Art: Vocaloid, Hatsune Miku

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

Hatsune Miku (初音ミク) is a 16-years-old girl character representing a singing vocal synthesizer Vocaloid, developed by Yamaha.

Vocal synthesizer is a machine that generate singing human voice. So, it'll sing any song, eventually, as perfect or better than human singers.

Hatsune Miku on car
Hatsune Miku painted on a car. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hatsune_Miku_Corolla.jpg
anime girl coming out of screen
Hatsune Miku (初音ミク) coming out of screen. [image source http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=17524231 ]

Her singing sounds terrible.

There's sci-fi anime story Macross Plus, where a computer AI produced female entertainer named Sharon Apple, represented as a hologram, became a galactic pop idol. Miku Hatsune is a real-life version of Sharon Apple. See: Sharon Apple - Information High (Macross Plus).

Hatsune Miku Vocaloid Second Life 2
Virtual Singer Hatsune Miku Avatar in Second Life. [source 2012-01-07 https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Miku-Hatsune-Anime-Avatar-20/955620]
[30fps Full風] Romeo and Cinderella ロミオとシンデレラ -Hatsune Miku 初音ミク DIVA English lyrics romaji subtitles
miku love is war 73142 miku love is war 99754 miku love is war 84592
Miku - Love is War [2017-07-12 image source https://twitter.com/MysticSiva/status/885107827408216065]

miku toys

Thanks to Gwern Branwen http://www.gwern.net/, [2012-01-07 wizardgynoid ] ( https://twitter.com/wizardgynoid ) for tips.