Several months ago, a little robot did a little dance and captured the hearts of the Internets. He was a very sophisticated robot, but didn't look like the typical Transformer-inspired, back-handspring-performing models coming out of Japan that make the rounds at gadget sites. This robot was cute. Very cute. His name is Keepon, and he's like a little, yellow, mouthless snowman and baby chick rolled into one. With googly-eyes that don't google. His signature anthropomorphic skill: dancing.

To show off his creation, Hideki Kozima, a senior research scientist at Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, teamed with Marek Michalowski, a Ph.D. student in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, to program Keepon to dance along with a popular tune by Spoon, an indie rock band from Austin, Texas. Keepon is otherwise part of a project called BeatBots, which is studying social development and communication through dance-oriented nonverbal play between children and robots.

The resulting video that features Keepon dancing to Spoon's "I Turn My Camera On," arguably the band's most danceable jam, has been viewed over 1.4 million times on YouTube, and spawned a good number of dumb and funny video responses. By far, the top sentiment among commenters has been "i want one now!," followed by "OMG! CUTE!!!" and "I NEED ONE."



Keepon is actually quite an accomplished rumpshaker, mixing up his moves like anyone who has certifiable skills, as he's twisting, bopping, and shakin' that lil' yellow robot ass in perfect synchronicity with the music. Think of him as the NASA version of the mechanized Dancing Sunflower, or Big Mouth Billy Bass, the wall-mounted singing fish made famous on "The Sopranos."

A predictable outpouring of love for Keepon was generated on sites like Boing Boing, Engadget, Gizmodo, Pitchfork and WIRED, the latter of whom was so enraptured that it went to lengths to help reunite Keepon with Spoon for another video, as well as for a live concert hatched as part of its NextFest event in Los Angeles.

The outstanding, and much more slickly produced follow-up to the original Keepon video, shot in Japan by director Jeff Nichols and starring Hideki Kozima and featuring cameos from the band themselves, has itself racked up over 250,000 views on YouTube. In the WIRED-produced video, the scientist (Kodima) in his lab coat takes Keepon out into the streets, malls and robot stores of Japan, to the soundtrack of Spoon's "Don't You Evah." Precious moments include the looks of pure glee and must-have-it lust on the faces of Japanese schoolchildren and teenagers upon encountering Keepon.

On Monday night, Keepon and Spoon were brought together again at a concert produced by WIRED as a benefit for Creative Commons, essentially the kick-off to its World's Fair-esque NextFest showcase of new technologies in Los Angeles this weekend. Besides Keepon, several of the bleeding-edge gadgets from NextFest were on display. They included a two-person game called Brainball, where each player's brain waves are used to move a ball across a table between them (victory goes to the calmer player), a solar-powered car, and another one-man vehicle that looks to have been the inspiration for an interestingly-powered vehicle invented by Mr. Garrison on an episode of "South Park."

Mr Garrison-mobile?

Just inside the lobby of the Henry Fonda theater in Hollywood, I was greeted by Hideki Kozima himself, alongside an array of his Keepon robots. You will want one. I learned that, in addition to his keen ear and ability to cut a rug, Keepon also has two cameras in his eyes, and responds to visual stimuli, like when you wave your hand in front of his face. Kozima encouraged myself and other onlookers to touch and squeeze Keepon. But I felt an urge to squeeze him tighter, as one is wont to do when confronted with something so cute, and when I started to, it gave like a squeeze toy would. But the photo of Keepon's intricate gear-laden innards posted nearby made me fear my affections might be akin to a kindergartner's too-excited love for a baby chick, and I might end up maiming or accidentally "disassembling" my new little yellow friend.

NextFest Concert feat. Spoon, Dr. Octagon & Keepon!
(video by Graham Kolbeins)

Opening for Spoon was talented, oddball rapper Dr. Octagon (aka Kool Keith), also somewhat of an oddball pairing with Spoon's more straight-ahead-rock audience. The performance was less Dr. Octagon, though, than it was a reunion of seminal old school hip-hop act Ultramagnetic MC's, as Kook Keith was joined on stage for his set by fellow MCs Ced Gee and Moe Love. The trio of MCs and their DJ treated the half-heartedly interested crowd to decidedly old-skool beats, on UMC classics like "Ego Trippin'" and "San Francisco, Harvey," before Keith assumed his Dr. Octagon persona for a couple of more contemporary-sounding jams. More than a few of the nerds in attendance were spied checking texts on their iPhones during the set.

Dr. Octagon AKA Kool Keith

 

The only minor disappointment of the evening came when Spoon took the stage -- only because of the notable absence of certain robots some had assumed would be joining them, but instead remained out in the lobby. The band was in good form, as frontman Britt Daniel led them through tight renditions of many of the tracks from their excellent sixth record, "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga," which came out in July. I had seen Spoon several times before, but only in festival settings like Coachella and ArthurFest and Austin City Limits, and not in a more intimate, indoor setting.
 

Britt Daniel and Rob Pope of Spoon

The band's songs can be very catchy, and are astutely economical, rarely sparing more than two measures for anything resembling a guitar solo, and always ending when it seems logical. The band is cognizant of the dramatic power of the silence in between drumbeats, strums and Daniel's iconic voice, generating much tension while maintaining a relatively sparse, minimal sound. Spoon also stands up well in live performance (esp. indoors), a testament to deft songwriting; no element overpowers your ear, and crisply to you drift Daniel's luscious little wisps of falsetto.

Jim Eno of Spoon

Despite the letdown of no "Spoon and Keepon Live!" video to capture, I was happy to see the Keepons nonetheless dancing along to Spoon's set out in the lobby, while on a trip to the bar. I think I speak for myself and all Japanese schoolgirls when I plead that Keepon's development be fast-tracked, like a promising cancer drug by the FDA, and he be commercialized so that he can get out of our dreams and into some gift wrapping as soon as humanly possible.

Keepon & Friends

Luckily, BeatBots is developing another cute, dancing robot, Rollio (this one's blue, has an antenna and looks like a fat little Teletubby!), notably "at a much lower cost," according to their website. However, there remain references to its being used only for research purposes. C'mon, Hideki, the Annual Gift Man's arrival is just around the corner!

You, too can meet Keepon, if you happen to be in Los Angeles this weekend. He, along with lots of other WIRED-type stuff will be downtown at the magazine's NextFest, Friday through Sunday, at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

by Mark Hefflinger
Wired NextFest Video & Photos by Graham Kolbeins