Japanese tech company SoftBank has created a version of its Pepper robot that can detect whether office workers are wearing a mask. The 47-inch-high robot with human-like features is already in operation in some countries welcoming visitors to shops, exhibitions and other public spaces. But the upgraded version is designed to stand at the entrance to offices, conferences, airports and other public spaces, to provide a gentle reminder to people to wear masks. Pepper uses enhanced AI face detection to scan a person's face and if it detects the lower half is uncovered, it displays a red circle around on the screen on its chest and says: 'I see one of you is not wearing a mask.' If it sees that the visitor then puts on a mask, the circle turns green and the robot follows up with: 'Thank you for having put on your mask.' SoftBank has developed and released a mask detection feature for its robot Pepper, which it first debuted in 2014.

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 companies 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 commands to retrieve vital information, make reservations and control home appliances that are connected to the internet.

Pepper has a number of human-like features. The robots "are intentionally designed to convey emotion," using sensors and cameras "to interpret the emotional state of the person they are interacting with and the cameras that it's using are evaluating the behaviour." For example, if the customer is excited and animated, so, too, would be Pepper. If the customer's movements are more muted, "then it would instead respond with a lot calmer and smaller gestures, so as to put that person at ease." If the customer gives his or her permission, the robot can remember their order history and ask if they want the same food or drink this time.

Domino's may be forward thinking with its smartphone apps, but Pizza Hut is about to let a damn robot take your order. Pizza Hut Asia and MasterCard are partnering to bring Pepper, SoftBank's somewhat creepy humanoid robot to restaurants by the end of 2016. If all goes to plan, Pepper will be able to take and process entire customer orders. This marks the first commerce application for Pepper, according to MasterCard. It starts with an innocent, friendly hello.