NEC makes robot PaPeRo controllable via Android

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NEC makes its Partner-type Personal Robot, PaPeRo for short, remote controllable with Android phones or tablets. For example, users can see their children at the day care center at work via the built-in camera.

NEC has been working on the robot companion since 1997. Although primarily a research project, PaPeRo in Japan for some time already supplied to day care centers, for a price of about 4000 dollars. PaPeRo can, among other things, recognize more than thirty faces, respond to touch and automatically find its charging station when the battery is almost empty.

The robot can now also be controlled remotely via an Android app. Parents can thus communicate with their child from work, for example with a tablet, by driving the robot towards them and pointing the cameras built into the eyes at them. They can also speak through the microphone and send text messages, which PaPeRo can transfer via speech synthesis. The robot can also dance, sing and imitate some basic facial expressions.

NEC demonstrated the control using the LifeTouch B business tablet, which it introduced in Japan last year. This is a 7″ tablet that runs Android 2.3 and features an Omap P4430 1GHz dual core.

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