Haven't got much time to contribute at the moment due to early arrival of my first baby girl (Laurel Brunton, 1 week old) but had to point out this story!!
"When does the conductor answer to the semiconductor? When a robot is leading the symphony. Last night a 4ft-tall automaton with a baton called Asimo conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Mitch Leigh's The Impossible Dream from the Man from La Mancha. Asimo (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) greeted the audience with the words "hello, everyone," before waving to the orchestra. Asimo is the latest robot designed by Honda, which has been developing walking robots since 1986. It can run, walk on uneven slopes and respond to simple voice commands. It can also recognise faces with its camera eyes. Honda eventually intends its robots to be companions for the elderly or to assist schoolchildren at road crossings. But Asimo's musical repertoire is limited. Unable to respond to the musicians, last night's performance was a case of elaborate "baton-synching", mimicking the actions of a conductor who had been videotaped before. During the first rehearsal, the orchestra lost its place when Asimo began to slow the tempo, something a human conductor would have sensed and corrected. "It's not a communicative device. It simply is programmed to do a sense of gestures," said Leonard Slatkin, the orchestra's musical director. "If the orchestra decides to go faster, there's nothing the robot can do about it. Hopefully, I keep that under control." Nevertheless, Asimo wowed the audience and even impressed some of the musicians. "The movements are still a little stiff, but very humanlike, much more fluid than I thought," said bassist Larry Hutchinson." http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/may/14/usa cheers Jason