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Humanoid Robot Conducts Beethoven Symphony

Posted by Hemos on from the moving-forward dept.

me98411 writes "New Scientist is running a front page article about the Sony's QRIO bot [QRIO= Quest for Curiosity] successfully conducted an entire orchestra at the Tokyo Philharmonic Society. An impressive footage of the four bots performing a dance routine can be seen here [wmv format]"

1 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. What's the big deal? by benchbri · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not to say that this isn't a small achievement - I'll respect any company that can build a metre tall robot with fully articulated limbs and fingers, a robot that can break dance, throw a ball, anything like that. These are all goals homebrew robot builders could only imagine in their dreams.

    But if Sony is commited to using these robots as assistants for the elderly, or even be able to walk my dog, it needs a brain.

    I'm not talking about AI here; The'll need to be able to recognize faces, respond to commands, and do daily autonomous tasks (water a house plant, feed the cat, get the paper), at least as well enough to pass a Turing-like test to be useful.

    So far, the only thing I've seen the QIRO do is dance. Once they demonstrate some functionality, I'll be intrested. Now it's just a toy.