Ever feel like no one really understands you? Well “ Pepper” could be about to change all that. Pepper is the first robot to read human feelings. Using its emotion recognition functions, Pepper can react to people when it is near them－making jokes, dancing and even singing in Japanese.

The man-like robot looks like a small girl. It is four-feet tall with a tablet computer set to its chest. It has human-like hands, a girl-like body and baby-like voice. It was shown to curious people in Tokyo stores on Friday by Softbank, a Japanese robotics company.

Pepper can examine facial expressions(面部表情), human voice and signs, then make an answer. Pepper is designed to be a family robot, but it isn’t like Rosie who can do housework on the cartoon. Pepper is used at the home or the store, where we provide fun and entertainment.

Pepper goes on sale in Japan for around $2,000 in February 2015. For now, several Peppers are at Softbank stores in Tokyo for people to visit. The creators say before selling Peppers, they want the robots to store more knowledge, to do better in getting along with human.

Nowadays 3D.printing is becoming more and more popular. We are now able to print things such as clothing, musical instruments, model cars and so on. People and businesses are able to create the things they need in life very quickly and easily using 3D.printers

There is a 3D-printed public toilet in Sun Mountain National Forest Park, Suzhou ,Jiangsu Province, China. The green-and-wood-colored toilet has been named"little box in forest.” It covers 20 square meters. It was made from garbage using 3D.printing technology .The eco-friendly (环保)toilet was built without any metal, but it's even stronger than those built from concrete material(水泥材料)

As part of China's “toilet revolution (革命)”, the government tries to improve public toilets. Suzhou has been using the top technology in its toilet building.

At some tourist areas, tourists can scan QR codes(扫码)with their mobile phones in order to receive 80cm toilet paper. They can scan the codes many times for more paper, but have to pay if they scan too many times. The invention can prevent toilet paper waste. The technology can help save nearly 9, 000 yuan per toilet every year.

Suzhou is also using big data( 数据)technology to manage public toilets. An online service platform (平台) has been set up for toilets in tourist areas. The platform helps users to quickly find the nearest toilet and know how many people are waiting. Users can also post comment(评价) about toilets on the platform.

US company Motorola created the first cell phone in 1973. The brick-sized phone could only make calls for 30 minutes. Today, we have 5G smartphones that look very different and can do a lot more. What will the future phones be like?

Most foldable (可折叠的) phones today can only fold the screen up and down or left and right. But in the future, phones will be much more flexible (灵活的). In October 2023, Motorola put out a new phone. People can wear it like a bracelet (手环) and bend it into different shapes. Apple is also working on a way to make foldable screens with fewer creases.

Not only will the phones become flexible, but they will also be able to fix themselves. Professor Zhenan Bao from Stanford University made an electronic skin that can fix itself with heat and magnets (磁). This skin acts like human skin, stretching (拉伸) without tearing (撕破). If it is used to make phones, the technology could lead to devices that could fix scratches (划痕) by themselves.

People will also power phones in ways that are different from now. For example, using solar energy. In 2016, Kyocera Corporation from Japan and French company Sun Partner Technologies made a phone with solar panels (电池板) in the screen. It takes only three minutes to charge. But it still needs traditional batteries (电池). In the future, faster and independent solar charging could make solar-powered phones more popular.