Toyota Unveils Violin-Playing Robot

eldavojohn writes "Toyota has unveiled a robot that can play the violin. From the article: 'Toyota said it planned to further advance the robot's dexterity to enable it to use tools and assist with domestic duties and nursing and medical care. The robot has 17 joints in both of its hands and arms now.' It seems there have been small — or maybe even strange, impractical — advances in robotics repeatedly with demonstrations of robots performing a specialized task. Are we merely struggling to hard code each human activity as we strive for an all purpose android? Is there a chance artificial intelligence & robotics will ever become generalized enough to make interaction interesting?"

Pomp and circumstance

[Cristofori42]

For the love of all that is holy why did they teach it to play that song?! I've been spending all of my years since high school band trying to erase that song from memory after playing it over and over and over for hours on end.

It's over man; it's over!

[explosivejared]

They can stand back up after being kicked [slashdot.org] and now can play the violin. Anyone sane could obviously see that this completes their skill set. They'll use the sweet sounding music to lull us all to sleep, and then with their new found balance and agility put the kibosh on us all. I can feel their cold, icy hands around my throat just now! It's over man; it's over!

yeah, but...

[veganboyjosh]

will it stay standing if i kick it?

Re:Very cool, but

[OzRoy]

I think they probably built it to be their new customer complaints manager.

So now when people call up to complain the robot can play a tiny violin in mock sympathy.

Yeah, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

...can it play the world's saddest song on the world's smallest violin?