Mesmerizing: Keepon Dancing Robot

Engadget turned up a fun story today about a little yellow robot who just can't stop dancing. The robot is named Keepon (pronounced "Key-pong" though I prefer to think of him as "Keepon Dancing") and is developed by Hideki Kozima (with dance-programming by Marek Michalowski). Looking a bit like two tennis balls plus eyes and a nose, Keepon is capable of dancing along to music. Because his two eyes are actually cameras (and his nose is a microphone), Keepon is able to interact with his environment, responding to stimuli. Here's Keepon in a new music video for Spoon's song "Don't You Evah":

For interested readers, there's more about Keepon at Wikipedia, more about the Infanoid Project (including other interesting, though not so cute, robots), a New Scientist article on Keepon, and a video of Keepon rocking out to a different Spoon song. Keepon will be appearing in LA this September in a benefit concert with Spoon. Any LA area readers interested in stealing Keepon and delivering him to my apartment/dance laboratory -- where he can be subjected to intensive dance research and repeated viewings of My Neighbor Totoro -- will have my eternal gratitude.