Keepon dancing robot featured in Spoon's latest music video

Step off those treadmills OK GO, there's a new indie music video on YouTube ready to help us nerds locate our groove muscle. Spoon's "Don't You Evah" features the toxically cute Keepon dancing robot developed by Carnegie Mellon and Japan's National Institute of Communications Technology. Be sure to hang in 'til the end for the robot dance party which features Manoi, RB2000 and a Johnny Five wannabe getting tore-up from the floor-up in that mad servo style. Full vid after the break.

[Grizz @ Aug 16th 2007 8:42AM]

For 2 sponge balls, its incredibly lifelike!

[Zadillo @ Aug 16th 2007 9:21AM]

Yeah, a very good point. The whole "uncanny valley" thing is really interesting - a robot can be made to look very close to human, but it gets so close that it just creeps people out. Yet it seems easier to sort of "connect" with this Keepon dancing robot even though it is, as you say, just a couple of balls, essentially in terms of its outward appearance.

[Jared Gibbs @ Aug 16th 2007 9:01AM]

AMAZING! I want all those robots now!

[Allan @ Aug 16th 2007 9:16AM]

WANT!

That is a great video. Never heard the song but that was pretty funny.

[Pasha @ Aug 16th 2007 9:23AM]

When will they make it available for sale?
They have to make it respond to sound, but also make a USB connection for those of us who wear headphones. I'd pay $50 for it.

[Chekote @ Aug 16th 2007 12:17PM]

$50? Are you kidding? This thing has cameras built into it's eyes! It already responds to sounds *and motion*.

Try adding a zero or two to the end of that =0P

[Mandy @ Aug 16th 2007 9:31AM]

Oooo... I want one! So cute. :P

[dukrous @ Aug 16th 2007 9:31AM]

I need one...now...I might actually have women approach me if I held one of those Keepons.

Won't anybody think of my unborn children?

[Chuckles McGee @ Aug 16th 2007 2:03PM]

We are, and that's why we aren't giving you a Keepon.

[phobic99 @ Aug 16th 2007 9:42AM]

Cool video to a great song. I've been listening to Spoon's newest CD (Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - which includes this song) pretty much non-stop ever since it came out.

[Mike Jenkins @ Aug 16th 2007 9:54AM]

That's such a cool robot, I'd love to have one. I noticed a lot of WIRED ads and such in the video, so I wasn't surprised to see WIRED at the end, I guess they helped make the video or something.

[spacegravity4me @ Aug 16th 2007 10:06AM]

i for one welcome our new robotic peep overlor.... ah forget it, I'm going to get breakfast.

[Peebert @ Aug 16th 2007 9:45PM]

Yeesh. Would you also like to tell us that you once wanted to buy one of these from a black market dealer in Japan and your mom got scared and said "You're moving with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air"?

[Chad @ Aug 16th 2007 11:02AM]

Any chance Engadget could host the videos that is shows? My work, like many I'm sure, blocks most sites like YouTube (except for Google Video suprisingly enough) so I never get to see the videos. I know you don't want to deprive me of viewing dancing robots while I'm at work!

[Alexander @ Aug 16th 2007 11:35AM]

use the coral cache. bookmark this link:

javascript:void((function(){location.href=location.href.replace(/^http\:\/\/([^\/\@]+)\/(?:)/,%22http://%22+%22$1%22.replace(%22\:%22,%22.%22)+%22.nyud.net:8080/%22);})())

and then click on it when you get to a page your company blocks.

[britain @ Aug 16th 2007 11:11AM]

Andrew Stanton of Pixar (and director of the upcoming Wall-E) was talking about how we plumb our own emotional libraries to fill in the blanks when we're trying to read something unfamiliar to us. Ironically, animated inanimate objects (the Lamp in Luxo Jr.) and even babies and pets can have a stronger emotional connection to us BECAUSE they aren't very good at communicating what they're thinking or feeling.

Uncanny valley (and crappy animation) comes into play when the sculptor/engineer/animator takes upon himself the entire burden of emotional communication, leaving very little for the viewer to concoct in their mind.

Hence Muppets end up being more life-like than Polar Express conductors.

[oshean @ Aug 16th 2007 11:23AM]

Domo arigato dancing roboto

[jps @ Aug 16th 2007 11:40AM]

Yeah Wired has been running ads for spoon/keepon. I think the martha stewart issue last month had an ad in the back saying that both the keepon robot and spoon were going to be at Wiredfest.

[strider_mt2k @ Aug 16th 2007 12:00PM]

Little...yellow...different!

Move over Advil, this little bot is bringing the party!

Very very...VERY cool!

[grjohnston @ Aug 17th 2007 12:52AM]

Very very... VERY repetitive.

[strider_mt2k @ Aug 16th 2007 12:01PM]

Little...yellow...different!

Move over Advil, this little bot is bringing the party!

Very very...VERY cool!

[grjohnston @ Aug 17th 2007 12:52AM]

Very very... VERY repetitive.

[habanero @ Aug 16th 2007 1:39PM]

Cool video.
Kind of reminds me of Blur's Coffee and TV.

There is Wired placement throughout the video on buildings, posters, and video screens.

[Scott Heimendinger @ Aug 16th 2007 3:32PM]

Carnegie Mellon Pride!

[Mandy @ Jan 15th 2008 3:39PM]

Keepon is sooooooo cute! I found more more of him on You Tube. Check out the vids at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yC0n3RahCE and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1H4JlJcIhc. He looks like a marshmallow peep!

[Mark @ Feb 6th 2008 1:00PM]

I found more Keepons at www.cmu.edu/robou

[din @ Jul 13th 2008 2:38PM]

When will they make it available for sale!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i want it so bad