If you are anything like me, your primary criterion for a useful robot is one that dances. To 1960s pop songs, preferably.

If that is your inclination too, then look no further than Pepper, the lifelike robot out of Japan which will be making its debut in the U.S. this year.

Described as an “emotional” robot by Julien Seret, vice president of enterprise business for Aldebaran, a subsidiary of SoftBank Group of Japan and the company that created Pepper, it uses facial, gesture and voice recognition to detect emotion. Pepper can then respond accordingly — in fact, our reporter, Matt Hamblen, noted that Pepper “raised its arms to imitate the gestures of people, slightly nodding at times. When asked a direct question, rings around its eyes lit up, a sign it was actively listening.”

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