A robot predicting when you need a door opened or a new can of Diet Coke?

It sounds a little Jetson-esque, but researchers at Cornell University have discovered a way to predict human action using a robot.

If you’ve just finished your cup of coffee and want a refill, the robot could pour you a new cup. It could also open the fridge, and perform other menial tasks.

With help from a Microsoft Kinect 3D camera, and a design by Willow Garage, the robot analyzes your body movements and decides what action you could do next.

The robot made correct predictions 82% of the time when looking ahead one second; 71% when looking ahead three seconds and 57% when looking ahead 10 seconds.

There’s room for improvement, said Cornell’s Ashutosh Saxena. “The future would be to figure out how the robot plans its action. Right now we are almost hard-coding the responses, but there should be a way for the robot to learn how to respond.”