Robot Cosplay! HRP-4C Robot As Hatsune Miku At CEATEC 2009
Haksune Miku is a virtual singer developed by Crypton Future Media using Yamaha's Vocaloid voice software. At this week's CEATEC 2009 conference in Chiba, an HRP-4C robot is presenting Hatsune Miku in full cosplay.
HRP-4C is a robotic woman, a cybernetic device able to communicate basic emotions with facial motions and arm movements (see video). At the conference, she is dressed as Hatsune Miku, an anime actress created by Crypton Future Media for Yamaha. Dressing up as characters in anime is called "cosplay", short for "costume roleplay".
The data for Hatsune's voice was obtained by sampling the voice of Saki Fujita, a Japanese voice actress. Don't miss this excellent video that shows off Hatsune Miku (english speakers should use the subtitles option). The video is quite long (13 minutes) but it details a fascinating process, in which people all over the Internet collaborate on creating songs, using the Hatsune Miku Vocaloid voice package. Some of these "amateur" recordings have been downloaded millions of times from fan sites.
I really think that Hatsune Miku should join forces with Emily Howell, an artificially intelligent computer program that creates beautiful music all on its own (and will soon release an album).
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