日本电信营运商软件银行(SoftBank)在日前正式发表人形机器人 Pepper ，预定将在明年2月上市；这款机器人据说能“读”出人类的情感，并与人类对话，而且售价不到2,000美元(日币19万8,000元)。
Pepper 机器人身高4英呎(约122公分)，脚下有轮子，胸部配备一台10.1吋平板电脑，用以显示所查询的信息；软银表示，Pepper是透过云端的人工智能进行控制。软银首席执行官孙正义(Masayoshi Son)则强调，这款人形机器人的开发目标是“赋予机器人一颗心”。
根据软银所提供的规格，Pepper的头部配备四个麦克风、一部摄影机以及一个3D深度传感器；躯干部位装置了陀螺仪，头部与手部则有触觉传感器。可移动的基座配备两个声纳装置、四个雷射以及三个碰撞传感器，一个陀螺仪；移动速度最高可达时速3公里。
软件银行(SoftBank)所开发的人形机器人Pepper正式亮相
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(点此连结开启Pepper发表会现场实况录像)
日本可说是个机器人大国，闻名世界的机器人包括漫画卡通里的原子小金刚(Astro Boy)、ASIMO (车厂Honda开发的人形机器人)，以及Sony曾推出的机器狗Aibo (编按：别忘了村田制作所的“村田小妹”！)，再出个机器人一点也不令人惊讶，但实际上，Pepper是法国血统──软银持有大多数股份的法国业者Aldebaran为软银开发了Pepper，而台湾业者鸿海(Foxconn)则会是它的代工厂。
Honda的机器人ASIMO
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很重要的一点是，Pepper并非服务型机器人，它不是来帮人类打扫房屋或是在花园除草，它是设计来讲故事给小朋友听、跟人们聊天，有点像是家庭宠物的角色，总之是娱乐用途的。但也因为如此，我实在不太明白Pepper打造成人形的原因；如果它不做那些我也不想做的事情，又为何要有一个机器人？我的意思是说，真的需要一个讲话幽默机智的机器人？
Sony的机器狗Aibo
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更让人不解的是，软银身为一家电信营运商、并非硬件厂商，怎么会对机器人有兴趣？据了解，Pepper将开始在软银位于日本东京的部份手机门市与大众见面，所以软银首席执行官大张旗鼓地办了Pepper发表会，其实只是为了吸引更多人光顾软银的商店？
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
第2页：软银能从Pepper获得什么好处？
第3页：高龄化的社会需要娱乐型机器人
相关阅读：
• 去年中国成全球工业机器人最大买家
• 美军启用水下机器人搜寻马航MH370
• 不能让机器人对人类反客为主U9qesmc
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软银能从Pepper获得什么好处？
也许是一部份原因，但这仍不足以解释软银为何针对消费性市场发表Pepper；根据我个人的观察，这个人形机器人有两个设计重点，可能会是吸引软银首席执行官孙正义的首要因素──也就是应用程序以及云端服务。
Pepper 的设计公司Aldebaran创办人暨首席执行官Bruno Maisonnier，在2004年着手开发该公司第一款自主行动的可编程机器人Nao，并在2008年上市；据Maisonnier表示，Nao与 Pepper采用同一套软件NAOqi为基础，该操作系统能简化机器人编程。
Pepper的机器人兄弟Nao
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而 Aldebaran打算将Pepper的架构开放给软件开发商，让他们为这款机器人打造各种应用程序；就像丰富的应用程序促进了智能手机之成功，该公司 也期望Pepper的应用程序能扩展机器人的功能型，好在消费性市场取得成功。我认为软银也看到了Pepper的成功并不在于硬件，而在于未来可能会出现 的、让这款人形机器人真正大受欢迎的杀手级应用程序。
软银号称Pepper是“全球第一个会判读情感的个人化机器人”，但它 并非天生就会，而是需要透过学习；Pepper的敏感度预期能透过来自云端人工智能的知识而不断成长。孙正义解释，举例来说，放置在软银门市的 Pepper会开始收集与人们互动的资料，当它说笑话时会观察人们的反应，然后将之上传到云端数据库。
当Pepper走进人们家中也会继续收集资料；举例来说，当它为小朋友讲故事而且看到他们笑得很开心，它就会注意这个情境。而根据软银表示，Pepper在认知适当的反应方面，会将感觉“数字化”并“自主学习”。
孙正义表示，目前Pepper是透过Wi-Fi连结到因特网，未来也可能会升级支持LTE；软银打算透过Pepper来收集与消费者相关的数据以及行为 ──但是以让Pepper更聪明、更人性化的名义。结合应用程序与云端服务，软银能从Pepper获得的好处，很明显比消费者多更多。
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
第3页：高龄化的社会需要娱乐型机器人
相关阅读：
• 去年中国成全球工业机器人最大买家
• 美军启用水下机器人搜寻马航MH370
• 不能让机器人对人类反客为主U9qesmc
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为什么需要娱乐型机器人？
日本对机器人的迷恋实在让我有点恼火；但在那样一个逐渐迈入高龄化的社会，将Pepeer视为能陪伴老年人的工具是可以理解的。我的老妈妈也住在日本，她有 一天看到电视上Honda的广告，ASIMO在意大利的某个乡村广场跟一群小朋友玩，就跟我说ASIMO真是太可爱了，她也希望有它在身边做伴。
好 吧…我投降，我对于不能跟妈妈住在一起很有罪恶感(她真的很擅长挑起这个)；这让我看到了Pepper的潜在价值，但这并不代表我可以信任ASIMO或 Pepper能挑起妥善照顾我嬷嬷的责任。事实上，当我听到软银介绍Peeper是一款“行为自主、以爱启动的机器人”时，还起了不少鸡皮疙瘩──真的假 的？用爱就能启动？
还有一点是，我对娱乐型机器人的概念颇感疑问；我不由自主地想起在1990年代末期初次访问Sony旗下计算机科学实验室(Computer Science Laboratory)的土井利忠(Toshitada Doi)的往事，当时他正利用人工智能开发Aibo机器狗，在被问到为何开发娱乐型而非服务型机器人时，他坦白告诉我：“因为如果是娱乐用途，消费者会更 容易原谅机器人所犯的错误。”
