Toyota Unveils Violin-Playing Robot

December 9, 2007 at 8:08 AM

Toyota is expanding its R&D in robots. (See http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/2007/12/light_friday_norad_tracks_santa_battle_robots_toyota_plays_violin.html?t=recent .) The company is building a new research facility and hiring more engineers to work on robots. The giant auto-maker recently unveiled a violin-playing robot which stands 5 ft. tall and features 17 flexible joints and mechanical fingers.

Unfortunately, no sound samples have been made public. Toyota did not say when this robot would be commercially available. Too bad – it might make an interesting Christmas present. It could also be helpful for reluctant violin students. They could set the robot up to play and then sneak out and have fun doing something else.