Robot Plays the Flute Like a Human

An article from http://newslite.tv/2008/11/06/robot-plays-the-flute-better-t.html
Robot plays the flute like a human
November 6, 2008 6:57 PM



Robots could soon be taking over the orchestra if this chap is anything to go by, and if they do they will be wearing snazzy hats too.

The robot flautist, or WF4IV as he likes to be called (you know what these musical types are like) is the latest creation from Waseda University.

He is able to play complex musical scores perfectly and is even able to engage with the audience giving him what his creators say is a human-like quality.

Everything about him is designed to make him the perfect musician, his mouth and lungs have been carefully designed to mimic and improve upon the expert air control of a professional flautist.

His eyes even have cameras which monitor other members of the orchestra and interact with their performance ... there is however, no explanation for the hat.
WF4IV is, as his name would suggest the forth in series of flute playing robots from the Japanese university.

Research started in 1990 but the first model was not created until 2003.

In this version the robot's tongue was redesigned to enable the double-tonguing technique (not what you are thinking) a high-speed playing technique.


Watch him perform 'Flight of the Bumblebee' almost flawlessly - well certainly better than I could do.

Makers hope he will one day be sophisticated enough to be able to teach music to pupils, hopefully he won't lead them off like the Pied Piper.

Waseda University

Ventriloquism In Motion: How Sound Can Move Light

Ventriloquism In Motion: How Sound Can Move Light

ScienceDaily (Aug. 24, 2008) — Research led by Dr Elliot Freeman, lecturer in psychology at Brunel University’s School of Social Sciences, recently published in Current Biology, confirms that what we see can sometimes depend as much on our ears as on our eyes.

The study, conducted in conjunction with Prof. Jon Driver at University College London, revealed that the perceived direction of motion from a given visual object (in this case, red bars across a screen), depends on minute variations in the timing of an accompanying sound (a sequence of beeps, for example). This provides evidence that the brain’s integration of these visual and audio cues occurs at a very early stage of processing.

Every day examples of audio-visual integration include our ability to identify who is saying what in a noisy crowd and the illusion that sound comes directly from the an actor’s lips seen on a television, rather than from the loudspeakers; the latter is the well-known ‘Ventriloquist Effect’, where seeing influences the location of sounds.

The audiovisual illusion revealed by this new research could be dubbed ‘reverse ventriloquism in motion’, as it shows that sound affects what we see. This might explain why if we watch dancing without sound, the dancers appear to have no rhythm; and why the sound of a ball hitting a racket can help us to determine the direction of the ball in a game of tennis even though the ball moves faster that the camera or eye can track.

Dr. Freeman believes that his research could have profound implications for the understanding of the neural processes that underlie multisensory perception. This knowledge could be applied in a number of industries: “The illusion could be applied to novel displays that change their appearance depending on sound, which may be of use in advertising or providing an eye-catching multisensory warning or alert in safety-critical applications. It may also eventually be useful in detecting and diagnosing subtle perceptual differences thought to be characteristic of certain clinical conditions such as dyslexia and autistic spectrum.”

Adapted from materials provided by Brunel University.