Guitar Hero-playing robot takes on Cult of Personality

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 22nd 2008 at 6:00PM }

If you needed further proof that we're quickly approaching the day when robots will outperform humans in all our endeavors, you may want to turn your attention to a tech demo for the Guitar Hero-playing "Cythbot", which we've posted after the jump. Using a light-measuring camera and six pneumatic "fingers", the Cythbot can strum its way through Guitar Hero's more difficult songs with terrifying accuracy -- check out the Expert run through Living Color's "Cult of Personality" in the embedded video.

In a recent write-up of the robo-shredder, Wired compared Cythbot to the chess-playing supercomputer "Deep Blue", which toppled World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov in 1996. We'd like to see the Kasparov of Guitar Hero, Chris Chike, take on the Cythbot in a battle for the fate of humanity -- though we're not certain that Mr. "I scored 100 percent on Dragonforce" isn't, in fact, also a robot.

[Thanks, Saria the Cat.]

Tags: cult-of-personality, cyth-systems, cythbot, guitar-hero, robot

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

halo 3 sucks. @ Nov 22nd 2008 6:05PM

l33t.

Foetoid @ Nov 22nd 2008 6:53PM

It's l33t how even the machines are choosing the Wii over the other consoles. If the machines are telling us HD doesn't matter yet, then it must be true!!!

:P

syrik zero @ Nov 22nd 2008 7:00PM

It's because they have no heart, no pride.

MrSpaceCowboy @ Nov 22nd 2008 8:53PM

Isaac Asimov says: "So robots: Start rock bands. Set down the Guitar Hero, learn how to play an actual guitar and start a band, because it's hard to find more bands to put a robotic rock-and-roll package together, to get out there. It's getting harder and harder, but I think we've done it."

WiredKnight @ Nov 22nd 2008 9:09PM

@foetoid

Yea, if by "choose," you mean "forced to play."

Vazquez @ Nov 22nd 2008 6:08PM

Sweet.

Jakka ( The Order of Haters of Balance) @ Nov 22nd 2008 6:08PM

I just want to see that thing FC'ing TFAF on Expert.

I bet those lights would just stay on...

CynicalStrike @ Nov 22nd 2008 9:21PM

Here you go then:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PImO3rp6mXw

TTFAF: The bot basically cannot do it!

Jerry @ Nov 22nd 2008 6:20PM

i'd buy one of those just to hear the reactions of every single person on live as they get their ass handed to them

SpikeDelight @ Nov 22nd 2008 6:22PM

Something about the way this cold, unfeeling machine adds some kind of sick "personality" to the song by even taking the effort to strum the Whammy Bar seriously terrifies me. I'm not even kidding.

J.Goodwin @ Nov 22nd 2008 9:57PM

Do you even get a benefit of using the whammy bar in Guitar Hero? You do in RB (builds up extra overdrive), I just don't really play the competition, so I'm not sure.

I'd be much more impressed if this robot had only four fingers to fret with instead of five though.

SpikeDelight @ Nov 22nd 2008 11:26PM

You do get a benefit of extra points, but about the 5 fingers, robots have the advantage of having as many fingers as they want. You can't hold that against them. :/

Batzarro @ Nov 24th 2008 3:33AM

What frightens me is that someone took the time to make a machine that simulates a player simulating a rockstar. At this point, it's a machine raping another machine, who is pretending to enjoy it.

Alex @ Nov 22nd 2008 6:28PM

Can it 100% Jordan by Buckethead from GH II?
Never did get that achievement...

Mike T. @ Nov 22nd 2008 6:47PM

I would like to take this opportunity to say that I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

cranium @ Nov 22nd 2008 9:19PM

you got a little somethin on your nose

mezzanine @ Nov 22nd 2008 6:48PM

THE MACHINES ARE WINNING
PROTECT JOHN CONNOR

LaughingTarget @ Nov 22nd 2008 7:02PM

Someone give me this guy's friend code, Live ID and PSN ID so I know to never play him.

Haggard @ Nov 22nd 2008 9:06PM

On his Wii? ^^

amazo @ Nov 22nd 2008 7:21PM

i think it's on the wii because it's easier to input those controls into a computer.

Inect @ Nov 22nd 2008 10:01PM

You don't understand how this works, do you?

UltimateQ @ Nov 23rd 2008 9:32AM

Homebrew allows him to do basically whatever he wants to his wii. So he can connect it with his computer.

