Softbank enters robotics with emotional humanoid

TOKYO -- Softbank Corp. is entering the robotics business with its cooing, gesturing and sympathetic Pepper humanoid-on-wheels that it says is designed for companionship and can decipher human emotions.

The Japanese mobile carrier said Thursday that Pepper will go on sale in Japan in February for 198,000 yen ($1,900). Overseas sales plans are under consideration but undecided.

The machine, which has no legs, but has gently gesticulating hands appeared on a stage in a Tokyo suburb, cooing and humming. It dramatically touched hands with Softbank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son in a Genesis or "E.T." moment.

Son, who told the crowd that his longtime dream was to go into the personal robot business, said Pepper has been programmed to read the emotions of people around it by recognizing expressions and voice tones.

"Our aim is to develop affectionate robots that can make people smile," he said.

Cuddly robots are not new in Japan, a nation dominated by "kawaii," or cute culture, but no companion robot has emerged a major market success yet.

Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony Corp. discontinued the Aibo pet-dog robot in 2006, despite any outcry from its fans. At that time, Sony had developed a child-shaped entertainment robot similar to Pepper but much smaller, capable of dances and other charming moves, which never became a commercial product.

Honda Motor Co. has developed the walking, talking Asimo robot, but that is too sophisticated and expensive for home use, and appears in Honda showrooms and gala events only. Even then, it is prone to glitches because of its complexity.

Many other Japanese companies, including Hitachi Ltd. and Toyota Motor Corp., not to mention universities and startups, have developed various robots, big and small, that entertain and serve as companions.

There is little emphasis on delivering on practical work, in contrast to industrial robots at factories and military robots for war.

But the potential is great for intelligent machines as the number of elderly requiring care is expected to soar in rapidly-aging Japan in coming years. Robotics are already used to check on the elderly and monitor their health and safety, but they might also play a role in reducing feelings of loneliness and isolation.

The 121 centimeter (48 inch) tall, 28 kilogram (62 pound) white Pepper, which has no hair but two large doll-like eyes and a flat-panel display stuck on its chest, was developed jointly with Aldebaran Robotics, which designs, produces and sells autonomous humanoid robots.

Besides featuring the latest voice recognition, Pepper is loaded with more than a dozen sensors, including two touch sensors in its hands, three touch sensors on its head, and six laser sensors and three bumper sensors in its base.

It also has two cameras and four microphones on its head and has Wi-Fi and Ethernet networking capabilities.

In Thursday's demonstration, Pepper sang, "I want to be loved."

Softbank said Pepper can dance and tell jokes. The machine will be on display starting Friday at Softbank retailers, the company said.

Softbank, which now owns Sprint of the U.S. and boasts more than 100 million subscribers globally, has been growing rapidly as a mobile carrier in Japan, boosted by being the first to offer Apple's iPhone.

Pepper was jointly developed with Aldebaran Robotics, which has offices in France, China, Japan and the U.S. and is 78.5 percent owned by Softbank.

"I've believed that the most important role of robots will be as kind and emotional companions to enhance our daily lives, to bring happiness, constantly surprise us and make people grow," said Bruno Maisonnier, founder and chief executive of Aldebaran, who appeared on the stage with Son.

Aldebaran has produced more than 5,000 of its Nao humanoid, its first product, which is used for research and educational purposes.

Pepper can get information from cloud-based databases and comes with safety features to avoid crashes and falls, and its capabilities can grow by installing more robot applications, according to Softbank.

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Online: http://bit.ly/1xblMBu

Wednesday's Sports In Brief

PRO BASKETBALL

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling agreed Wednesday to sign off on a deal to sell the team he has owned for 33 years to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion, bringing the possibility of a resolution to weeks of rumors, uncertainty and looming legal action.

The agreement hadn't been officially signed Wednesday afternoon, according to an individual with knowledge of the negotiations who wasn't authorized to discuss them publicly. But Donald Sterling's attorney, Maxwell Blecher, said he "has made an agreement with the NBA to resolve all their differences." Sterling gave his consent to a deal that was negotiated by his wife, Shelly Sterling, to sell the team, Blecher said.

Representatives for Shelly Sterling and the NBA declined to comment.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — San Antonio guard Tony Parker plans to play in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat on Thursday night.

Parker has been dealing with a left ankle sprain and missed the second half of the Spurs' Western Conference-clinching win in Game 6 of their series against Oklahoma City.

He was on the practice floor with teammates and pronounced himself ready to go afterward.

NEW YORK (AP) — Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant capped his MVP season by being the lone unanimous choice to the All-NBA first team.

Durant was a first-teamer on all 125 ballots, and made the top squad for the fifth time. Miami's LeBron James got 124 first-team votes on the way to being selected for the eighth time, while the Los Angeles Clippers' Chris Paul earned his fourth first-team selection.

Houston's James Harden and Chicago's Joakim Noah are first-time first-team choices.

US humanitarian aid to Syrians to hit $2 billion

BEIRUT: The United States’ humanitarian aid in response to the 3-year-old Syrian crisis will hit $2 billion after Secretary of State John Kerry pledged an additional $290 million to help Syrians while in Beirut Wednesday.

