A KUKA arm robot recently took the stage as a DJ for a nightclub in Prague. The robot arm was a reprogrammed one, and was originally designed for the automotive industry.
However, a club called Karlovy Lazne Music Club repurposed the KUKA arm robot to lay some beats. It is positioned at the center of the club, with lights completing the truly futuristic feel of a nightclub being jockeyed by a robot.
Club manager Adam Lipsansky was especially pleased with the idea. He claimed that the robot is unique in the Czech Republic and the rest of Europe, which is the reason why most people would want to experience how the robot lays down its tracks.
"People are excited (about the robot), because they haven't seen anything like this around Europe, and I am not sure if there is something similar in the world," Lipsansky said.
As for its technical specifications, the robot is said to have been installed with special software to help it organize tracks. Its pincers take the compact discs (CDs) from nearby racks, and it then lays it on the CD players in front of it.
However, the robot does not play music all night for the club. It goes on an hourly rotation with a human DJ, and the human replacing it is supposedly also its programmer.
The Verge noted that it will be hard to determine if the robot actually selects tracks or its just plays songs based on a pre-programmed set (like an iTunes or Spotify custom play list). Some kind of artificial intelligence has to be coded for it to be able to determine how two tracks work together.
The music club also did not disclose whether the robot DJ actually does advanced techniques that human DJs do. This includes speeding up or slowing down the music, laying down tracking and good transition between songs, and changing the key according to the flow of the music.
