'Emotional' robot sells out in a minute

June 22, 2015 17:52

Pepper the humanoid robot is so hot that he sold out within a minute, according to his Japanese creator, SoftBank Robotics Corp.

Only 1,000 models were available for the consumer launch on Saturday in Japan. The base price was set at 198,000 ($1,600) with an additional 24,600 ($200) monthly data and insurance fees.

Standing just under four feet tall, and weighing 61 pounds, Pepper is designed to read emotions as well as recognize tones of voice and facial expressions in order to interact with humans. But most of all, "he tries to make you happy," Kaname Hayashi, Softbank's project manager, told CNN last year.

With his array of cameras, touch sensors, accelerometer and other sensors in his "endocrine-type multi-layer neural network," Pepper has the ability to read your emotions as well as develop his own. He isn't a work robot, but more of an emotional companion for people.

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