“Secretary John Kerry announced from Beirut yesterday additional $290 million US humanitarian assistance to help those affected by Syria war,” the US embassy in Lebanon tweeted Thursday.

“Total US humanitarian assistance since beginning of Syrian crisis will reach more than $2 billion,” another tweet read.

The assistance is helping over 4.7 million people inside Syria and more than 2.8 million refugees and host communities in neighboring countries.

The embassy said the new U.S. assistance included “nearly $169 million inside Syria and more than $121 million for neighboring countries including Lebanon.”

It indicated that US assistance for Lebanon’s NGOs and the U.N. World Food Program had reached more than $51 million, “the highest amount in terms of assistance provided to neighboring countries.”

It explained that assistance to Syrian refugees in Lebanon and other host countries includes food aid, protection, shelter, water and sanitation, education programs and other programs to prevent gender-based violence.

The embassy also said that the U.S. was committed to delivering humanitarian assistance to Syrians through the U.N.'s broad network, no matter where they reside or have sought refuge.

“US works closely with the international humanitarian community and donors to determine most effective ways to scale up humanitarian assistance in Syria,” the embassy said.

It also urged donor countries and all nations to support urgent needs inside Syria and in neighboring countries “as more than 2/3 of UN’s appeal remains unfunded.”

Lebanon alone is hosting over a million Syrian refugees registered with the UNHCR.

4th day of sick-out feared

SAN FRANCISCO -- A day after San Francisco's city attorney filed a charge of unfair labor practices against the city's transit drivers' union, there was still no official word early Thursday that operators would call an end to their sick-out protest over an unpopular labor contract.

Buses and trains were operating at about 70 percent of their normal service Wednesday, up from 50 percent a day earlier and from 33 percent on Monday, agency spokesman Paul Rose said.

The agency and its workers are at odds over a new contract. Workers overwhelmingly rejected a contract proposal on Friday that union officials said would have resulted in a pay cut.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed the charge with California state labor officials. Herrera said the contract between Transport Workers Union Local 250-A and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency forbids strikes and work stoppages such as the sick-out.

"This is an unfortunate attempt by the union to get around a law and contract provisions they don't like," he said.

The union's president, Eric Williams, said Tuesday that the labor group has nothing to do with the sick calls and urged those who called in sick to be prepared to have a doctor's note. Union officials weren't immediately available for comment Wednesday.

The agency known as Muni runs buses, light rail and street cars in addition to the cable cars and serves about 700,000 passengers each day. Its operators, represented by Transport Workers Union Local 250-A, rejected the contract by a 1,198-42 vote Friday, according to totals on the union's website.

The workers are not allowed to go on strike, but they can call in sick.

Transit officials said those who reported being sick must confirm they were ill to get sick pay and could be subject to discipline up to being fired.

The contract that Muni workers rejected would have given them a raise of more than 11 percent over two years. However, it also would have required them to cover a 7.5 percent pension payment currently paid by the transit agency, said Rose, the agency spokesman.

The contract would have increased operator pay to $32 an hour, making them the second highest-paid transit workers in the country, Rose said.

Williams said other city workers were getting a better pension deal than Muni drivers. "Our members are hard-working, and all we want is fairness," he said.

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Associated Press writer Channing Joseph contributed to this report.

To demolish or design: Japan split on 2020 stadium

TOKYO -- As Tokyo prepares to demolish the half-century old stadium that hosted the first Olympics in Asia, debate is raging over whether the colossal, futuristic replacement planned for the 2020 Games will help revitalize or indelibly mar Japan's famous capital.

Tokyo, the frenetic center of a mega-metropolitan area of 36 million people, is planning an ambitious reboot on a par with its last big reincarnation, for the Olympics in 1964. Those games were the catalyst for a far-reaching makeover of Tokyo and marked Japan's reemergence as an Asian power following its defeat in World War II.

Today, Japan faces altered circumstances. Its population is aging and shrinking. The economy, overtaken in size by China, has stagnated for two decades. National debt has reached epic proportions.

The Olympics building spree could be a welcome boon for the economy. But there are doubts over the costs and scale of some of the proposed projects, especially an 80,000-seat stadium designed by British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid that was the centerpiece of Tokyo's 2020 bid. Detractors of the new stadium, a whopping 70 meters (230 feet) tall, say it clashes with Tokyo's urban planning and represents a "bigger is better" mentality that doesn't fit Japan's 21st century limitations.

Even Tokyo's governor, Yoichi Masuzoe, who is among the biggest boosters of the Olympics, has seemed noncommittal. The plan requires cooperation between the Japan Sports Council, an arm of the central government that owns the existing stadium, the Tokyo government which owns the land the bigger stadium will occupy and Tokyo Olympics organizers.

Prominent architects and other opponents are petitioning the government to upgrade the existing stadium. Built in 1958, it hosted an Olympics remembered as the first to be televised internationally by satellite, but now is showing its age.

An online poll by the Nikkei financial newspaper found more than 60 percent opposed to building the new stadium. The self-selecting survey might overstate opposition.

