Divabot Gets Backup

Japan’s HRP-4 robotic pop star has been hogging the spotlight lately, honing her singing style and making appearances at CEATECH JAPAN and more recently at the Digital Content Expo in Tokyo. But this time she’s performing with her own crew of backup dancers, which very well could make Divabot – as she’s sometimes known – the first robot to headline a musical performance with support from a human dance troupe.

Alright, so it’s a distinction of dubious grandeur. But the robot is notching some pretty impressive achievements in the field of robotics. Her creators at the Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology have developed programs that not only allow her to mimic a real human singers vocal performance, but also her facial tics and gestures as she sings. The result is a humanoid that, while still creepily robotic, is learning to be outwardly more and more like her human counterparts.

That’s not even taking into account the fact that she’s got moves. Check out this weekend’s performance from two different perspectives below.



[YouTube, Pink Tentacle, NY Magazine]

11 Comments

Damn it, Japan! Is there anything you DON'T make robots for?

In all seriousness, though, that's awesome and creepy at the same time. It's a robot...but it's singing (not recorded, but actually singing) and dancing so realistically that, if it weren't for her silver legs, I'd think she was a person.

Damn it, now I'm calling it a "her". Looks like you've won this one, Japan...

-IMP ;) :)

Oh my Gods its a Cylon. KILL IT!

THEY SHOULDA MADE THAT ROBOT DO "THE ROBOT"

First thing I thought of was Will Smith blasting that thing to pieces....

It's a robot...but it's singing (not recorded, but actually singing) and dancing so realistically that, if it weren't for her silver legs, I'd think she was a person.
www.ogameoyun.com/ .

Building robots is the way japenese choose instead of immigration, I think in the end it will pay off big time for them.

Looks like Ke$ha's got competition

It is no more singing then a synthesizer is singing.

It will be much more impressive to me when it can dance like the backup dancers.

"Building robots is the way Japanese choose instead of immigration, I think in the end it will pay off big time for them."

Not after they die of old age.

@Kickstand27

Indeed.

It's a sad day when humans are becoming back up dancers for robots...



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