Shimi Is Georgia Tech's Robotic Musician; Performing Today @ Google I/O

Who doesn't love musical buddies? And what better than a robotic buddy that doesn't go against your music tastes. Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology has developed 'Shimi' a one foot tall Android robot that will be your musical companion. It will recommend you songs, dance to the beat and keeps the music pumping based on listener feedback. Professor Gil Weinberg, the robot’s creator is all set to unveil Shimi today at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. We will see a band of three Shimi robots dance to music created in the lab and composed according to its movements. So, keep an eye for it.



Shimi is actually a docking station that senses and generates music. It uses the phone’s camera and face-detecting software to follow the listener around the room like your favorite pet. More interestingly, if the user taps or claps a beat, Shimi analyzes it, scans the phone’s musical library and immediately plays the song that best matches the suggestion. And thats not it, Shimi will also dance to the rhythm just as the music starts.

Along with the folks at Georgia Tech, Shimi is the result of a collaborated effort from Media Innovation Lab at IDC Herzliya and led by Professor Guy Hoffmann, Entrepreneur Ian Campbell and robot designer Roberto Aimi. The possibilites that Shimi has opened are endless. We can have apps where Shimi will skip to the next song or increase/decrease the volume, if the user shakes head in disagreement.

To bring Shimi for consumers in the market by 2013, a new start-up called Tovbot has been formed. I am sure musicians out there will be happy to experiment with it. Till then, Check out this video -

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