Japanese NEC has come up with the latest variant of PaPeRo Petit (Partner Type Personal Robot) also known as Communication Robot. Unlike its earlier mobile R2-D2 version PaPeRo bot is immobile. Measuring just 24 cm in length and 1.3 kg in weight, the new and improved bot will assist in many household activities.
Empowered with face and speech recognition intelligence with almost 80-90% accuracy, the cute looking bot now feature an improved camera, microphone and many sensors to measure temperature and distance. Even in darkness, the bot is still capable of facing in your direction through its ultrasonic range finder. The improved bot can connect to internet to access cloud based application as well and so NEC is planning to collaborate with the giant telecommunication company NTT Docomo for the same.
NEC’s new initiative called PaPeRo Petit Partner drive, will welcome partnership with application developers for the developing new app and making the bot accessible to end users through its various business partners.
The connectivity with cloud based apps would allow the bot to receive and read out the text messages send by kith and kin. To diversify its use in day to day activities, other applications for security and health care are under testing stage.
The bot is being tested under various experiments and in one such trail conducted in a hospital, PaPeRo reminded patients from time to time about their medication, effectively tested blood pressure and calculated how far a patient has walked in a day using pedometer.
NEC aims to use the bot in watching the elderly people when their relatives are away, it can even look after your house in your absence and can be used as a cashier in super market or for some other use in your office and business. You may very soon be able to rent the adorable bot for your family, house, store or business in less than $100 a month starting first from Japan and later in other countries.
Source: IEEE Spectrum
