Violin-Playing Robot Just Like Data’s Mom

Toyota’s making a big splash at the Shanghai World Expo with its violin-playing personal assistant. The humanoid robot plays its rendition of the Chinese folk song Mo Li Hua (jasmine flower) to demonstrate the versatility and precision of the robot’s movements. Rather than be a robot musician, the Toyota product is one of a series of concept personal helpers designed to be future nurses and assistants to the elderly.

But, more importantly, I was totally thinking of that episode in season seven of Star Trek: The Next Generation where Dr. Juliana Tainer shows up on the Enterprise to connect with her “son” Data. And while she may be the ex-wife of Data’s creator, she turns out to be an android too because–wait for it–she gives a flawless violin performance. See how I tied all that together?

And while totally unrelated to Toyota’s robot, the episode is notable because Tainer doesn’t realize she’s an android and Data has to make the decision on whether he should reveal the truth or let her continue to live in blissful ignorance. Trust me, it was a great episode.

So, back to Toyota… While this is the first time we’ve seen the violin-playing robot, more significantly it signals that the company is getting even closer to producing commercial versions of shiny white robots to helps us out in hospitals and nursing homes. As the baby boomers start getting a little less mobile, robots like these are a very reasonable complement to human support.

[via Singularity Hub]