Skip to main content

Robotic pianist Teotronica plays faster than a human

Well, who would’ve thought it? All these years we humans have been playing the piano with ten fingers when apparently 19 are needed to do it properly.

Italian Matteo Suzzi has created a piano-playing robot which, claims the inventor, can play the instrument faster than any human.

Recommended Videos

The robot, called Teotronica, also has video-camera eyes which enable it to make sense of its surroundings, and even interact with its audience. Its design is, however, rather crude, with large tennis-ball eyes and facial expressions that seem to depend purely on the position of its eyebrows, though there’s no doubting its piano skills.

Teotronica, which took four years to make at a cost of about $4,700, can play any tune you like, its 34-year-old creator told the Daily Mail. 

“I’ve always had a passion for robots and robotics. I was really excited when I discovered you could create an independent robot that could play any tune or composition,” he said.

Although the likes of Chopin and Beethoven seemed to do just fine with ten fingers, Matteo claims Teotronica’s extra ones make the robot that little bit more special. 

He explains: “Having 19 fingers gives the robot a better execution speed, making him faster than a human.” That’s all well and good for an original composition, but it’s unlikely too many people will be able to enjoy Moonlight Sonata played at three times the normal speed. Then again, perhaps Teotronica could tour the world as a kind of novelty act, playing all the great piano pieces at a speed that might leave Elton John wondering if he should have some new digits surgically attached.

Matteo has high hopes for his invention. “He’s performed at a number of private parties and is a hit with the guests. We’re hoping he can revolutionise the music industry,” he said.

Below you can see the 19-fingered music maestro at work…. 

[Small image: Teotronica]

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Meet Digit: The ostrich-legged robot that might one day deliver you packages
Digit by Agility Robotics

Digit Explores Its New Home

What’s the robot equivalent of Rocky Balboa running up the 72 stone steps leading up to the entranceway of the Philadelphia Museum of Art? It could well be the sight of Agility Robotics’ biped robot, Digit, climbing up a wet, muddy, and not-all-that-grippable grassy hill at the company’s new HQ in Tangent, Oregon.

Read more
They strapped a paintball gun onto a Spot robot. Now the internet has the reins
MSCHF Spot Robot

“I'm going to shoot you a link in the chat,” said Daniel Greenberg. “Just open it on your phone, and go into controller mode. Use the image on the screen to kind of guide you. But there's also an onboard camera.”

Thirty seconds later, I was remote-controlling a Spot robot -- one of the quadruped, canine-inspired robots built by Boston Dynamics -- as it charged around an empty art gallery performance space in Brooklyn, thousands of miles away, firing paintballs from a .68cal paintball gun mounted on its back. As ways to while away time during lockdown go, it certainly made a change from Zoom calls.

Read more
Smart dummies: How robotic tackling tech is transforming football practice
USA Football MVP Robotics

Robots frequently step into the breach to carry out jobs that humans once performed. But this isn't usually because humans have been banned from doing the job.

“Back in 2010, the head football coach at Dartmouth College decided to completely eliminate tackling for practice,” Ryan McManus, director of sales and marketing at a Vermont-based company called MVP Robotics, told Digital Trends. “It was relatively controversial at the time, since it's a pretty important skill that has to be practiced, especially at the Division 1 level. They were trying to figure out a safer way to simulate a game scenario, but no one knew exactly how to do it.”

Read more