十年后，日本遭遇了2011年的“311”大地震与海啸，有第一批机器人进入了福岛县的受损核电厂收集资料，它们当然不是日本厂商所开发的娱乐机器人，而是美国业者iRobot经过战争测试的Packbot。
毋庸置疑，Aldebaran与软银将可透过把Pepper放在现实世界，获得更多有关消费者资料与行为；但若它不能正确理解人们的情感，消费者真的那么容 易原谅吗？他们会是觉得Pepper就是很可爱，还是会抱怨它没有用？我觉得我的钱包会是后者。
在产业界致力于开发更优秀机器人的此时，我认为选择开发娱乐型机器人──无论它们是否被投入了大量心力──其实是一种逃避。你认为呢？我不是唯一那个希望机器人能替代人类做很多粗重工作的人吧？
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
编译：Judith Cheng
参考英文原文：Pepper’s Mission After Astro Boy, ASIMO & Aibo，by Junko Yoshida
相关阅读：
• 去年中国成全球工业机器人最大买家
• 美军启用水下机器人搜寻马航MH370
• 不能让机器人对人类反客为主U9qesmc
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Pepper’s Mission After Astro Boy, ASIMO & Aibo
Junko Yoshida, Chief International Correspondent
TOKYO — Japanese cellular operator SoftBank unveiled Thursday, June 5, its plan to launch next February a humanoid named Pepper capable of reading people’s emotions and carrying on conversations. It will be priced at less than $2,000.
Pepper, at four feet in height, zips around on wheels. The humanoid has on its chest a 10.1-inch tablet computer that displays information in response to queries. SoftBank boasts that Pepper is controlled by “cloud-based” artificial intelligence. SoftBank’s CEO Masayoshi Son insisted that the goal for the humanoid project is “giving the robot a heart.”
The robot’s head contains four microphones, a camera, and a 3-D depth sensor. A gyroscope occupies the torso. There are also touch sensors in the head and hands. The mobile base has two sonar units, six lasers, three bumper sensors, and a gyro. It can scoot around at speeds up to 3 kilometers an hour, according to the spec disclosed by SoftBank.
Japan is the country where Astro Boy (a manga series), ASIMO (Honda’s humanoid) and Aibo (Sony’s robotic dog) were born. The story of yet another robot should come as no surprise -- except that Pepper is, well, French. The French robotics company Aldebaran developed Pepper for SoftBank, and Foxconn will manufacture the robots. SoftBank owns a majority stake in Aldebaran.
Honda's ASIMO robot. (Source: Honda)
Aibo robotic dog.
It’s important to note that Pepper isn’t a service robot. It neither cleans the house nor mows the lawn. It is designed to read stories to kids, liven up party conversation, and serve as the family pet. In short, it exists to entertain us.
This is where I fail to understand the value of this humanoid. What’s the point of having a robot if Pepper won’t do stuff I don’t want it to do? I mean, really, a witty robot? Even more puzzling is why SoftBank, a mobile operator, not a hardware vendor, should be interested in robots.
Next Page: Apps that collect data
Apps and cloud
Pepper will start meeting people at some of SoftBank's cellphone stores in Tokyo this weekend. Is this Pepper announcement simply a publicity stunt by SoftBank’s CEO, who presumably wants to bring more people into his stores? Perhaps.
