Shimon the Robotic Percussionist

Has anyone ever heard of Shimon? The robotic percussionist? Well..Georgia Teach has created Shimon who is a Robot and he plays the marimba. Shinmon's head is made to be more interactive and give musicians cues that relate to the music it's playing.  He is even able to interact with it's environment he can analyze rhythm, melodies and harmony and use his musicial understanding to improvise with humans. I think this is absolutely amazing.  I don't think I ever thought a robotic musician would be available in the near future, especially one so advanced as this one. 

This just makes me think....what is going to happen to the music field now? Are people going to use Robots to play/record their music? Especially if they are so advanced and they can analyze the music.  I wonder how composers feel about this? Composers have the luxury to explain to a musician how they want their music to be played. Are composers going to have to be more specific in their music so Robots can play it perfectly?  Are they totally against this idea with robotic musicians? I would love to find out some feed back on what you guys think of this? Do you think this is a positive or a negative in the classical music field? 

Here is a short video that show you more about Shimon! Emjoy!

http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/helpers/flvplayback.php?clipPath=/upload/pr/tal67788.flv&width=427&height=310&title=Muisc%20Technology%20Researchers%20Create%20New%20Robotic%Percussionist