NEW FLAUTIST ROBOT TO PLAY AND TEACH MUSIC

Now classical musicians could have good reason to be worried as japan's Waseda University's new robot flautist makes no mistakes. In fact, it plays the challenging musical score of the 'flight of the Bumblebee' almost flawlessly.
The Waseda Flautist No 4 Refined iv was unveiled two weeks ago at he BioRob 2008 conference in Arizona, USA.
Research on the Musical Robot began in 1990, with aim that it would eventually rival human musicians. The robot has been designed with a human like quality that allows it to engage with audience, making in a contender for concert performance in the future.
The eyes of the robotic flautist have cameras that facilitate its interaction with the audience and other musicians, so we could soon see it playing duets with people, the researchers say.
In a technical breakthrough, the robot's mouth and lungs have been carefully designed to mimic the expert control of a professional flautist.
The scientists hope to make the robot sophisticated enough to achieve better human computer interaction and then teach music pupils.