Shimi is a smart-phone enabled robotic musical companion that can respond to and enhance your musical experiences. Developed in collaboration with Media Innovation Lab at IDC Herzliya, Shimi 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 Shimi, allows the robot to listen to and analyze rhythms played by humans, and respond by choosing songs 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.
