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Engineering

Nestle Japan to use humanoid robot to sell Nescafe

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Nestle Japan will soon begin using a humanoid robot, known as Pepper, to sell Nescafe coffee machines as part of its ongoing effort to enhance brand engagement with consumers in Nescafe’s biggest market.

Produced by by SoftBank Robotics and Aldebaran Robotics SAS, Pepper is claimed to be the first robot in the world that is able to read and respond to human emotion by using the latest voice and emotion recognition technology.

The robot will start selling Nescafe Dolce Gusto and Nescafe Gold Blend Barista coffee machines in home appliance stores in Japan starting in December. Full story on Nestle’s official website.

Doosan Infracore 2012 corporate ad

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Corporate ad for Doosan Infracore, a Korean company (subsidiary of Doosan Group) which specialises in construction equipment and machine tools etc…

It’s a bit difficult to make a good commercial if the products are not really a daily lifestyle (at least not for common folks) thing. This one is nicely done IMO.

Japan has highest industrial robot density

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There are one million industrial robots around the world (as of Dec 2008), and Japan has the highest density with 295 robots for every 10,000 manufacturing workers.

Top 10 countries by robot density

Singapore and Korea are second and third respectively on the chart, but significantly behind Japan in numbers. Illustration by Mike Vella, more on IEEE.

The last of Japanese 0 series bullet train

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Japanese 0 Series making its last regular runNovember 30 marked the last regular run of a 0 Series Shinkansen [wiki], the first type of Japanese bullet train which started running in 1964 at the Tōkaidō Shinkansen line. Thousand of fans gathered at the stations and along the track to witness its last regular run from Okayama Station to Hakata Station.

With the maximum speed of 210km per hour, the 0 Series were the fattest train back then and has since became one of Japan’s most famous icon.

The 0 Series was nicknamed bullet train for its round headed shape; the term is now commonly used to describe all high speed trains.