Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology Debuts Robotic Musical Companion

Travis, the Center for Music Technology's new robotic musical companion, made its debut at the Digital Life Design Conference in Tel Aviv, Israel. The smart-phone enabled robotic musician is designed to respond to and enhance listeners' musical experiences.

Developed in collaboration with the Media Innovation Lab at IDC Herzliya, Travis is controlled by an Android phone utilizing its built in sensing and music generation capabilities. This allows easy development of additional custom mobile apps.

The first application developed for Travis allows the robot to listen to and analyze rhythms played by humans, and respond by choosing songs with similar beat and tempo from the phone music library. The robot then dances to the music using a set of expressive gestures that fit the desired tempo and genre. Future functionalities will include expressive search and discovery, interactive improvisation, gaming and educational applications.

Media

Travis the Robot