Time marches on, taking us to Japan once again for Expo 85 in Tskuba. This robot was the Wasubot Musical Robot, a rather ungainly collection of gears, pulleys, wires, and a very big head with one eye. What made him special was that big eye, for it was actually a lens that scanned sheet music. The robot would then play the music on the keyboard, complete with foot pedals. I remember seeing it in action but I think the signs were all in Japanese so it wasn't clear at the time that there was some pretty sophisticated OCR going on. Happily, now with the Internet, you can read more than I could then on how this thing worked.
Here's a link to get you started.
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