Simon the robot learns to act like a human, can tell when you're not paying attention (video)

A robot performing a task tends to be something of an attention-grabber, but should you ignore it that 'bot will usually ignore you too, mindlessly continuing on with its job. If that job is building a car then being ignored is nothing to worry about, but if that task is teaching a human then inattention is obviously something of a problem. Researchers at the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech have managed to teach Simon, who we've seen before learning to understand your voice and face, to act more human-like in an attempt to capture you're attention. If that doesn't work, he can use cameras to detect inattention, with an 80 percent accuracy rating in spotting day-dreamers. We're not sure what he does if inattention is detected, but hopefully he doesn't go all ED-209 on any poor students.