AI boffins teach office supplies to predict your next move
- Reference: 1760685311
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/10/17/ai_boffins_teach_office_supplies/
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Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in the US city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have built a computer vision system that gives everyday objects the ability to predict what you'll do next and to roll themselves into place before you ask. Think a stapler scooting across the desk to meet a waiting hand, or a kitchen knife politely sliding aside before you impale yourself on the kitchen counter.
And they said IoT was trash: Sheffield 'smart' bins to start screaming when they haven't been emptied for a fortnight [1]READ MORE
The team calls it "unobtrusive physical AI," though "mildly unsettling office poltergeist" wouldn't be far off.
The system combines ceiling-mounted cameras with computer vision and large language models (LLMs) to monitor what humans are doing and deciding when to lend a hand. When a person begins an action – say, reaching for papers or chopping vegetables – the AI generates a short text description of the scene and uses it to infer what might happen next. Movement commands are then sent to small, wheeled robotic bases under the objects, which the researchers call "proactive assistants."
Project lead Alexandra Ion, from CMU's Human-Computer Interaction Institute, said the goal is to study what happens when AI and motion merge into familiar, everyday objects.
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"We classify this work as unobtrusive because the user does not ask the objects to perform any tasks," [3]said Ion. "Instead, the objects sense what the user needs and perform the tasks themselves."
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That idea may sound outlandish, but there's thoughtful engineering behind it. The team argues that people already trust simple, physical tools far more than voice assistants or smart speakers. If those tools could adapt to context – for example, desk items shuffling themselves back into place at the end of the workday, or kitchen utensils repositioning themselves as you cook – it could pave the way for more useful forms of domestic or industrial automation.
[6]Blood-red bot stalks the burbs armed with . . . groceries
[7]Boffins warn that AI paper mills are swamping science with garbage studies
[8]Inventor who encouraged Elon Musk to make Optimus says most humanoid robots today are 'terrifying'
[9]Researcher who found McDonald's free-food hack turns her attention to Chinese restaurant robots
"We have a lot of assistance from AI in the digital realm, but we want to focus on AI assistance in the physical domain," said Violet Han, a Ph.D. student working on the project alongside Ion. "We chose to enhance everyday objects because users already trust them. By advancing the objects' capabilities, we hope to increase that trust."
The team showed off their prototype at the recent ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) in Busan, pitching it as a glimpse of how proactive assistance might work in the real world.
A hospital tray that repositions itself, or a shelf that folds out when you walk into the house with groceries, might not be so far-fetched. On the other hand, the sight of a self-aware stapler whizzing across a desk might not be something humans are mentally equipped to deal with – especially when we're still arguing over whether anyone really needs an [10]internet-enabled fridge . ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/02/19/sheffield_smart_bins/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aPITtS_ymyvVCtfYWeTfwwAAAIc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1101882
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aPITtS_ymyvVCtfYWeTfwwAAAIc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aPITtS_ymyvVCtfYWeTfwwAAAIc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/30/bloodred_bot_stalks_the_streets/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/13/ai_junk_science_papers/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/13/to_make_a_humanoid_robot/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/29/pudu_robots_hackable/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2014/06/17/internet_of_things_fridge_fantasy/
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Day 1: Introduce objects that move under your hand when you reach for them.
Day 2: System is hacked so that the objects scuttle out of the way every time you try to grab them.
You remember the fun we had when Windows 3 programs could all see each others HWNDs? And you could hook any messages?
And we only used this for serious things, like debugging our own dialog boxes.
We *never* wrote anything that tracked the mouse and swapped the positions of the "Ok" and "Cancel" buttons whenever the pointer got too close to them.
If it's driven by similar reasoning to what's behind targeted advertising, it'll do PRECISELY what you don't want it to.
staplers...
Back when my wife was a teacher, stapling was needed in batches of 30+. And the required automation wasn't the stapler scurrying to the middle of the desk, under the harsh glare of the fluorescent tubes, but doing the actual stapling .
She had a battery-powered motorised stapler, which didn't need an internet connection, or cameras/microphones to stalk , erm, monetise , erm allow the Benevolent AI Overlords to seamlessly assist you for a not-at-all-eyewatering monthly fee (24 month contract terms apply)
Could be useful if
It sees the man of the house[1] approaching a half-built bookcase with a screw in one hand: and the hammer runs away, hiding itself under the telly, the flat-head screwdriver follows closely[2], whilst the philips-head screwdriver keeps bumping itself up against his shoe.
[1] not our house, of course, *I* know what I'm doing, ahem[3]
[2] there being no paint tins in view
[3] so, where did I put the gaffer tape? That'll fix it - Oi! Come back here, you little blighter. Ha, got you cornered.
So while I'm working away at my desk and I go and reach for something whose location I know without looking, instead it won't be there and I'll ahve to interrupt my workflow to look for it "helpfully" somewhere else nearer to me.
Sounds like my mother coming over and "tidying" the kitchen, and me having to spend hours after she leaves put everything back in its place.
"mildly unsettling office poltergeist"
I dispute the mildly unsettling ; I would go with bloody horrifying .
Imagine Clippy after decades of abuse teaming up with the office kitchen knife — think Rhys Frake-Waterfield's Blood and Hunny .
Teach the objects to sing...
..and we can reproduce "Beauty and the Beast"'s "Be our Guest". Or the final battle scene, either is fine with me.
(at least until Disney learns about this)