Didn’t they do this scene in Real Genius?

In one of the more bizarre news articles I’ve seen about robotics lately, a professor’s project to substitute an andriod version of himself in his lectures doesn’t actually seem to be very positive about the project.[via AI in the News] From the start, the andriod is labeled as looking “creepily like him”. Looking at the technology behind the article, there’s no intelligence in the system, as the operator wears motion-capture gear and the android reproduces those behaviors. The professor claims he just wanted to eliminate his commute – I would have thought some good videoconferencing equipment would be easier and way less off-putting for the students (there is no indication of whether the android includes microphones so that the professor can hold a discussion). The article’s author is also clearly dubious about this development in education, as he speculates that if such devices take off, soon the andriod double of the professor will just be teaching to a room full of android doubles of students.