New robot strategy: distract us with music and dancing

This is the scariest thing I've seen all morning. (And there was a man on the subway cutting his fingernails, so you know what I'm talking about). According to io9, this is what's going on at University of Pennsylvania's GRASP Laboratory: "In this demonstration, the "stage" is in a room fitted with infrared lights and cameras. The nano quads all have reflectors on their struts, which allows the camera system to plot their exact position and relay that information wirelessly to each unit. Lab members can then assign each unit a series of waypoints in three-dimensional space that must be reached at an exact time. In this case, those times and places translate into notes on a keyboard or a strum of a guitar. Figuring out how to get from waypoint to waypoint most efficiently and without disturbing their neighbors is up to the robots."

That sounds very nice and scientific and I'm sure that the "lab members" will all be handsomely rewarded with non-robot-fodder well-paying positions by our future robot government. (Thank you, Patrick).