天下首个懂人类情绪机器人问世

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

老是感觉没有人真正掌握您？那末“小辣椒(Pepper)”将会改动这一近况。

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

由于“小辣椒”其实是个机器人，被认为是世界上第一款能读懂人情绪的机器人。

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。

这款人形机器人看上去有点像迷你版的“米其林师长教师”(Michelin Man)，正在6月6号由日本电信巨子软银公司(Softbank)和法国机器人厂商阿德巴兰(Aldebaran)联合正在东京商场向参观者揭开神秘面纱。

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。

“小辣椒”看起来不太像它的名字。它有四英尺高，胸前有一台平板电脑，拥有近似人的手臂和像鱼尾的身体——虽然它那像孩童一样的声音与它时尚感十足的表面不太符合。

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。

“小辣椒”的声音虽然尖了点，但能聊小到气候，大到股市最新颠簸等庞大的话题。

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

不外，最大的不同点是小辣椒互动性十足，正在看到人时，能与人开展眼神交换。

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。

“‘小辣椒’是第一台能读懂人类情绪的机器人，”软银公司总裁孙正义6月5号正在东京进行的新闻发布会上说道。

"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."

“像‘小辣椒’如许的机器人能为我们的日常生活增添了一个新的角度。它会像计算机、互联网和手机那样为我们的生活带来沧海桑田的变革。”

How Pepper reads your moods

“小辣椒”若何读懂你的心态

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。

正在发布会当日，“小辣椒”正在台上展现它的功效，使用情绪辨认功效对四周的人做出回响反映：讲笑话、舞蹈，乃至说唱(用日语)。

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

研发人员称，“小辣椒”能够剖析脸部心情、人的语折衷手势，然后经过顺序主动做出反映。

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

“我们期待创造一个有情绪的机器人，能懂人的情绪，然后自立地做出回响反映，”孙正义说道。

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

他展望未来机器人能在教诲、医疗和文娱行业发挥作用，但他们的首要目的不管是像今朝存在的机器人那样事情。

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

“我们的机器人是不是为了进步生产力，反而是要在给予兴趣和文娱的处所，如家里或商场里，发挥作用，”孙正义说。

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

“小辣椒”设计成家庭机器人——大概更像动画片《杰森一家》(The Jetsons)里的家庭机器人罗茜(Rosie)的时髦版。

"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."

“‘小辣椒’由家庭的爱取得能量，”孙正义说道。“他不但会讲笑话，逗他们笑。这款机器人可以自立地行为，正在碰到自然灾害时，它会辅助他们，还能抚慰哪些悲伤和孤苦的人，勉励他们，或逗他们笑。”

When Pepper goes on sale

‘小辣椒’什么时候上市

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。

“小辣椒”将于2013年2月正在日本上市，售价约为1000美圆。而今，软银公司的东京商城有几台样机供人观光。“小辣椒”的研发人员称，正在“小辣椒”上市之前，他们想让这一些机器人积存更多常识，正在与人交换时能演进，变得更老道。

　 　"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."

“有数千台‘小辣椒’机器人将在商场里进修，”孙正义说。“他们进修和获得的统统工具都将搜集到云端效劳里。这会加速个人聪明的进化。”

Pepper functions through cloud-based artificial intelligence。

“小辣椒”经由过程云端人工智能运转。

SoftBank and Aldebaran envision the robot being sold overseas eventually. After all, Pepper is quite the polyglot, speaking 17 languages。

软银公司和Aldebaran机器人公司盼望这款机器人最后能销往海外。究竟，“小辣椒”知晓多种言语，能说17种言语。