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  • Move over Apple Geniuses, there's a new tech savvy assistant at mobile phone stores in

  • Tokyo - one that's actually a bit of tech itself. This is Pepper, a prototype robot

  • being developed by Japanese mobile phone and internet company Softbank, and one it hopes

  • could be sold for personal use as soon as February 2015. Pepper is outfitted with 25

  • sensors to stop it from bumping into people and is capable of learning and expressing

  • emotions - as well as throwing shapes to a variety of J-Pop tracks by the looks of it.

  • The speed of calculation has increased dramatically with improvement in CPU technology. But as

  • technology improves and calculations get faster, we can take the first steps of using the computational

  • power to access emotions and feelings which are governed by the right-side of the brain.

  • To see how the public would react to Pepper, SoftBank took the robot to one of its Tokyo

  • stores, where it proved a big hit with the customers - although some remained wary.

  • It can entertain us and I feel this is just about right. If it gets any more advanced,

  • it might become scary.

  • The robot was developed by French company Aldebaran, but will be manufactured in Taiwan

  • and will go on sale for 198,000 yen which equates to roughly $1,900. Pepper units will

  • also share data via cloud computing and have a battery life of 12 hours before needing

  • to recharge - a process SoftBank say will take six hours.

  • Aside from entertaining shoppers SoftBank are hoping that Pepper could serve as baby-sitters,

  • nurses, emergency medical workers or even party companions - providing there are no

  • stairs at the party of course. The Japanese government is hoping that advances in robotics

  • could offset the decline in the labour force, as the country's population is one of the

  • most rapidly ageing in the world.

Move over Apple Geniuses, there's a new tech savvy assistant at mobile phone stores in

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