DeepNote Guitar Hero bot 'watches' the game, rocks you within an inch of your life

We've seen a lot of Guitar Hero bots in our time, but we're pretty certain that Mechanized Rock's take on shredding automatons is something special. The system -- dubbed DeepNote -- actually watches the on-screen action with "eyes" that it uses to analyze notes, which the bot then plays in real-time. Using photodiodes aimed at the screen, the components pick up changes in light within eight nanoseconds, then convert that information to brazen, parent-shocking, full-throttle rock n' roll. As you well know, pictures say a thousand words (and video is prone to run-on sentences), so watch DeepNote in action in the clip after the break.

[polobunny @ Jul 14th 2008 1:39AM]

Bah, missing too many notes. :P

[Colin Potter @ Jul 14th 2008 2:18AM]

STAR POWER FULL

[polobunny @ Jul 14th 2008 2:29AM]

That proves very little. He's unable to make much more than a 50 note streak before failing. No star power use yet, no use of the whammy bar either. It's a simple bot, falls with all the other Guitar Hero bots if you ask me.

[XIYL @ Jul 14th 2008 2:51AM]

I bet it plays better than any of you.

[XenoX101 @ Jul 14th 2008 4:22AM]

Are you guys watching the same video? Cause I saw only 2 notes missed in the "Notes hit" section at the end (out of 1300 or so). Maybe you should have a second look. Also they had a 640 note streak near the end.

Pretty impressive if you ask me.

[Quicksilver4648 @ Jul 14th 2008 10:54AM]

Are you insane? There was a 640 note streak.

[Tyler @ Jul 14th 2008 10:19AM]

What do you mean, no use of star power? The bot uses it during the solo in CoP.

[TVGenius @ Jul 14th 2008 11:24AM]

I've heard three so far, and it even fired off one note before the guitar notes started coming.

[Brian Arnold @ Jul 14th 2008 3:48PM]

Those aren't all missed notes.

It's overstrumming. Yeah, it's annoying, but they're not all misses, they're extra strums because the photodiode is registering a note when it shouldn't be. Since the characters use such wildly varying fretboards, that's going to be a hard hill to conquer. Still a very impressive bot. :D

[ShadowKain @ Jul 14th 2008 4:11PM]

Watch the video and reword your comments, IDIOT FAIL

[Zach @ Jul 14th 2008 4:30PM]

Hey, Deepnote is actually doing really well. The video posted here is very old. Here is the most recent video http://youtube.com/watch?v=vyK1uX14LwY
Also, here is the ustream, http://www.ustream.tv/channel/deepnote-guitar-hero-bot

[Timerider @ Jul 15th 2008 12:00PM]

A robot should get 100% every time. 640 note streak is nothing to that video of that guy playing Through the Fire and Flames and getting 100%, 2000+ streak FTW.

[Timerider @ Jul 15th 2008 12:02PM]

Still, that's cool.

[Timerider @ Jul 15th 2008 12:05PM]

It's still pretty cool. (This is probably a double post)

[Alex @ Jul 14th 2008 1:44AM]

Impressive.

[lupka @ Jul 14th 2008 1:46AM]

pretty cool, although i'm not sure if this has any practical usefulness.

[Colin Potter @ Jul 14th 2008 2:27AM]

thats what the terrorists want you to think.

[Phoenix Sanders @ Jul 14th 2008 1:58AM]

i hate my life

[andres @ Jul 14th 2008 3:25AM]

go an hero

[Phoenix Sanders @ Jul 14th 2008 3:31AM]

i love my life

[Marco @ Jul 14th 2008 11:43AM]

All your cries for help are keeping me from my Guitar Hero news. Have some compassion for the next man.

[drumstyk1 @ Jul 14th 2008 2:00AM]

I could melt its face off on xbl.

Very cool none the less!

[Aguiluz @ Jul 14th 2008 2:02AM]

I like the music more...

[Aguiluz @ Jul 14th 2008 2:02AM]

(Sorry, I didn't intend a reply.)

[Garretonfire @ Jul 14th 2008 2:04AM]

I love the play on The Hitchhiker's Guide supercomputer with DeepNote (instead of DeepThought). Very well played (pun intended).

[Ben @ Jul 14th 2008 2:55AM]

I'm pretty sure its more about Deep Blue the supercomputer.

[Blacklisted @ Jul 14th 2008 3:11AM]

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=puns

[Galley @ Jul 14th 2008 8:23AM]

Deep Note is the name of THX's audio logo, a distinctive synthesized crescendo sound.

[klepto88 @ Jul 14th 2008 2:11AM]

Call me when it gets arms and uses a standard controller.

