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Humanoid Robot Conducts Beethoven Symphony
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]"
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
On my hotsex fembot... Not that I really need one per say....
Right, with all the grace of a metronome.
Lets hope Sony has designed "The Three Laws of Robotics" into these little bots.
Surely this would stop them from forming their own boy bands, or should I say Robo Bands.....
"Back street roboz"
--
Power to the Peaceful
1. A robot may not injure a Beatle, or, through inaction, allow a Beatle to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by roadies except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not mean playing in a rap band.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Those little bastards dance better than I do...
-- El Sacarino tiene gusto de la chocha
I think humans can do better "the robot" dance than QRIO can do human dance... So 1 point to humans... but in ohter hand, don't think much of us here at ./ can dance, so lets give QRIO 1 point too..
Domo arigato, Conductor Roboto.
Q-RIO -> CURIO, I would imagine.
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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.
Who thought of this? Don't you geeks realize that we're not getting the chicks as it is because we can't dance and then you go invent a robot that dances better than us. You know you're not going to be able to send this robot to a nightclub to pick 'em up for you.
Jeepers.
How about inventing a robot that beats up jocks instead?
On the other hand I'd love to see this robot take on a Dance Dance Revolution machine.
John.
Dance better than I do! Crap!! I'll be extra impressed when the robots can do DDR. http://www.ddrfreak.com/
I just sent in my application to conducting school. By the time I graduate, all the conducting jobs will be outsourced to robots. Oh well, I guess we should have all seen it coming, much like what happend to assembly and manufacturing plants in the 80s.
Development costs and research eat up too much money, plus the fact that robots at this point have mostly an industrial market, rather than a consumer market.
Japanese firms have constantly pushed money into development of technology that is a loss-maker early on, until its adaption is widespread and cost-effective. The US companies have stockholders to appease, and long-term profits are hardly ever in their best interests.
On the plus side, after the robotics are easier to make and have far-reaching capabilities, American companies will license or purchase them from the Japanese companies and we'll still have them.
Human nature is the same everywhere; the modes only are different. -- Earl of Chesterfield
Somebody feels a little insecure about their rhythm.... :-)
The goal was not for the robot to be the conductor - everybody knows humans are better. In fact, the robot's motion was most likely recorded from a human. The goal is to show that they can, to demonstrate the variety of things the robots can do (physically, for now). I certainly think it's a little less specialized than building a car.
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the video, or the fact that it still loaded for me near instantly a full 20 minutes after it was posted to slash
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
""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."
How is this different from, say, a metronome?
And a 01 and a 10 and a 11....
Obviously you've never played in an orchestra. The conductor by far is the most important person out there, from your high school orchestra to the Vienna Philharmonic. The problem with your theory is that every musician has a different theory as to how a piece should sound. Try buying a few CDs of the same concerto played by different people. They are entirely different in all ways except the notes. The conductor is there to make sure all the musicians are playing the same version of the piece, not their own personal rendition of it.
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
My immediate reaction was that it was CGI movie fakery. In fact, many moviegoers think the "perfect" motion of CGI objects is not merely unrealistic but also physically impossible.
Watch this footage, and think again.
Seeing bad movies only encourages them. Watch responsibly
My parents were both distiguished concert players and they're opinion on the matter was that the conductor really only mattered in rehersal.
Once they were playing in the performance, they really didn't notice him unless they needed to keep time for a long long rest.
In that context, your comments about the conductor are valid but really don't disprove your parents point.
To get a feeling about how important a conductor is during the performance, just imagine what would happen if the conductor tried to change something funidmental! He could only count on part of his symphony paying attention, so only pieces of it would do realize what he was trying to do.
I really don't understand why people are unimpressed with the dancing robots. Even if theyre programmed to do the dance routine, its still damn impressive. I'm not sure how familiar people are with bipedal movement, but its not as simple as you think; it takes a fairly complex series of motions to keep you balanced as you move, especially when walking or running. One thing you'll notice with the robots is that that balance every motion: this is not an easy feat, especially with the relative smoothness with which they are moving around. So once more, getting robots to do robotic things is easy (robotic arm that welds stuff), where as getting a robot to mimic life (bipedal walking around) and people is most definitely difficult, forget whatever you've seen in Hollywood.
"What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on Earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing." -Bokonon