The Japanese mobile phone carrier SoftBank really seems to love April Fools’ Day because this year they released not one, but two ridiculous joke videos. As if human ‘cell phone straps’ wasn’t enough, SoftBank also released a silly video involving their popular humanoid robot, Pepper.
Released in Japan by SoftBank in 2015 with a price tag of 198,000 JPY (1778 USD), Pepper is a social robot whose mission is to help and entertain humans. The video below, which is in English, shows a standard version of Pepper in action and also gives a bit more information about Pepper’s different features and capabilities.
Although Pepper is known for being able to do some impressive things, such as recognizing faces and reading human emotions, swimming was definitely not something Pepper could do. However, SoftBank’s new video claims that after much hard work and research, Pepper’s developers have finally been able to give Pepper a “fish mode” that allows it to swim through the water just like a.. fish. Check out the fake promotional video below, and keep reading for details about what is said in it.
The video begins by explaining that a version of Pepper with the ability to “move freely” through water will go on sale on April 1st. Meanwhile, on-screen you see Pepper going into its “fish mode” and declaring “I loooove to swim!”
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| Pepper loooooves to swim! |
After this intro the video explains that one of the people responsible for this new evolution of Pepper is a marine robotics expert named, Msamichi Hayashi.
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| Masamichi Hayashi |
On land you need a certain degree of weight to be stable but in the water you have to be able to float. Managing to do that given Pepper’s shape was truly a Herculean task.
The narrator explains that in total the swimming pattern data of 150 creatures was used to programm this new version of Pepper. He also explains that this aquatic Pepper has a special coating to make it waterproof.
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| Pepper the fisherman |
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| “Let’s fish!” |
For more April Fools’ Day absurdity be sure to check out the following articles:
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