Technabob » dancing

Robots Dance in the Chinese New Year

Conner Flynn — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:00:38 +0000

Celebrating the Chinese New Year is a big deal in China. They go all out like it’s Christmas and New Years rolled into one, and millions of Chinese citizens tune-in to watch the Big-Show on TV. This year is the Year of the Dragon, so the show really poured it on with a fully robotic dance troupe.

It was a stunning performance. Fourteen robots danced to a re-mix of the Korobushka, a traditional Russian song. You might recognize it from the game Tetris. The highlight of the show was said to be how the robot army entered. The screen behind the stage showed a bunch of ‘bots walking in formation and with each step they took towards the audience a new level of risers popped up with a different part of the robotic troupe.

Robots dancing is always a good way to celebrate anything. Preferably with explosions and flashing lights. What’s truly amazing about this show is the synchronicity that they achieved with these robots all doing crazy moves.

[via Giz-China via Geek]

DiscoRobo Busts a Move on Your Desk

Conner Flynn — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Dancing is all the rage right now what with those popular network dance competition shows and all. Turns out robots are getting into the act too. The new Tosy DiscoRobo toy is all about shaking its groove thang and has heart shaped LED eyes to let you know that it loves you. It’s probably because he loves Disco so much, actually, not you. He will be dancing on your desk very soon.

Info about how it works is scarce, but it likely has an internal microphone that picks up audio and listens for the beat, so it can dance like a champ. Check out the video of DiscoRobo in action below. The little guy sure can move.

No info yet on a price or release date, but perhaps before the end of the year you will be dancing together.

[via Chip Chick]

Personal Keepon Robot Gets a $40 Price Tag

Chris B. — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 12:59:30 +0000

Ever heard of the Keepon Robot? I’m sure that at some point during your exploration of the Internet, you’ve come across this adorable little yellow robot called Keepon. It looks like two yellow puff-balls with eyes and a nose. The magic happens when you turn on some music and it dances. I don’t just mean it bobs up and down or side to side. No, somehow this little creature has better moves than I do. (Okay, so maybe that’s not saying much.)

So why doesn’t every household have one of these cute little bots? I imagine it’s the $30,000 price tag that stops most people. Yes, that’s thirty grand for a dancing puff-ball. So why am I teasing you with this? Well it seems that the company is planning to release a version called the “My Keepon” that will retail for a mere $40. There aren’t a lot of details, though we can imagine it won’t be quite as awesome as the full-price original. I say if it’s even half as cute at $40, it would be worth the purchase.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[via BotJunkie]

Male Dance Moves That Attract Women: It’S All in the Neck

Lambert Varias — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:27:03 +0000

…and the trunk, and the left shoulder, and the left wrist. And the right knee. You got that? Let’s back up a bit and cover the basics first. The study, which I bet was performed in all seriousness, was performed by psychologists and researchers at Northumbria University in the UK. Led by psychologist Dr Nick Neave and researcher Kristofor McCarty, the study used 3D-motion capture to map the moves of 19 male volunteers aged 18-35, “as they danced to a basic rhythm”. The moves were mapped to a featureless avatar in order to prevent any bias, and the avatars were then shown to 35 heterosexual women.

The results of the study showed that the key to attracting those 35 heterosexual women was determined by eight variables – the extent of movement of the neck, trunk, left shoulder and left wrist, and the variety of the extent of movements in the neck, trunk, and left wrist, and the speed of movement of the right knee. You can’t get more specific than that. For those of us who are more used to imagining Flatland and the square root of -1 than the physics of dancing, here’s an example of what was deemed as ‘good’ dancing:

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As you can see, there’s lots of head nodding and hip swaying and foot raising involved. Also lots of arm waving. Basically lots of everything. Below is an example of ‘bad’ dancing:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Yeah, that was kinda lame. Do you think though that the variables hold true for all women? I don’t think so – the experiment only had a small female audience, for one thing. But if there’s one thing we can take away from all of this, it’s that Northumbria University should expect a visit from Techno Viking any day now, because they just called him a bad dancer.

[via Northumbria University via News Lite]

Japanese Dancin’ Stormtrooper – the Special Edition With Pointless New Special Effects

Range — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:05:55 +0000

The latest update to the popular Tokyo Dancing Stormtrooper video features a bunch of pointless new special effects! It follows the George Lucas’ tradition of filling classic Star Wars flicks with stupid and unnecessary CGI effects.

Personally, I hate the “Special” versions of Episodes 4, 5, and 6. I’ve seen them a few times when they came out, and before you ask, yes, I’ve seen all of the Star Wars movies quite a few times, but like many fans, I find that George Lucas messed up something great when he released these versions.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

But I digress – back to Japanese dancing stormtroopers. It’s pretty funny, and worth a gander. I wonder if it’s in THX.

[Danny Choo via Gadgets In]

The Darth Vader Disco Ball: Dancin’ to the Dark Side

Range — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:02:56 +0000

This über-kitsch disco ball is fashioned after our favorite Star Wars villain, Darth Vader. You’ll be rockin’ and dancin’ underneath this floating effigy of Anakin Skywalker.

I haven’t been able to find out much information about it, but it certainly looks cool. I wonder what it looks like when lasers and lights are reflecting off its mirror surface.

Kind of strange calling Darth Vader a villain, when the whole series is about him. Ah well, makes me want to watch Revenge of the Sith again, preceded by the original trilogy.

[via Lost Ghosts via Doinwork]

Magic Music Monkey: Dance Monkey, Dance

Technabob — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:23:48 +0000

Here’s something everyone needs more of – dancing musical monkeys. No not that kind of monkey dance, Steve Ballmer.

Thankfully, this dancing monkey won’t fling poo all over your house, rip your face off, or make you buy Windows ME. Nope, the fantastically named Magic Music Monkey simply plugs into your music player, listening to his own little silver headphones, and jams out to your tunes. That’s it, and he’s damned proud of it.

Let’s watch M³ dance to a few of his favorite tunes…

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How can you resist the hypnotic, head-bobbing movements of the Magic Music Monkey?

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Come to think of it, he kind of looks like me when I’m listening to my iPod.

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Z Gallerie sells the Magic Music Monkey for $29.95 (USD), but they’re currently sold out (boo!). If you’re willing to try a little JPY to USD conversion, you might be able to find one over at Japan’s Flyers99, but then again, your monkey might only dance to J-POP.

Flower Rock 2.0: Dancing Flowers Get a Makeover

Technabob — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:04:26 +0000

Back in the late 1980s, a sensation swept the streets of Asia called the “Flower Rock”. The desktop gadget did one thing, and one thing only — it danced to any music that you played near it. Flower Rock 2.0 commemorates the 20th anniversary of the original Flower Rock, giving it a thoroughly modern makeover.

Takara Tomy and Sanyo put their heads together to create the Flower Rock 2.0, which takes the original concept and infuses it with a new look. Sure, the 2.0 version will dance to your tunes, but it also puts on a light show, thanks to colored LEDs in each of its leaves and petals.

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Just plug the Flower Rock 2.0 into your iPod or other music source, and it’ll get to dancing and grooving. There’s also a built-in 1-watt amp and speaker, so you can listen to your tunes as it gets its funk on.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Initially available only in Japan, the guys over at Japan Trend Shop are now shipping them worldwide for $77 US each. Sure, that’s a whole lot to pay for a dancing flower that you’ll probably find annoying after a couple of hours, but I know you still want one.

[Flower Rock 2.0]