TOKYO: SoftBank Group Corp said yesterday that it would open a pop-up store in Tokyo for one week this spring where its popular Pepper humanoid robots will sell smartphones.
At the store, which will open between March 28 and April 3 in Minato Ward, approximately five robots will serve customers. Although human clerks will assist the white, round-eyed robots in part of the transaction, Peppers will be in charge of most of the interactions with customers.
The robots will entice passers-by to the store, greet customers and direct them around the store. They will ask questions such as why the customers visited the store.
Filling out some of the paperwork needed for agreeing a contract with SoftBank to purchase a smartphone will be carried out by staff members.
Fumihide Tomizawa, president of SoftBank Robotics Corp, said running the store "is a challenge for his company and the experience will provide the company with various obstacles in robot development that are yet to be obvious.''
SoftBank said that it would also open an application store for its Pepper robots next month, letting business customers download software to try and put the humanoid machines to work.
"From Feb 22, clients including Nissan Motor Co, Mizuho Financial Group Inc and Nestle SA will be able to download apps that will help them communicate with customers and track their behavior,'' Tomizawa said.
SoftBank didn't specify the number or specific types of apps that will be made available.
The 1,000 Pepper units SoftBank makes available each month have sold out since its launch in June.
The company is targeting businesses, trying to get to an installed base it estimates would have to be in the hundreds of thousands to support a community of developers modeled on Apple Inc's.
The challenge is to draw on artificial intelligence and machine-learning technologies to make Pepper useful beyond its initial novelty.
The robot costs 198,000 yen ($1,670) and comes with an optional 14,800 yen monthly service plan giving users access to cloud-based voice-recognition and the app store. Businesses can rent it for 55,000 yen a month.
Featuring more than 20 motors and highly articulated arms, Pepper is capable of human-like body language. Its shoulders heave when in standby mode, imitating sleep. But it's not designed for menial tasks. Instead, SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is betting the robot's friendly physical appearance will spur adoption of cloud services and attract app developers.
The robot already greets customers at Nestle shops in Japan and promotes financial products at Mizuho branches.