I put this video up today for my students of my Introduction to Conducting class (I'm sure it's been around the internet circles for a while, but it was the first time I saw it). I showed it to them mainly for a bit comic relief, and that was really all. However, after we watched the video, we found ourselves having a very interesting discussion about it.
First the video – Honda's robot ASIMO conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra:
Some of our observations: ASIMO does have a reasonably smooth legato gesture, more than we expected anyway, it displays clear preparatory gestures and releases, and even gives the ensemble a good amount of eye contact (not much soul in the eyes mind you). The left hand independence was also quite commendable.
The things ASIMO did not do well was provide any passion in the conducting, cannot adjust to what it, ummm, "she" is hearing, and didn't manage the ritardano very well at all.
It was also unanimous that, although the experiment was quite fun, our conducting profession is not in jeopardy of being replaced by machines any time soon.
Carl J Ferrara says