Japanese technology company Softbank has been showing the world its new emotion-reading robot named Pepper. Masayoshi Son, Softbank's CEO, stated that it will be the first robot in history to more-or-less “have a heart”, and emotions that go along with it. Of course, a robot heart has its limitations; and in this case, a cloud-based artificial intelligence system is how Pepper can decipher human gestures, voices, and expressions. Softbank's goal is to change the way people think of robots. Rather than the idea of a robot knowing your feelings scaring you, “robots should be tender and make you smile”, says Masayoshi Son.

Softbank urges this isn't a concept robot. The company wants consumers to accept Pepper enough to buy it as soon as it goes on sale next year. Softbank, along with partners Aldebaran Robotics of France, and China's Foxconn, have equipped Pepper with an array of sensors for understanding sight, sound, and tactual senses. There are two cameras and four microphones on its head, as well as Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections. Pepper's 4 foot tall body weighs about 60 pounds, rolls around on wheels, and remains charged for up to 12 hours. A 10.1-inch touchscreen displayed on it's chest synchronizes with the cloud-based database that helps it access information. Even more human is Pepper's mobility, all thanks to over 20 motors providing movement in its head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands, fingers, hips, and knees. You will immediately forget that Pepper technically has no legs due to its incredible quality of movement.

Voice-recognition technology makes Pepper capable of understanding human words, as well as the emotions that come with those words. Pepper can dance to music, bow in respect to someone, respond to a person's statement, and hopefully aid in caring for the elderly one day. The little emphasis shown on doing work, as many industrial robots do, proves Pepper's goal is to change the way we live and communicate in our daily lives. If successful, this would be a huge step towards improving the human-robotic relationship. Pepper will be on sale to the public as soon as February 2015, at a price just shy of $2,000.