"Pepper" the Emotional Robot Gets a Retail Job at a Japanese Electronics Store

Pepper Robot is currently busy brushing up on its Japanese before taking up a position as a sales clerk in one of Japan's major retail stores.

According to reports from PC World, Pepper robot will begin to interact with customers at the electronics store Yemada Denki from next year.

The robot has been fitted with built in cameras giving it the ability to detect emotions of people and has been programmed to provide an appropriate response.

"The Japanese language presented IBM researchers with a number of unique challenges to overcome, most notably the first time the Watson system has learned a language that relies on characters not shared by the Western alphabet," IBM Japan general manager Paul Yonamine said in a statement earlier this year.

The robot did experience some difficulties during a trail demo run in Tokyo. The presence of ambient noises during the event interfered with the robot's ability to function properly.

However Pepper also managed to make progress with continuous practise all through the day.

Currently priced at $1591, the researchers are hopeful the robot will be ready to take up its new job as a sales clerk next year.