Interest

SoftBank's Pepper Robot Modded for Lewd Interactions

SoftBank's promising AI robot Pepper was designed to understand 4,500 Japanese words, human emotions, talk, sing, and has a promising career in a variety of fields including customer service. At US$1,900 it's also more affordable than a car.

Much of Pepper's interactions are done through a touch-screen interface and it has the ability to learn by installing apps onto the robot. SoftBank sponsored the "Hackathon of Pepper" development contest to see what individuals could create to upgrade the robot.

The answer: sex, of course. Or in this case, groping. Disturbingly, the app is literally called the "Sexual Harassment Interface" and it was developed by Etsuko Ichihara and 10 other people. Pepper's screen changes to a pair of breasts, either fully exposed or seen through a traditional swimsuit, and she reacts when they're "touched." The app's developer is seen in the video below demonstrating how the app works. The video is NOT SAFE FOR WORK.

There is some risk to groping Pepper too much. After a certain amount of interaction, Pepper asks the user to stop, takes their picture, uses facial recognition to determine their age and gender, and then posts that information along with a mosaic of their face on Twitter.

Pepper will officially participate in the Niconico Chokaigi 2015 event this month where some "RoboAppli" will be shown. SoftBank will show apps based on the results of the Hackathon. Even though the app didn't win, men were flocking to try it by the end.

Ishihara's Sexual Harassment Interface is something she's been working on for years. She won the Japan Media Arts Festival Jury Recommended Works and has appeared on multiple Japanese television programs. Her previous interface involved moaning daikon radishes.

[Via Kai-You]