Now this explains everything...

Ever think that your teachers or colleages were behaving a bit... um... mechanically?

In an article in Wired News this week, we learn about Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro's mechanical double, "Geminoid HI-1," which sometimes takes Ishiguro's place in meetings and classes.

Powered by pressurized air and small actuators, it blinks, fidgets, and copies the voice, posture and lip movements of Ishiguro, who broadcasts sound through a speaker inside the robot and wears a motion-capture system to control its movements.