Creepy Robotic Clapping Hands [Video]

23 October 2011 9 Comments

Attendees at Tokyo’s DC Expo 2011 were treated to an eerie musical performance by a pair of disembodied arms. These “Ondz” robotic clappers where developed by Masato Takahashi, a researcher at Keio University who crafted them from molds of his own arms.

The arms are made of an aluminium skeleton coated with urethane flesh and were specially designed to make a natural sounding clap. Takashi is well aware of how creepy his creation is and believes this adds an enjoyable surreal feeling to Ondz performances. He believes that they can be used at concerts to enhance the sound of real clapping or as clapping avatars which allow online viewers to applaud via robots installed onsite at the performance. He’s even said they would make good “spanking machines”.

Ondz website