Tone-deaf robots teach each other to sing, passionately butcher a Happy Birthday rendition
By Paul Miller 
posted Jun 28th 2009 1:38AM
posted Jun 28th 2009 1:38AM
[Via robots.net]
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God damn these things are adorable.
How long until they figure out how to hypnotize us with their crappy music and take over the world?
In 3...2...1...0.
Oh shit, it worked!!!! Everybody...RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHJJQ0zNNOM&feature=related
This little guy is even more adorable :)
Their heads remind me of the hockey mask from Friday the 13th.
I wouldn't call them adorable so much as miniature killing machines D:
Wow... they sounded better than my family at my niece's birthday party! O_O
Adorable? They look like dwarf versions of Jason from Friday the 13th.
How can you say this is not art?
Wow, creepy.
Maybe so, but I bet they win the diorama competition.
Eh... well if this doesn't work out for them at least they can find work in a Tool video.
Soon we will die.
Next up on the RIAA's radar: robots that sing songs without paying a royalty!
You call that singing? :))
Someone needs to teach them the concept of rhythm.
Morbo is greatly amused!
Holy crap, the 21st century spawn of Jason will kill us all with bad singing!
Really? They butcher Happy Birthday? Have no rhythm? Yeah, their spontaneous compositions suck, but non-spontaneous, artistic composition for humans is still fairly tricky. I'd like to hear anyone on the Engadget staff or a commenter, sing Happy Birthday in a three-part harmony (granted, the robots had it programmed in by people that don't even have to be able to vocalize it their own selves...)--and/or reduce artistic creation to a computationally tractable encoding.
To be honest, I thought the Happy Birthday was pretty good. Not too great at the start, but for freakin' cute robots it made me smile.
Way too much vibrato, though.
/me needs a shotgun for these fricking adorable robots.
Kahreeeeeepy! I'll be having nightmares for weeks!
Pretty cool though.
What's worse is they will also have to pay 5,000$ for the rights to "sing" the song "Happy Birthday", unless the law is different in the UK (which I hope it is =).
Your joking right?
Never have to pay to sing Happy B'day over here.
Wow RIAA n co over there must really be turning the thumb screws.
@deanb
Just trying to make ends meet.
@deanb: Nope. The rights to the song "Happy Birthday To You" are owned by the estate of Mildred and Patty Hill. It is the same as any song that has not entered the public domain; public performance of the song has to be licensed.
Put the idea in the Asimo and walla, we have a killer robot on the loose.
Pretty much. Remember Furby? The little bastard tried to electrocute me when I was cleaning it. Oh well, at least it's batteries won't explode...
Someone needs to teach them the concept of rhythm.
Someone needs to teach them the concept of rhythm.
Someone needs to teach them the concept of rhythm.
The concept of rhythm someone must teach.
The concert of rhino simian mast torch.
+1 for wtfness
Zhe concrete off rhyme sum wain most teeth.
This is how ASIMO should speak to humans I think. Just terrifying them into doing whatever exactly ASIMO has planned for us.
My prediction is that I will be murdered by one of 3 aforementioned robots or offspring thereof.
Jason won't be pleased about his missing masks...
I'm just kind of miffed that they gave them the vibrato of a 80 year old church choir member....
We know that a pleasing vibrato is 6-8 oscillations/sec w/ about a semi-tone variation in pitch.
But these things are as slow and wobbly as an 80 yr old guy in chuch choir.
And that vibrato was obviously programmed in... no reason to make it that bad sounding.
I'm not quite sure what's going on, but I am thorough creeped out.
Shit, it's not Friday the 13th again is it?
Nope, just a ghost having a birthday.
UuuuUUuUuUu uUUuUo OOO oOOooo OoouUOuOOOUoOoOOouOOuO
Also, fix the (*^*&#@%%^*# comment system.
These are in fact the University of Plymouth Robot Bunnies, and have been in development for 2 years now. I am actually oneof the creators, i developed the motherboards for these bunnies, and they are bassed upon the Colibri modules. They will eventually have 6 processor PC's running Windows CE, connected to a back plane, whic has a Broadcom ethernet ub, USB hub and the powersupply. I created the first board, however the psu didnt work as well, but that was where i had to hand the project over.
Nat Poate
LOL. Professor Miranda called the other day, asked me to borrow my old Organ. (the instrument) I guess this is what it was for. Happy Birthday Science Museum.
Who's sitting on the LFO ?
randy : yo dog that was the bomb ! we have a hot one tonight !
paula : your singing makes me fart rainbows...i love you.
simon : what the bloody hell was that ?
"Share and enjoy!" - ignore the video, but hear the best robot choir ever - from h2g2 radio series.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjXswmoZ2HQ
I found this utterly creepy.
O.o
Don't forget to pay Warner Chappell Music a royalty for making a recording of Happy Birthday, and if visitors to the museum can hear it, pay them some more for the public performance.
At least the robots now have the ability to sing a victory song of their own creation when they take over the world....
the baritone was off key.
why do these robots have figures? i don't understand why they don't work on the mind of the robot before they start giving them faces and legs, if you get what im saying here make sure that the brain is working wonderfully before decking it out with a body. we can all ways work on size later.