Robot built to dance to IPod's riddim

According to Associated Press, the big idea is that eventually robots will be able to move spontaneously instead of following preprogrammed motions.

ZMP 's 14-inch long Miuro robot wheels about in time with music from an iPod portable player, which locks into the machine. Its dance is not pre-programmed, but generated by the robot itself. Miuro uses algorithms to analyse the music and translate the beats into dances, apparently.

Taniguchi said his company hoped to create a new form of "life" that moves freely and spontaneously in ways human beings can't predict.

Miuros have been in the shops for nearly a year now, but this new one boasts software based on "chaotic itinerancy," which, apparently, is a mathematical pattern similar to the movements of a bee circling from flower to flower as it collects nectar.

The boffins hope to get the robot to dance like Ian Curtis on acid.

The gadget will set you back $895, iPod not included.

More here.