At Snowdog, we take pride in our innovative approach and continuously engage in research and development in various fields beyond traditional e-commerce applications. We are thrilled to announce our new partnership and collaboration with SoftBank Robotics, which involves bringing Pepper, a humanoid robot developed by SoftBank, to our Poznań office. Pepper is highly customizable and emotionally intelligent, and can learn from interactions and experiences, allowing us to explore new possibilities and opportunities.
Who are SoftBank Robotics?
SoftBank Robotics are a leading worldwide robotics technology company operating in Tokyo, Paris, San Francisco, Boston and Shanghai. Over 25,000 of their robots are being used worldwide in industries such as retail, banking, hospitality, healthcare or education. SoftBank Robotics believe humanoid robots have great potential in assisting humans in their daily lives, activities and work.
Who is Pepper?
SoftBank’s first emotional robot, Pepper, was launched in 2014. Pepper is a kind, friendly and emotional humanoid robot. Designed to be an assistant, Pepper is capable of registering, understanding and reacting to main human emotions. Equipped with a 3D camera, omnidirectional wheels and directional microphones, Pepper is interactive, autonomous, and ready for intuitive communication.
Pepper is more than a robot as well; Pepper can learn through experiences and is compatible with Android. That means as programmers can adapt technologies for Pepper with SoftBank’s software development kit, and constantly improve and expand Pepper’s possibilities.
You can read more about Pepper at the Softbank Robotics website. You may have already met him at Meet Magento Poland 2018!
Why Pepper?
From Kiosk apps, machine learning to smart product searching, the Snowdog team is always exploring uncharted territories and looking beyond conventional commerce channels. Beyond using Pepper as an assistant, we are now developing new solutions and applications that could make Pepper even smarter and more adaptable to a variety of environments. That’s why a partnership with SoftBank Robotics makes sense for us; it enables us to truly push the boundaries of what is possible in terms of a truly unique and enjoyable commerce experience.
At Snowdog we believe commerce isn’t tied to physical stores, websites and apps — and we’re certain that exploring robotics and their possibilities could be highly impactful on the customer experience in the future of unified retail commerce.
What this means for Snowdog Research & Development ?
Snowdog Research & Development is always looking towards new technologies and making cool ideas a reality. Our new robotics venture is going to involve a lot of work, from application development to designing robotics UX and voice interactions, to help Pepper behave as friendly and intuitively as possible. For example, we’re going to be looking into how to program Pepper for:
- Brick-and-mortar stores as a greeter, shop assistant or help station
- Incorporating some of our machine learning technologies, internet of things and mobile apps with Pepper’s tablet display
- Integration with AI technologies for a smarter office assistant
- Developing new interactions and experiences between Pepper and customers
Summary
At Snowdog, our drive to learn more and be developing cutting-edge technologies to expand the possibilities in commerce is at the heart of our work. From our earlier work with Kiosk apps, mobile technologies and the Internet of Things, we’re looking forward to taking the next step in commerce innovation with this partnership with SoftBank Robotics and Pepper the robot. There’s lots of exciting developments to come with Pepper and our team, so stay tuned! 😊🤖
