Nothing quite represents the holidays better than this T. Rex's skull that sings "Jingle Bells." RWeaving was inspired by his 4 year old son and made a 3D printing of the dino's head. The music is triggered by a servo motor. Ho ho ho y'all.
We seem to have missed this one last week but better late than never. Toronto, Canada's bd594 came up with a duet of a robot snare drummer and HP scanner rockin' to "The Little Drummer Boy." When creating this ditty, he claimed the project was "70% timing and 30% execution." Check out his YouTube page for other robot band concerts.
Recently the Dance Liberation Front was arrested at Washington D.C.'s Jefferson Memorial after they were protesting a judge's ruling that said that dance was not considered freedom of speech. As a response, the DLF has called for this Saturday in NYC to be "Do the Robot" Day.
Imitate a robot, dress like one or bring one with you to show your support for the troop who is only trying to prove, in their words, "It is an affront to the very core of America's right to free expression. Not only that, we believe that dancing people are happy people and happy people are part of the solution, not part of the problem. We believe in the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. And what is happiness if not dancing?"
While details have yet to be finalized, the DLF is trying to secure permits for the 3:00 p.m. event. Should you want to get in on the action, feel free to stage your own event.
Students from the California Institute of the Arts in CA took some junkyard salvage and regular instruments and built the KarmetiK Machine Orchestra. They are so proud of their work that they recently put on a concert with the robotic instruments onstage and lighting and animation on the ceiling. The team came up with 3 new instruments, including a dual-head drum called the NotomotoN.
Drexel University's Alyssa Batula and Dr. Youngmoo Kim taught a Robonova several tricks, including dancing, tapping a tambourine and playing the piano with only two digits. They used this particular humanoid because it can mimic human gestures and is both rugged and inexpensive. The two disadvantages, they say, is that motions are not precise enough and that processing must happen on an offboard computer, since the bot itself is underpowered. Still, we are impressed.
Take a peek at this eerie performance by HRP-4C at the recent Digital Content Expo in Tokyo. She is getting more natural all the time but someone should have covered up those legs.
The performance is almost a throwback to 60's TV shows like 'Hullabaloo' and 'Shindig,' 2010 style. Play both videos at the same time and tell me they didn't use the same choreography. By the way, the intro on this video is done by a very early George Hamilton and Lanie Kazan for those who keep track of that kind of trivia.
We bet that if robots watched music videos the first one they would watch would be Nicki Minaj and Will.I.Am performing 'Check It Out'. It just doesn't get any more techno than this performance on the Letterman's Late Show. 'Nuff said.
The Opera of the Future Group from the MIT Media Lab plans to present "Death and the Powers" in Monaco Sept. 24 - 26, the result of a 10 year project that features singing robots and a musical chandelier. Composed by Professor Tod Machover, it concerns a future without humans with the robots trying to understand what being alive was. More than 60 students and collaborators are needed to put on the show.
NASA has been testing ATHLETE, an all-terrain robot for use on the Moon and Mars, but recently took a day off in honor of National Dance Day to bust a move. This certainly proves that even hexapods can have rhythm.
Musician/artist Steve Averill created Spruce Deuce, a robotic drummer made from birch plywood that gets his rhythm from arm and wrist servos. He is controlled by a Highly Liquid MD24 MIDI servo controller. Interestingly enough, the bot is quite proficient, holds his sticks the right way and seems to respond to voice commands, although he misses some of the subtleties one usually finds in jazz musicians. Oh, wait, that's a robot.
Fans of MC Lars, this 2GB USB Memory Stick is for you. The 3" tall device contains MP3s from the album "This Gigantic Robot Kills," a PDF Digital Booklet and music video "Guitar Hero Hero." It has a handy keychain clip and can be reused when you have had enough of the tunes.
SpaceJustin was designed to head into the final frontier and assist his human counterparts. The musical bot made his debut at the recent International Aerospace Show in Germany and did a bit of break dancing via telepresence. Let's hope that the astronauts remember to give him plenty of room to do his thing.
If you are a fan of Stephen Colbert, then you probably already saw his report that claims jazz robots are a threat to Americans. If not, here it is for the rest of you. Shimon is the product of Guy Hoffman and Georgia Tech, who designed it to be able to improvise.
It's been a while since we found any musicbots but the Orchestrion Project certainly belongs in that category. Run by musician Pat Metheny, various instruments come up with some creative results. The acoustic and acoustoelectric musical instruments are controlled by solenoids and pneumatics. Check out Metheny's site for more details and tour dates.
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T. Rex Does Jingle Bells
