This past weekend, synthesizer giant Moog hosted Moogfest, a four-day music and technology festival in Durham, NC that offers glimpses into the latest and greatest advancements in sonic gadgetry. At the festival, Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology lead researcher Gil Weinberg gave a demonstration of the incredible musical robotics technology that he and his lab have been working on for the past 12 years. 

Weinberg and his team’s efforts focus on augmenting the creative capabilities of humans with robotics. From this research, a one-of-a-kind musician has been born: a four-armed robot percussionist called Shimon. Shimon uses machine-learning programs that are fluent in music theory as well as a wide range of musical styles—from chamber music to dubstep—to be able to add a superhuman element to live improvisational performances, keeping perfect time at ridiculous tempos and playing chord structures that are physically impossible for humans to hit. Check out this jaw-dropping video of Weinberg jamming with his mechanical creation:

In addition to robotic musicians, the robotics that Weinberg and his team have developed can have human applications. Jason Barnes, a drummer who recently lost his lower arm, sought Weinberg’s help in the hopes of being able to play again. Rather than just build a robotic prosthesis that could recreate the human mechanics of drumming, the engineer went the extra mile, creating a robotic arm with two attached drumsticks that, controlled by the wearer’s biceps, can drum at up to 20 beats per second. Watch Barnes demonstrate the incredible arm below:

The demonstration ended with Barnes joining Weinberg, his team, and Shimon on the stage for a collaborative performance. Able to give and receive both visual and auditory cues while playing, Shimon is an active participant in the jam, even bobbing along to the music as a human musician would. As Weinberg says, he is designed to “listen like a human, and improvise like a machine.” 

Keep an eye on Weinberg and the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology—with technology as advanced and comprehensive as this, the possibilities of what’s to come are endless. 

[H/T – Quartz]