As your body double duet partner, the Emotional Support Karaoke bot helps overcome karaoke stage fright one step at a time. Choose a level of difficulty to start your session with: easy-peasy, peek-a-boo (medium) or showtime! (hard). 



The project’s catalyst was the 1, 2, 3 Playtime session at IAC “Introduction to the use of the humanoid robot Epi in ongoing cognitive research” by Birger Johansson, Director of the Cognitive Robotics Lab at Lund University. Epi’s humanoid design is quite loveable and childlike, with a disproportionately large head and eyes.

These physical attributes worked well for our recasting of Epi as an “emotional support” karaoke companion, as its likeable appearance signals to the audience/performers that it is trustworthy and friendly.

The robot itself gains animacy and personality when it moves to the beat and appears to sing in a dramatic way, occasionally throwing its head back in the heat of the moment as if it is experiencing the emotions of the song.

In the first level, Easy-Peasy, the participant can choose to be completely hidden while the humanoid bot mimes along to their voice in front of the crowd. Sound from the singer’s mic acts as a data input that causes the bot’s mouth to light up. Likewise, the input was customised so that sustaining a loud note causes the bot’s eyes to glow red, and it would bop its head along to the music.



All this training leads to the ultimate level: Showtime! Here, the participant takes centre stage and sings alongside the emotional support karaoke bot, appearing as a duo.

If the participant feels a bit braver, they can progress to Peek-a-Boo, an intermediate level where the participant is almost hidden, only the head pokes out from behind the curtain.