Page 8 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
U.S.A.
January 16, 2017
Humanoid robot Pepper is amusing, but is it practical?
ANDROID ANTICS. A boy plays with Pepper
the robot at the Westfield Mall in San Francisco.
While merrily chirping, dancing, and posing for
selfies, Pepper looks like another expensive toy
in the San Francisco mall where it is entertaining
shoppers through mid-February. But it would be a
mistake to dismiss Pepper as mere child’s play, even
though kids flock around the four-foot-tall humanoid
as it speaks in a cherubic voice that could belong to
either a boy or girl. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
By Michael Liedtke
The Associated Press
S
AN FRANCISCO — While merrily
chirping, dancing, and posing for
selfies, a robot named Pepper looks
like another expensive toy at a San
Francisco mall. But don’t dismiss it as
mere child’s play.
Pepper embodies the ambitions of
SoftBank Robotics, an Asian joint venture
formed by a trio of major technology com-
panies that’s aiming to put its personable
robots in businesses and homes across the
U.S. over the next few years.
If the technology advances as SoftBank
Robotics hopes, Pepper could become a
playmate, companion, and concierge. It
could eventually respond to voice com-
mands to retrieve vital information, make
reservations, and control home appliances
that are connected to the internet.
That’s the theory, anyway. For now,
Pepper is more amusing than practical,
Forrester Research analyst J.P. Gownder
says. For instance, Pepper has been
directing shoppers to stores in the mall
through text messages because it still isn’t
advanced enough to say them out loud.
And
Pepper
still
has
trouble
understanding what people are asking,
requiring shoppers to type in their
requests for mall directions on a tablet
mounted on the robot’s chest.
SoftBank is trying to improve Pepper’s
capabilities by focusing first on the
business market — retailers, hotels, auto
dealerships, and even hospitals. SoftBank
hopes to use those environments to learn
more about what consumers like and don’t
like about Pepper and, from that, teach it
more tasks, said Steve Carlin, the
venture’s vice president for marketing and
business development in North America.
Greetings in the mall
The recently launched test runs in
Westfield Corp.’s malls in San Francisco
and Santa Clara, California, mark the first
time Pepper has made an extended
appearance in the U.S. The robots began
appearing just before Thanksgiving and
will stick around through mid-February.
Carlin says about 300 to 500 people per
day engaged with Pepper during its first
month in the San Francisco mall. During a
recent visit, kids flocked around the
four-foot-tall humanoid as it spoke in a
cherubic voice that could belong to either a
boy or girl.
Westfield views Pepper as a way to make
shopping in the mall more entertaining
and enjoyable at a time when people are
increasingly buying merchandise online.
Three Peppers are sprinkled in heavily
trafficked areas around Westfield’s San
Francisco mall and two more are in the
Santa Clara center. If all goes well,
Westfield also plans to bring Pepper to its
New York mall at the World Trade Center
and Garden State mall in Paramus, New
Jersey.
“We put her in our (human resources)
system and have given her a name tag,”
says Shawn Pauli, senior vice president for
Westfield.
Market ambitions
Pepper got its start two years ago in
Japan before expanding into Europe. In
those two markets, more than 10,000
Peppers are already operating in grocery
stores, coffee shops, banks, cruise lines,
railway stations, and homes. Most of the
robots are in businesses. SoftBank hasn’t
disclosed how many have been sold to
Lobster prices high as catch drops and China imports climb
By Patrick Whittle
The Associated Press
P
ORTLAND, Maine — Lobster
lovers are used to adjusting to high
prices, but this winter, they’re
shelling out even more for the cherished
crustaceans because of a lack of catch off of
New England and Canada and heavy
exports to China.
Winter is typically a slow season for U.S.
lobster fishermen and an active one off
Atlantic Canada. But the catch is slow in
both countries this year, in part because of
bad weather, industry sources said.
And the winter months are also an
important time for exports to lobster-crazy
China, which celebrates its New Year
holiday January 28. It’s increasingly
popular to celebrate the Lunar New Year
with American lobster. That’s causing
demand at a time when supply is low.
American consumers who were paying
$9 to $11 per pound for a live lobster in
September — already higher than the
previous year — are now sometimes
paying upward of $13 per pound. There are
enough lobsters to go around, but China’s
demand is likely to only grow, said Bill
Bruns, operations manager at The Lobster
Company of Arundel, Maine.
“They are building infrastructure to
meet more demand,” Bruns said, who
added that China’s middle class “hasn’t
stopped growing, and they keep eating.”
American lobster exports to China have
topped 12 million pounds and $85 million
in value for three years in a row. The
country imported a fraction of that amount
as recently as 2010, when it imported less
than a million pounds of the crustaceans.
Meanwhile,
prices
charged
by
wholesalers in the U.S. are rising, too. The
wholesale price of a 1.25-pound live hard
shell lobster rose about a dollar in the New
England market from December to Janu-
ary, when it was $7.75/pound, according to
Urner Barry commodities publishing.
The loss of fishing days due to bad
weather off Canada has caused a supply
issue at a busy time of the year, said mar-
ket analyst John Sackton, who publishes a
website called SeafoodNews.com.
“It’s become very difficult to get supply
and you still have people scrambling to
ship lobsters to China for Chinese New
Year,” he said.
