pepper
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Pepper the robot can perform funerary rites, but it shouldn’t
It’s not really clear just what “humanoid” robots are actually for. I’ve seen them do all kinds of things, but almost none of them well; at our recent Robotics event in Boston, several leading experts in the field questioned their necessity. But we grew up with Data and Robby and Cylons, and so now we have Pepper. Performing funeral rites for cash-strapped people in Japan. Read More
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SoftBank makes it easier to customize Pepper the robot’s greeting skills
Until now, Pepper the robot has required programming knowledge to control, a fact that’s proven a pain point toward wider adoption (well, that and the fact that it hasn’t started shipping widely here in the U.S.). This morning, the company debuted Promoter, a browser-based solution that lets anyone customize the robot’s movements — albeit within a fairly limited scope. Read More
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Pepper the robot will be helping out shoppers at two Bay Area shopping centers this holiday
It can be tough finding seasonal help. So naturally Westfield has started looking to robots for help staffing its shopping centers. Starting today, the Westfield San Francisco Centre and Westfield Valley Fair in the Silicon Valley will be employing Pepper robots to help improve the holiday shopping experience. At first Softbank’s friendly humanoid robot will mostly be there for show. Read More
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PepperPay’s robot photographer replaces cashiers
Machine vision technology will let any smartphone or tablet recognize objects so we don’t have to rely on humans or barcode scanners. TechCrunch Disrupt SF Hackathon project PepperPay brings machine vision to the checkout process. You just hold up the item you want to buy in front of a robot wielding a PepperPay-equipped device that can take a picture of it and instantly recognize what… Read More
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Dr. Pepper is not a real doctor, but it could help overloaded schools prioritize patients
“Doing something for children was our first thought,” Camilo F. Buscaron explains, fresh of the Disrupt Hackathon stage. “We wanted to do something in education.” At some point during the 24 hour process, however, things took a turn for the medical, no doubt helped along by the fact that one member of the six-person team (Kate Gofman) was an honest-to-goodness… Read More
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PepperHealth can detect vitals and send out an emergency alert for elders in trouble
Pepper, the humanoid robot, is coming up with all sorts of ways to serve its human overlords, including in eldercare. The little rolling robot took to the stage at the Disrupt SF Hackathon today to show how it could help our aging parents, should they fall and not be able to get up. According to PepperHealth creators Ethan Fan and Angelo Hizon – both Battlefield NY 2015 veterans for… Read More
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Softbank’s Pepper robot is finally getting a (temp) retail job in the US
Pepper has been picking up retail work all over Asia, including a high profile gig working at Pizza Huts in Japan, but Softbank’s humanoid robot hasn’t had too much luck finding work here in the States. But now that the company is working toward a US release timed for later this year (following its first overseas launch in Taiwan), we’re likely to see it start popping up… Read More
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Pepper the robot’s next job is Pizza Hut cashier
You gotta hand it to Pepper. Even in the face of worldwide economic woes, Softbank’s plucky little robot has never had an issue holding down a job. The ‘bot’s latest gig isn’t exactly the most glamorous we’ve seen it take on, but it will likely do so with a smile – or the approximate equivalent. Thanks to a commerce partnership between Softbank and… Read More
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Pepper the Robot gets increased access for Android developers ahead of its US launch
SoftBank is starting to ramp things up ahead of the US launch of its friendly and versatile humanoid robot, Pepper. After holding down a factotum of service industry jobs in and around Japan and Europe, the company announced this week at Google I/O that the ‘bot is being opened more widely to developers. The news brings with it Android compatibility for the robot, so developers can… Read More
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SoftBank Plans To Open A Store Staffed (Almost) Entirely By Pepper, Its Humanoid Robot
SoftBank announced today that it will launch an app store to create a software ecosystem for Pepper, its humanoid robot. Perhaps more intriguingly, the company, one of Japan’s largest telecom and Internet firms, also revealed plans for a phone store staffed mainly by Peppers. Read More
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The Enterprise Model Of Pepper, SoftBank’s Robot, Will Cost $440 A Month To Rent
SoftBank will start taking pre-orders for the enterprise model of its humanoid robot, Pepper, on October 1. The company revealed today “Pepper for Biz” will cost 55,000 yen (about $440 a month) per month to rent. Contracts are for 36 months, so businesses have to spend a total of about $15,940 in rental charges. Read More
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Pepper Rises: Active Networks Relaunches Plancast With A New Design
Plancast, a TC alumni startup that limped along in the deadpool for a few years, has just relaunched under new ownership. ActiveNetwork paid an undisclosed sum last spring and spent the summer updating the site. Co-founders Jay Marcyes and Mark Hendrickson are no longer maintaining the service. “We made a fraction of Facebook’s current market cap,” said founder and former… Read More
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