But that doesn’t explain why SoftBank went out of its way to unveil Pepper for the consumer market, detailing its launch schedule (February, 2015) and pricing (at 198,000 yen). Under close examination, though, I see two design principles integral to this humanoid project that might have attracted Son in the first place. They are: apps and cloud services.
Softbank's Pepper robot.
Bruno Maisonnier, founder and CEO of Aldebaran, started developing the company’s first autonomous, programmable humanoid robot called Nao in 2004 and launched it on the commercial market in 2008. According to Maisonnier, both Nao and Pepper use the same software foundation called NAOqi. The operating system is designed to make robot programming easier, according to Aldebaran.
What’s new with Pepper is that Aldebaran plans to open Pepper to developers, who will create applications to be offered to other users. Like the apps that triggered the smartphone’s success, Aldebaran is betting on Pepper apps to expand the robot’s capabilities, aiming for success on the consumer market. I suspect that SoftBank sees the inherent power in Pepper not for its hardware, but for potential killer apps that could make the humanoid platform truly popular.
SoftBank calls Pepper “the world’s first personal robot that reads emotions.” But Pepper wasn’t born with full understanding of human emotions. These it has to learn. Pepper’s sensitivity is expected to grow as the humanoid gains knowledge via cloud-based artificial intelligence.
Son explained that the robots deployed at SoftBank stores, for example, will start collecting data on their interactions with people. When Pepper tells a joke, it will observe if people laugh, for example. The robots will upload their data to a cloud-based repository.
Pepper will continue to collect data once it’s installed in homes. When Pepper is at home reading a book to a child and sees her smiling a lot, for example, that situation is duly noted by the humanoid. In recognizing positive reactions, Pepper “digitizes feelings” and “learns autonomously,” according to SoftBank’s presentation.
This humanoid, currently connected to the Internet via WiFi, will likely become LTE-enabled, according to Son. SoftBank has positioned itself to collect a lot of data about consumers and their behavior through Pepper -- in the name of making Pepper smarter and more human. Putting the apps and cloud threads together, it’s pretty obvious SoftBank will probably profit from Pepper a lot more than consumers will.
Next Page: Entertainment, really?
Why entertainment robots?
I am a little miffed about Japan’s fascination, or dare I say, infatuation with robotics. Obviously, in a rapidly aging society like Japan, it’s understandable that Pepper could be viewed as someone to keep the elderly company. In fact, my own aging mother in Japan, who saw a Honda TV commercial in which ASIMO was running around with a whole bunch of kids in a rustic square somewhere in Italy, told me once that she would like to have ASIMO around because he looks so cute.
OK. I confess. I feel guilty for not living with my mother. She’s good at that. I get the potential value of Pepper. But this doesn’t mean I’d trust either ASIMO or Pepper to take good care of mom. In fact, it strikes me as a little creepy when SoftBanks touts Pepper as a “robot that behaves autonomously, powered by love.” Seriously, powered by love?
Here’s one more thing. I have a real problem with the concept of entertainment robots. I can’t help but remember my first interview in the late 1990s with Toshitada Doi at Sony’s Computer Science Laboratory. Doi was then developing Aibo robots designed to use artificial intelligence. When I asked him the reason for entertainment robots and not a service robots, Doi was straight with me in his answer. “Because if it’s for entertainment, consumers will be more forgiving of the mistakes robots make.”
A decade later, when Japan was hit by the big earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, the first robots that entered the nuclear power plant in Fukushima to gather data weren’t entertainment robots made by Japanese companies, but battle-tested Packbots by iRobot of Bedford, Mass. I have no doubt that Aldebaran and SoftBank will learn a great deal about us and our behavior by deploying Pepper in the real world. But will consumers be so forgiving when Pepper isn’t understanding human emotion correctly? Will they see it as simply cute, or will they deem Pepper useless? My money is on the latter.
Indeed, what if Pepper “learns” so much that it becomes an emotional cripple, like Darryl Hannah in “Blade Runner,” and Harrison Ford has to hunt the thing down and kill it?
Eight people meet with the humanoid Pepper for the first time. Their mission: Give Pepper something to learn in 24 hours. The team teaches Pepper how to play the Japanese classic children’s game “Daruma-san ga koronda.” The object of the game is that you get closer to the one who is “it,” without that person seeing you move. The one who is "it" (in this case, Pepper) learns each name, senses two people move, and calls out their names. (Source: SoftBank)
As to the industry’s efforts to make better robots, I find opting for entertainment robots -- regardless of whether they’ve got a lot of a heart -- still a cop out. Am I the only one who wants a robot that actually does stuff?
责编：Quentin
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