Robotics | Japan to sell talking robots that won’t try to make sense

Japanese android expert Hiroshi Ishiguro, left, talks with new talking robot Sota, right, Android robot Otonaroid, second left, and other talking robots CommU, center and second right

The scientist behind a new talking robot in Japan says people should stop expecting robots to understand them, and instead try to chime in with robotic conversations.
Hiroshi Ishiguro’s 28-centimer tall button-eyed Sota, which stands for “social talker,” is programmed to mainly talk with a fellow robot, and won’t be trying too hard to understand human speech — the major, and often frustrating, drawback of companion robots.
Sota, shown to reporters at a Tokyo museum yesterday, goes on sale in July at under 100,000 yen (USD850) each. To fully enjoy its features, one would have to buy at least two of them, although people can buy just one.
“Don’t stop at just two. Please buy three or four,” said Ishiguro, a professor at Osaka University, who has previously shown a variety of robots that look eerily human, including one that’s his double.
Ishiguro also demonstrated a more elaborate robot CommU, which stands for communication unity. It will cost five times as much as Sota.
The news conference to introduce Sota and CommU was led by two other humanoids, which appeared to talk with the two newest additions to Japan’s robot pantheon.
Robot maker Vstone, which simplified Ishiguro’s research to come up with commercial products, expects to sell 3,000 Sota robots in the first year, mostly to businesses. They could be used for tasks such as drawing attention to products on display.
Japan is a leading maker of robots, and its repertoire has ranged from industrial robots to whimsical toys.
Internet and telecommunications company Softbank Corp. will start selling Pepper, a humanoid it claims is designed to read human emotions, in Japan next month for 198,000 yen ($1,700), possibly heralding the era of everyday robots here. Yuri Kageyama, Tokyo, AP