The winter pinch is happening at a time
when the U.S. lobster catch, based mostly
in Maine, Massachusetts, and New
Hampshire, is booming. U.S. fishermen
have caught more than 100 million pounds
of lobster for seven years in a row after
having never accomplished that feat
previously, federal records say. Lobsters
were worth a record of more than $600
million at the docks in 2015, records show.
The slow winter fishing season isn’t
cause for concern in the grand scheme of
things, said David Cousens, a South
Thomaston lobsterman who is president of
the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.
“Guys offshore are reporting not very
much. But I imagine they’ve probably got
enough between Canada and here to fill
that market,” he said.
consumers.
Carlin acknowledges the U.S. will be a
tougher market to crack than Japan,
where he says consumers tend to embrace
new technology more quickly.
In addition, Pepper’s price is likely to be
out of reach for most consumers. The robot
currently sells for about $2,000; a three-
year subscription covering software
upgrades, insurance, and technology
support increases the total to $18,000 to
$20,000.
Softbank Robotics is controlled by
Japan’s SoftBank Group, a technology
conglomerate that recently pledged to
invest $50 billion in U.S. startups. A
remaining 40 percent stake is equally
owned by China’s Alibaba Group, Asia’s
e-commerce leader, and by Taiwan’s
Foxconn, which assembles Apple’s iPhone
and is considering a U.S. expansion.
Pepper isn’t alone
Despite its pedigree, Pepper already
lags behind a cruder-looking robot that
home improvement retailer Lowe’s has
been testing as a way to help shoppers find
merchandise in its sprawling stores,
Gownder says.
The “LoweBot,” a box-like machine on
wheels, began patrolling a San Jose,
California store in November and will
begin showing up in 10 other stores in the
San Francisco Bay area in early 2017. If all
goes well, it could become a fixture in all of
Lowe’s stores.
Gownder gives LoweBot the early edge
over Pepper because Lowe’s machine has a
detailed database of the store’s inventory,
enabling it to quickly determine if
something is in stock and then guide
shoppers to the aisle where the requested
item is located.
“While Pepper offers a lively, appealing
interface, it remains to be seen whether it
will fill the role that retailers want,”
Gownder says. “Does it have enough
intelligence
to
answer
customers’
questions effectively?”
Early feedback
While LoweBot is a one-trick pony,
focused on retail tasks, SoftBank’s ambi-
tions with Pepper are greater. Pepper has
enough artificial intelligence to recognize
smiles and frowns, helping the robot
understand the mood of a person
interacting with it. But it also tends to lock
its electronic eyes on someone standing in
front of it and continue to follow people as
they look away while ignoring the next
visitor.
A recent visitor to the San Francisco
mall, Sharif Ezzat, noticed some of
Pepper’s shortcomings and concluded that
the robot is still a long way from having
mass appeal.
“I can’t see it right now, but I can see
where it’s going,” Ezzat said of Pepper’s
potential.
Chaz MacSwan, a puppeteer in San
Francisco, was more impressed.
“Look at the joy it’s bringing to people,
especially the kids,” MacSwan said. “I’d
love to have one, especially if it could clean
the carpets.”
Lunar New Year 2017 events from NYC to Disney to Vegas
By Beth J. Harpaz
AP Travel Editor
N
EW YORK — The Lunar New
Year begins January 28, kicking
off the Year of the Rooster. The
holiday is observed in China, Vietnam, and
other Asian countries, but a number of
U.S. destinations from New York to Las
Vegas also host celebrations. Events
include parades featuring lion dancers,
special holiday menus at Asian restau-
rants, cultural festivals, and more.
Disney California Adventure Park in
Anaheim, California hosts a Lunar New
Year celebration from January 20 through
February 5. Mickey Mouse and Minnie
Mouse are costumed for the occasion,
greeting guests and offering photo oppor-
tunities alongside other Disney characters
such as Mulan and Mulan’s dragon side-
kick, Mushu.
Anaheim
Live performances at Disney California
Adventure include Chinese acrobats,
dancers, and musicians in colorful
costumes, activities, and crafts themed on
the holiday and three new marketplaces
offering food inspired by Asian cuisine. A
new short feature called Hurry Home will
be shown each night prior to the World of
Color show, telling the story of a little
lantern on a journey home for Lunar New
Year, using projected animation, lighting,
special effects, and fountains.
The park will also be decorated with lan-
terns and banners wishing guests a happy
Lunar New Year in English, Chinese,
WORLDWIDE CELEBRATIONS. A lion
dancer is seen during a Lunar New Year celebration in
New York’s Chinatown neighborhood, in this February
8, 2016 file photo. The 2017 Lunar New Year holiday
begins January 28. New York is one of a number of
cities around the country that hosts parades with lion
dancers. Our special section celebrating the Lunar
New Year begins on page 11. (AP Photo/Richard
Drew, File)
Korean, and Vietnamese.
New York City
In New York City, visitors have three
Chinatowns to explore: One in downtown
Manhattan, one in the Sunset Park
neighborhood of Brooklyn, and one in
Flushing, Queens. Visitors can check out
restaurants, food markets, and shops that
sell everything from housewares to sou-
venirs.
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