[Jeremy @ Jul 14th 2008 5:51PM]

it does use a standard controller, go look the pictures on the website.

[Pochi @ Jul 14th 2008 2:14AM]

A robot that can detect colors and send signals accordingly?

THIS IS INCREDIBLE!

[SippieCup @ Jul 14th 2008 2:25AM]

lol yeah i know..

i actually halfway made this exact thing in the beginning of September.. cept it was only 1 note and strummed (sad face).. then i ran out of money and time because in college and never finished it

i still have it in a box somewhere.. ill sell it to someone w/ a square 23 inch samsung LCD TV (only one it will fit on lol)

took me about 2 weeks to get it up and running. the problem w/ them getting inaccurate hits is from restrumming notes, i had the same problem.. its coz of the pattern on the guitar under the notes + the white horizontal lines making a big enough change to make the bot to strum. and also from the lightening bolt that comes down when you get starpower

[Shagin099 @ Jul 14th 2008 1:37PM]

Sadly it doesn't even have to recognize colors since there are 5 photo resistors set up, so all it really has to do is detect light or not. A much more impressive feat would be pointing a video camera at the screen and using it as an "eye" to locate and press the notes in the way a human brain would. This could actually be a reasonable research project, analysis of the effect of "muscle memory", effects of the rhythm (if sound were to be included in the apparatus), and response time could all be examined. So from a computer and cognitive science perspective there are good projects to be done here that could advance the field, this just isn't it ;).

[Colin Potter @ Jul 14th 2008 2:16AM]

but can it play Crysis?

seriously. that would be impressive.

[Rishone @ Jul 14th 2008 2:34AM]

Can you play Crysis ?

Seriously, that would be impressive.

[Colin Potter @ Jul 14th 2008 2:39AM]

when they release it for mac, or i install windows, i'll let ya know ;)

[Andy @ Jul 14th 2008 3:23AM]

I can play crysis

My computer doesn't suck, but it's also not super powerful

[Die in a Fire @ Jul 14th 2008 2:17AM]

Awesome, though the real test is if it can do Through the Fire and Flames on expert with hyperspead on. Then I'll be amazed.

[manfesto @ Jul 14th 2008 10:19AM]

Just to be sure, you know that hyperspeed doesn't actually make playing GH harder, right?

All it does is change the speed at which the notes fly by. It doesn't actually make the song faster.

Some people (myself included, Hyperspeed on 2) actually prefer hyperspeed on because it makes big note runs easier to read.

I don't think it would matter for this robot, though.

[Jeremy @ Jul 14th 2008 5:52PM]

I'm one of the creators, and it has done that...with 99% accuracy. There is a video of it the same youtube profile.

[Alex @ Jul 15th 2008 4:33PM]

I am also one of the creators and while Jeremy wasn't here yesterday it got 100% on TTFAF in practice mode on expert.

[Hellios @ Jul 14th 2008 2:18AM]

I like the PurePwnage GH cheating solution better, but they started out like DeepNote though.

[Tyler Ransom @ Jul 14th 2008 3:16AM]

This is terrible. No wonder I keep getting beat. I knew there was a reason.

[Kevin K @ Jul 14th 2008 9:29AM]

Some people would do anything for gamer points...

[Joe @ Jul 14th 2008 11:18AM]

i would love to see one that could play the buttons just so i could hear that nostalgic plastic clicking noise.

[strangemusic @ Jul 14th 2008 11:36AM]

When the day of robot apocalypse comes, humanity will quake in fear before the might of a machine that can press five colorful buttons really, really fast!

No seriously... that's quite impressive. It seems that going into Star Power doesn't affect the accuracy of the photo sensors, which is pretty cool. On that note... how does the bot activate Star Power as seen in the vid?

[Alex @ Jul 14th 2008 5:41PM]

This is a much older video so we were activating star power for it. The newer version of the bot has a built in auto-starpower function which can be turned on or off with a switch mounted onto the front of the guitar. Auto-whammy can be controlled the same way.

[Harry @ Jul 14th 2008 1:41PM]

>pictures say a thousand words (and video is prone to run-on sentences)

Love it! Engadget's writers are the sharpest around, and little gems like this bring a smile to my face.

[Charlie @ Jul 14th 2008 3:59PM]

I'm just amazed that the grammar and spelling are correct this time... Most posts have all kinds of errors in them.

[Zach @ Jul 14th 2008 4:09PM]

Hey, Deepnote is actually doing really well. The video posted here is very old. Here is the most recent video http://youtube.com/watch?v=vyK1uX14LwY
Also, here is the ustream, http://www.ustream.tv/channel/deepnote-guitar-hero-bot