Read this: Robot trumpets Toyota’s know-how
A trumpet-playing robot has been developed by Japanese car maker Toyota. It showed off its musical creation at a Tokyo hotel, where the robot played When You Wish Upon a Star on a trumpet.
Another one for the ‘let’s make reality look like an 80s sci-fi film’ file. Toyota have made a robot that can actually play a trumpet – which is more difficult than it sounds at first. It doesn’t merely generate electronic trumpet noises – it holds the instrument correctly, presses the keys, has breath and even embouchure.
However, Toyota have neglected what must be the single most important aspect of making a humanoid robot that can play the trumpet: they are yet to come up with a cute name for it.
