize the point, when it came time to leave and I bid the robot farewell, Pepper apparently forgot its new Americanized routine and stared blankly into empty space ahead.
Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/541171/a-japanese-robot-is-learning-the-american-way/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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