LocalToast @ Nov 23rd 2008 12:39PM

@UltimateQ

Clearly even you don't realize what exactly is going on here.

Divector @ Nov 23rd 2008 2:09PM

He's likely using the Wii because the WiiMote connects via bluetooth.

igetgames @ Nov 22nd 2008 7:22PM

That section where it missed a few notes? That was SkyNet, becoming self-aware.

ZeroNow @ Nov 22nd 2008 7:31PM

I was thinking the other day that I wanted something like this to do Raining Blood on hard for me! If only these were commercialised...

syrik zero @ Nov 22nd 2008 7:33PM

What fun would the game be if a machine played the game for you?

ZeroNow @ Nov 22nd 2008 7:39PM

Yeah that's true. I'd end up not playing the game. It's an excellent experiment though!

syrik zero @ Nov 22nd 2008 8:12PM

That it is. But it doesn't do anything cool past that

Blank-Mage @ Nov 23rd 2008 3:15AM

What fun would the game be if a machine played the game for you?

You may not have realized it, but you just put your finger on why FFXII was disappointing.

ZeroNow @ Nov 22nd 2008 7:44PM

JeSuZ Cicle @ Nov 22nd 2008 7:45PM

Im sorry i find it appalling that so many people would waste so much time on a useless endeavor such as this. :(

last time i checked there were bigger problems to deal with than, "hey do you have a robot to play guitar hero?, No, well shit let me get right on that!"

WiiFTW @ Nov 22nd 2008 7:40PM

Who are you to judge what a company does? It's not like taxpayer money is going to this.

Also, this is quite obviously not their final product; they're going to build on what they figured out from this setup and useful products in the future.

Anyways, video games are probably a worse use of time than the implementation of a Guitar Hero-playing robot, Mr. JeSuZ Cicle of the Joystiq Moral Police

DocZoid @ Nov 22nd 2008 9:16PM

Yeah! Screw scientific progress!

LaughingTarget @ Nov 22nd 2008 9:27PM

I see an interesting improvement on visual recognition software. Hardly a waste of time. It does have kinks to workout (4 of them, 1 for each missed stroke), but it's quite the project. Judging by the surroundings and time of year, this is likely a semester end project for an engineering student.

Saria the Cat @ Nov 22nd 2008 10:42PM

I'm pretty shocked at how much people think this kind of project is a waste of time. This is great progress towards better visual recognition and hand-eye-coordination for robots, one of the main issues in robotics right now. Once we can get machines to recognize visual cues and react to them properly, we can achieve much greater, "useful" feats.

Calling anything like this a "waste of time" just proves you don't know how scientific progress works. Electricity was discovered by Ben jerking off and flying a kite in the air for hours.

JeSuZ Cicle @ Nov 22nd 2008 7:45PM

Haha @ WiiFTW I think your just jealous they havent developed a robot to jack you off at night, while you silently weep and stroke your Wii, while whispering "shhhh, the good games will come, I promise"

Rein @ Nov 22nd 2008 8:01PM

I'm pretty sure they already have those in Japan...

ice~ @ Nov 22nd 2008 8:07PM

Thats great, but do any of us live in japan??

DocZoid @ Nov 22nd 2008 9:20PM

Saria does, although I can't vouch for how useful such a robot would be to her..

But in any case, I must tip my hat to JeSuZ. His witty comeback's truly must have divine inspiration.

Saria the Cat @ Nov 22nd 2008 10:35PM

@DocZoid: Those robots are flying off the shelves here, but fortunately I personally have no need of them. :P

Brett @ Nov 22nd 2008 7:56PM

"hay guyz, let's zoom the camera out and stare at the guitar during the entire super-intense solo"

As it stands, I and many others are more talented than that robot. When it can 100% some songs, let me know.

Also, teach it to hammer-on.

Slaziman @ Nov 22nd 2008 8:15PM

It took me a good dose of luck and star power to get through the retardedly insane solo, still got 5 stars (because the rest of the song is damn easy)

Kyouryuu @ Nov 22nd 2008 8:35PM

Funny stuff!

They say it can't FC a song because sometimes the notes come too fast for the pneumatics to work. It doesn't seem to recognize HO/PO notes, so it's essentially brute forcing the entire solo. It's kind of impressive on that count. I doubt people who FC songs approach them that way since, for the most part, strumming is "just another thing to go wrong."

Also, the way the robot moves the whammy bar is hilarious. XD