Revolutionary New ‘Heart-Touching’ Pet Robot Poised To Steal The Spotlight Soon: Report

A revolutionary new-look robot is all set to hit the airwaves soon, according to a new report. Designed to transform the way humans interact with machines, the robot is expected to introduce a whole new dimension to how humans understand and use technology.

According to Kaname Hayashi, who led the team that introduced the pioneering “Pepper” humanoid robot back in 2014, this “heart-touching” next-generation model would be radically advanced, but “non-verbal” in character, a highly receptive companion designed primarily for households and capable of “comforting” people as pets do. Hayashi is looking to launch the new robot as early as 2019. However, despite outlining some of the major features of this new bot, he has decided not to unveil the already-constructed “prototype” until a later date for reasons of confidentiality.

Meanwhile, bot enthusiasts can only wait in anticipation and wonder what’s next. What is clear, however, is that the prototype is smaller than “Pepper,” the humanoid robot developed by the Japanese technology giant and larger than Sony’s robotic dog, AIBO. Moreover, the new robot will be programmed to alter its behavior with respect to its surroundings.

Pepper, a highly-appealing four-foot-tall humanoid robot was designed by Aldebaran Robotics and SoftBank Group, and programmed with the ability to associate with human emotions profoundly well. It was launched in a conference back in 2014, and was impressively exhibited in Softbank mobile phone stores in Japan the following day. Another humanoid robot, NAO, the first to be introduced in the line, was launched in 2006 and currently enjoys a huge fan-base around the world. According to its designers, Pepper was introduced to create positive and a more natural interaction with people. Equipped with state-of-the-start directional microphones and 3D/HD cameras, Pepper could easily comprehend transmission, interpret emotions, and identify movement.

A robot is mechanical device capable of performing a variety of often complex human tasks upon instruction or by being programmed in advance. The first digital and programmable robot was invented by George Devol in 1954. A modern-day humanoid “robot,” also known as an “android,” is a robot with its overall exterior based on that of the human body.

Last year, researchers at the Department of Information Science and Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology in collaboration with researchers at the Department of Psychology, Kyoto University, demonstrated the remarkable human capacity to empathize with humanoid robots in ways very similar to how they empathize with one another.

According to Researcher Mriganka Biswas, associated with a 2014 University of Lincoln U.K. study, research is helping understand how a more realistic relationship between humans and robots can be established.

“Based on human interactions and relationships, we will introduce ‘characteristics’ and ‘personalities’ to the robot. If we can explain how human-to-human long-term relationships begin and develop, then it would be easier to plan the human-robot relationship.”

Numerous studies have predicted that robots including humanoids can actually substitute human beings in mere decades. The soaring progress of AI or Artificial Intelligence with more and more advances in modern-day robotics offer vivid indicators of developments that may be inevitable. According to the World Economic Forum-WEF, the advances in robotics and artificial intelligence and their subsequent integration into the world’s leading economies will see more than five million people losing their jobs in the next five years.

Recently, a product and graphic designer in Hong Kong created a life-sized robot which took a year-and-a-half and exceeded a cost of 50,000 dollars. The female humanoid robot, named Mark 1, has been known to exhibit strikingly human characteristics and can demonstrate detailed facial expressions such as raising of the eyebrows when surprised.

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