Ever feel like no one really understands you ? Well `` Pepper '' could be about to change all that . That 's because Pepper is actually a robot and touted as the world 's first with the ability to read emotions . The humanoid robot -- which looks slightly like a shrunken Michelin Man -- was unveiled to curious onlookers in Tokyo stores on Friday by SoftBank , a Japanese telecom giant and Aldebaran , a French robotics company . Pepper does n't look much like its name . Standing under four-feet tall with a tablet computer mounted to its chest , it has human-like hands and a mermaid-like lower torso — though its toddler-like voice seems incongruous with this state-of-the-art facade . Despite the high-pitched voice , Pepper is able to converse about everything from the weather , to more sophisticated topics like the latest fluctuations in the stock markets . Yet the great differentiator is the fact Pepper is fully interactive , making eye contact when meeting people . Pepper is `` the first robot to read human emotions , '' said Softbank 's CEO Masayoshi Son told reporters at a press conference in the Japanese capital on Thursday . `` Robots like Pepper are adding a new dimension in our daily lives . They would change it with the same magnitude as the PC , Internet and mobile phones did . '' How Pepper reads your moods . Using its emotion recognition functions , Pepper can react to people in its vicinity -- making jokes , dancing and even rapping ( in Japanese ) , as it did in an onstage demonstration on Thursday . Pepper can analyze facial expressions , human voice tones and gestures , then react autonomously through algorithms , its creators say . `` Our vision is to create an affectionate robot that can understand people 's feelings . Then autonomously , it will take action , '' said Son . He envisions robots playing roles in education , healthcare and entertainment , but their primary goal is n't to work in the industry like existing robots . `` Our 's is not aiming for productivity , but rather at the home or store , where we provide fun and entertainment , '' Son said . Pepper is designed to be a family robot -- perhaps more like a sleeker version of Rosie , the household robot on the cartoon `` The Jetsons . '' `` Pepper is powered by love inside a family , '' Son said . `` Not only is he making jokes , making them laugh . The robot acts out at its own expense , in natural disaster , it can help them and also comfort those people who are sad or lonely , encourage them or make them laugh . '' When Pepper goes on sale . Pepper goes on sale in Japan for around US $ 2,000 in February 2015 . For now , several Peppers are at Softbank stores in Tokyo for spectators to visit . The creators say before releasing Pepper for sale , they want the robots to accumulate more knowledge , to evolve and get more sophisticated in its interactions with humans . `` Several thousand Peppers are going to learn at the store , '' Son said . `` Everything they learned and gained , is going to be accumulated into the cloud-based service . So that can be accelerating the evolution of the collective wisdom . '' Pepper functions through cloud-based artificial intelligence . SoftBank and Aldebaran envision the robot being sold overseas eventually . After all , Pepper is quite the polyglot , speaking 17 languages .
Japan 's Softbank releases new robot Pepper in its stores . Robots are designed to read emotions and interact with humans . Pepper will be sold in Japan in February 2015. Pepper is designed to make people feel better .