The flawless flautist: The musical robot that plays Flight Of The Bumblebee perfectly Classical musicians could have good reason to be worried as scientists have developed a musical robot that makes no mistakes.
Waseda University’s robotic flautist can play the challenging musical score of the ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ almost flawlessly.
And the robot has been designed with a human-like quality that allows it to engage with the audience, making in a contender for concert performances.
The Waseda Flutist No. 4 Refined IV was unveiled at the BioRob 2008 conference in Arizona two weeks ago.
Thanks to a series of technical advances, the latest version makes smoother transitions between notes than the original model built in 2003.
The robot’s mouth and lungs have been carefully designed to mimic the expert air control of a professional flautist.
A YouTube video is here:
And after watching it, I do not fear for the careers of live musicians. This performance was wooden. A lot of that depends on the programming but a good performer can 'read' the audience and other musicians and interact with them -- it is subtle but very noticeable.
This one was too perfect.
The BioRob 2008 conference looks fascinating.
Posted by DaveH at November 6, 2008 8:10 PM
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