Apart from cost, critics are unhappy with Hadid's signature sweeping curves design, which many say resembles a bicycle helmet, and the stadium's size. It will have about four times the floor space of the current stadium and dominate the surrounding area of parks and other sports facilities.

"This is not just about the stadium but about Japan's entire culture," said Shinichi Nakazawa, an anthropologist and popular social commentator. "We have a responsibility for the legacy we leave behind."

The sports council has already scaled back the original proposal to spend 300 billion yen ($3 billion) on a 75-meter-tall stadium to a still hefty 169 billion yen ($1.7 billion). Hakubun Shimomura, a cabinet minister, deemed the first plan "too massive."

That step back, however, is not giving hope to the retrofitting campaign, which admits its efforts might already be quixotic.

The sports council has scheduled demolition to begin in July. Even before the final "sayonara" concerts last week, workers were leveling parking spaces for construction equipment and had removed boulders and other landscaping from the fringes of the park next to the stadium. Ichiro Kono, a top official at the council, has insisted the basic design plan "will not change."

"We don't have much time," said Nakazawa. "This is a very bad situation. We are right at the limit."

Nakazawa, scores of other architects and critics of Hadid's design say upgrading the national stadium to increase its capacity from 54,000 people to the required 80,000 can be done at half the cost of a new structure.

Big new projects can generate jobs and revenues, but they also eat up taxpayer money, no small concern with Japan's public debt at more than twice the size of the national economy. And then there's the abundance of costly, underused former Olympic venues such as Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium.

Japanese media reports say it will cost about 4.6 billion yen ($45 million) to operate and maintain the new stadium, compared with the current cost of 500 million yen to 700 million yen ($5 million-$7 million). The sports council says it expects some $5 million in annual revenues from events will cover the higher cost.

Architectural economist Takashi Moriyama said the 2020 Games are an ideal opportunity to promote environmentally sound methods of renovating older buildings. Japan's 15,000 public buildings that need updating are a market potentially worth some 50 trillion yen ($500 billion), he said.

"Japan is heading in exactly the opposite direction,' said Pritzker Prize-winning architect Toyo Ito, whose own design entry was not chosen. "This plan, how did they decide this was the way to go?"

But Tokyo is one of the world's biggest and wealthiest cities and many here believe it should have a stadium to match that stature.

Those in favor of a new stadium also contend that project would allow Japan to showcase its architectural prowess.

"This will enable us to demonstrate our leading technologies. We certainly should realize this goal," said Junji Ogura, honorary chairman of the Japan Football Association.

Masuzoe, the Tokyo governor, said he plans to consult the management of the Meiji Shrine before making any decisions, including the infrastructure the city must provide to support the stadium. The shrine, built to venerate the Meiji Emperor who oversaw Japan's leap into the modern age, is part of an expansive green belt that includes the stadium, baseball fields and tennis courts, gardens and galleries. Its management has not voiced any opposition to Hadid's design.

The stadium must be able to accommodate 80,000 spectators, said Masuzoe. "If not, you cannot meet the condition enforced by the IOC."

Still, Masuzoe said he won't be rushing his decision.

"We have not yet started the open deliberation and consultations," he said. "I will decide in one year's time."

Steel fabrication business seeks workers

PINEVILLE, La. -- Hayes Companies, a steel fabrication business, will conduct a job fair next week in central Louisiana.

The company is looking to expand its workforce by hiring 18 skilled employees over the next 12 months for its facility in Pineville. Expected wages are up to $23 an hour.

The job fair is scheduled Wednesday, June 11, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Central Louisiana Technical Community College in Alexandria. It's specifically targeting Flux Core Arc Welder and Structural Fitter positions, each with five or more years of manufacturing experience.

In December 2013, Hayes Companies announced a $3 million, 60,000-square-foot expansion of its Rapides Parish fabrication facility and the creation of 75 new direct jobs overall, with hiring for all the new positions to be completed by the end of 2015.

Lawmakers call on STL to drop journalists' contempt charges

BEIRUT: A group of Lebanese MPs said the Special Tribunal for Lebanon had usurped the legislature's powers by prosecuting journalists from Al-Jadeed, hinting that the court should drop contempt charges against the TV station and its top editor, in the first formal protest from Lebanon against the controversial case.

"We write to you with our constitutional power as representatives of the Lebanese people with a legislative role that has put us on the front lines of public freedoms and qualified us over the years to become a shield that protects journalists, who seek it at times of oppression and internal and external interference," the MPs said in a letter to the court, that was published on its website. "

The MPs said they must defend Lebanese media institutions and urged the court to focus on its primary mandate of prosecuting those responsible for the 2005 bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others.

The letter said the tribunal had usurped the powers of the Lebanese legislature by prosecuting the journalists.

The STL accused Karma al-Khayyat, the deputy head of news at Al-Jadeed, and Ibrahim al-Amin, the editor of Al-Akhbar newspaper, of contempt of court after both news outlets published reports that included personal details of alleged court witnesses.

Both journalists face a maximum punishment of seven years in prison, a fine of 100,000 euros or both. The Lebanese MPs protested the punishments as overly harsh.

It was unclear which MPs had jointly approved the letter, which was filed before Contempt Judge Nicola Lettieri.