Honda ASIMO Conducts The Detroit Symphony Orchestra

[12tone.]

Wrong, silly, dumb, awesome? 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf5szwz6Qzc

[greg]

I'd like to hear him conduct the Sacrificial Dance of the Rite of the Spring.

[12tone.]

I'd like to hear him conduct the Sacrificial Dance of the Rite of the Spring.

I'm not sure how it goes...  I fell asleep listen to the Rite so...

[Conservationist]

Animatronic robot is programmed to look like it conducts symphony... when those minivan-making corporates get their act together enough to make a robot that can appreciate Beethoven's 9th, then I'll listen (and maybe buy one of their milquetoasty vehicles).

[Symphonien]

Brings a whole new meaning to the description "robotic".

But seriously, this little video makes me glad as it proves that musicians will never be replaced by robots. The performance really was "robotic" in both senses of the word. ASIMO was simply imitating hand movements from the real conductor that were then programmed into its memory for the performance. Once it started, it would not be able to change during the middle of the piece. Even with so simple a piece as this, the musicians still seemed to have trouble following it - you could hear the opening section lagging and the little rit. at the climax sounded horrible. And even if a robot can conduct perfectly, it will never be able to produce that "human-shaped" interpretation that makes people want to go to live concerts in the first place. Artifical intelligence cannot understand, appreciate or interpret art; it is a part of the human condition.

Some people were obviously impressed though. Here's a great one I found from the list of comments:

why is the conductor in an astronaut suit am i missing somthing?