The HRP-4 from the Japanese National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology has been given an upgrade. Not only does the robot look human, it now can sing like one as well. Masataka Goto, Leader of Media Interaction Group (AIST), has given ‘Diva’ the ability to mimic pop singers vocal expressions and the capability to belt out a number also. Masataka used two software technologies to achieve this interesting addition to the robot. First is called “VocalListener”(along with the help of Vocaloid), a voice synthesizer that imitates a singing voice on the computer side, essentially ‘mimicking’ a human mouth to create the appropriate note.
Research scientist Goto’s next program called “Vocawatcher”, which analyzes video of a person singing to give the robot a more natural facial expression. The next adaptation Masataka wants to give ‘Diva’ is breath movement. This would give the HRP-4 the ability to copy a human singer’s breath movement while singing. “The robot learns the breath sounds of many people in advance, using technology called a human Markov model. In this way , the robot detects where the sound will emerge, and reproduces them synthetically, using the breath sounds in Vocaloid “ said Goto at this year’s CEATEC exhibition held in Japan. Let’s see if she can mimic break dancing while singing and I’m sold!
First, changing out of the HRP's "man hands" is in order.
Eavesdropper