{"406761":{"#nid":"406761","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Cute, musician robots: Georgia Tech\u0027s latest triple threat","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gtcmt.gatech.edu\/projects\/shimon\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EShimon \u003C\/a\u003Eand \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gtcmt.gatech.edu\/projects\/shimi\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EShimi \u003C\/a\u003Ewere designed to be captivating: Shimon is an improvising robotic marimba player and Shimi is a robotic musical companion that can use your smart-phone to respond to and enhance your musical experience.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEven so, they\u2019re surprisingly charming.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWith round camera lenses for \u201ceyes\u201d and heads that bob to the beat of the music they \u201chear,\u201d Disney animators couldn\u2019t have drawn a cuter robotic band than the ones \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gtcmt.gatech.edu\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech Center for Music Technology\u003C\/a\u003E director Gil Weinberg built.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen Shimon and Shimi jam with human musicians, the result is jaw-dropping. Watching the robots play was enough to make seasoned television host Matt Lauer flub a line during a \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.news.gatech.edu\/features\/robots-road-behind-scenes-today-show\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Erecent broadcast of the Today Show\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut when a trio of tiny Shimi robots were dancing to the rhythms Shimon was doling out on the set of the popular morning show, Weinberg wasn\u2019t distracted. Instead he was inspired by their musicianship.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMusic is not only about sound production, not only about what note is being played, when and how,\u201d Weinberg said. \u0026nbsp;\u201cIt\u2019s also about gestures and how you play. \u201c\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThat\u2019s why Shimon and Shimi are as human-like as possible.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen you watch a band perform on stage and you observe the guitar player and the drummer synchronizing their movements, you\u2019re actually witnessing an important part of musicianship, he said. Body movement, gestures and physical interaction tell musicians how to play their instruments.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESo when musicians watch Shimon and Shimi, they see the helpful cues they\u2019re used to getting from other humans, Weinberg said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThey might not focus so much on whether they\u2019re cute or not but they focus on the robot bobbing its head to a particular beat,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m in this beat now.\u0026nbsp; I can see it, I can hear it and I\u2019m moving with it. \u201c\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShimon and Shimi are unique in the academic world. There aren\u2019t many schools of music that combine music research and artificial intelligence. Weinberg said Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Music is the only one that is combining music research, artificial intelligence and robotics.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor example, Shimon\u2019s intelligence includes an \u201cinterestingness\u201d algorithm, where interesting is defined by music that is different from what other players are playing or different from music Shimon heard earlier in a song.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAnd when it does this, he\u2019ll look at you, just like a musician would when you\u2019re playing together, and you do something that was a little off or different,\u201d Weinberg said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMusicians are so inspired by Shimon\u2019s reactions that they actively try to capture his gaze.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWeinberg said the robotic element of his research with Shimi and Shimon has gotten him closer than ever before to creating music with an emotional element.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI think music is best when it touches you emotionally, when it sends shivers down your spine,\u201d he said. \u201cIt can also inspire you intellectually, make you cry, make you laugh, make you ecstatic or brave. This is the kind of music I try to create.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen Weinberg plays piano with the robots and they produce new music in response, there have been moments that felt close to the elusive, emotional quality of powerful music.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThese moments are becoming more frequent \u2013 it\u2019s not there yet,\u201d Weinberg said. \u0026nbsp;His hope is that these experiments lead to new kinds of music and new ways of thinking about music.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShimon and Shimi are the latest incarnations of Weinberg\u2019s quest to push the boundaries of music through technology.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s not that humans aren\u2019t awesome -- really awesome -- but at some point I started wondering if I could inspire myself or find something else that would make me think about and play music differently,\u201d he said. So he started writing software that would listen to music and improvise a musical response while studying at MIT.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERobotics entered the picture after he started teaching at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThat\u2019s when I started thinking about acoustic sound, and then the visual cues and the embodiment of music. And I found myself mainly in robotics,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe also found himself in good company: When you live in times that inspire the likes of Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk to publicly ponder the pros and cons of artificial intelligence and the possibility of singularity scenarios, it\u2019s clear that robots are part of our culture.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMaybe music should only be created by humans, but that\u2019s why I\u2019m in academia. We should try!\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Shimon and Shimi captivated the nation last week on the Today Show, but their adorable dance moves are actually pushing the boundaries of music research."}],"uid":"27803","created_gmt":"2015-05-22 11:25:41","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:18:21","author":"Ann Hoevel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-05-22T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-05-22T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"406811":{"id":"406811","type":"image","title":"Shimon and the Shimis","body":null,"created":"1449254168","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:36:08","changed":"1475895132","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:12","alt":"Shimon and the Shimis","file":{"fid":"76148","name":"shimon_and_shimi_blue_light_yes.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/shimon_and_shimi_blue_light_yes.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/shimon_and_shimi_blue_light_yes.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":4435564,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/shimon_and_shimi_blue_light_yes.jpg?itok=v01HYnZu"}},"406801":{"id":"406801","type":"image","title":"Shimon plays marimba","body":null,"created":"1449254168","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:36:08","changed":"1475895132","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:12","alt":"Shimon plays marimba","file":{"fid":"76147","name":"shimon.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/shimon.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/shimon.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1080761,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/shimon.jpeg?itok=qJoAxaDn"}}},"media_ids":["406811","406801"],"groups":[{"id":"1221","name":"College of Design"}],"categories":[{"id":"42891","name":"Georgia Tech Arts"}],"keywords":[{"id":"175","name":"Architecture"},{"id":"109","name":"Georgia Tech"},{"id":"1180","name":"Music"},{"id":"2352","name":"robots"},{"id":"168949","name":"Shimi"},{"id":"169304","name":"Shimon"},{"id":"126181","name":"Today Show"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"},{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}