Haile Robot Drummer Mimic
Haile is a robot drummer designed to accompany regular drummers as they lay down rhythm. Designed by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the robot sits across a "Native American powow" drum from a human drummer and begins detecting the rhythm, loudness, and pitch of its human counterpart's drumming. Haile follows the human's drumming by mimicking the pattern, and then improvises by dividing, multiplying, or skipping beats. Future plans include using genetic algorithms to help Haile modify and improvise beats more creatively. The Georgia Institute of Technology plans to use several Haile robots to completely replace the dreadlocked college students who just hang around playing drums in the grass. A future robot to replace guys who always play their acoustic guitars at parties is "definitely in planning."
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Tomotaka Takahashi noticed the dominance of male robots in the industry and decided he'd create a female one, that not only looked female but moved in a feminine way as well. The FT (female type) robot was shown at New York Japan Society's Tech Epoch, where it struck poses à l... / Continue →
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The inventer of a bear-protection suit has created a much slimmer version which has been designed to stave off bullets, explosives, knives, and clubs. The suit is called Trojan and the inventer describes it as the "first ballistic, full exoskeleton body suit of armour" and he hop... / Continue →
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The new Japanese music robot Miuro, designed to turn an iPod music player into a scuttling boombox-on-wheels, is shown during a press conference in Tokyo Thursday, Aug. 31, 2006. Equipped with speaker systems developed with Japanese audio-maker Kenwood Corp., the 35-centimeter ... / Continue →
