Japanese telecom and Internet giant SoftBank Corp has unveiled Pepper, the world's first robot than can read people's emotion, based on facial expressions, and interact with its owner.

Standing at 120 centimeters and weighing about 28 kilograms, Pepper is equipped with an array of visual, audio and tactile sensors that can analyze people's feelings based on facial expressions and voice tones, said SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.

Like Us on Facebook

The robot, which comes equipped with a lithium-ion battery that can last up to 12 hours, has two arms and stands on a wheeled base. Its chest has a 10.1-inch touch screen that can be used to communicate.

"We want to have a robot that can interact with its users and maximize people's happiness and minimize sadness," Son said in a press conference.

Son said Pepper uses proprietary algorithms and utilizes high-technology voice recognition software to analyze the feelings of its users. It can detect the emotion of the user by analyzing the tone of voice and studying facial expressions.

SoftBank partners with Aldebaran Robotics of France and Foxconn of China to develop the sophisticated, autonomous machine. Pepper will go on sale starting February 2015 in Japan with a base price of JPY198,000 (US$,1929), around the same price of a high-end personal computer.

SoftBank said Pepper will be available at such a relatively low price because the company wants to popularize it first before aiming for profitability.

During Thursday's demonstration in front of Japanese journalists, Pepper interacted with Son but failed to respond to a question at one point. Son immediately said the robot does not have 100 percent recognition of what people say or ask but he assured that the technology will improve with time.

Bruno Maisonnier, Chief Executive Officer of SoftBank's partner Aldebaran, expects huge demand for Pepper, saying people will want to have the cute robot at home.

He also said that aside from giving people a cute, interactive robot, Pepper is a huge step towards the improvement of many things especially in the fields of education, flow management, entertainment, and healthcare.

TagsPepper, Pepper Robot, SoftBank Robot, Pepper Robotic, Pepper Humanoid, Japanese Robot, Japan Robot