The Uncanny Valley Hypothesis and Beyond

The Uncanny Valley Hypothesis and Beyond
Author: Marcus Cheetham
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Total Pages: 142
Release: 2018-05-02
Genre: Robotics
ISBN: 2889454436

A field of theory and research is evolving around the question highlighted in the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis: How does high realism in anthropomorphic design influence human experience and behaviour? The Uncanny Valley Hypothesis posits that a very humanlike character or object (e.g., robot, prosthetic limb, doll) can evoke a negative affective (i.e., uncanny) state. Recent advances in robotic and computer-graphic technologies in simulating aspects of human appearance, behaviour and interaction have been accompanied, therefore, by theorising and research on the meaning and relevance of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis for anthropomorphic design. Current understanding of the "uncanny" idea is still fragmentary and further original research is needed. However, the emerging picture indicates that the relationship between humanlike realism and subjective experience and behaviour may not be as straightforward as the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis suggests. This Research Topic brings together researchers from traditionally separate domains (including robotics, computer graphics, cognitive science, psychology and neuroscience) to provide a snapshot of current work in this field. A diversity of issues and questions are addressed in contributions that include original research, review, theory, and opinion papers.

Robo Sapiens Japanicus

Robo Sapiens Japanicus
Author: Jennifer Robertson
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2018
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0520283198

Japan is arguably the first postindustrial society to embrace the prospect of human-robot coexistence. Over the past decade, Japanese humanoid robots designed for use in homes, hospitals, offices, and schools have become celebrated in mass and social media throughout the world. In Robo sapiens japanicus, Jennifer Robertson casts a critical eye on press releases and public relations videos that misrepresent robots as being as versatile and agile as their science fiction counterparts. An ethnography and sociocultural history of governmental and academic discourse of human-robot relations in Japan, this book explores how actual robots—humanoids, androids, and animaloids—are “imagineered” in ways that reinforce the conventional sex/gender system and political-economic status quo. In addition, Robertson interrogates the notion of human exceptionalism as she considers whether “civil rights” should be granted to robots. Similarly, she juxtaposes how robots and robotic exoskeletons reinforce a conception of the “normal” body with a deconstruction of the much-invoked Theory of the Uncanny Valley.

Robots

Robots
Author: Jasia Reichardt
Publisher: Penguin Putnam
Total Pages: 176
Release: 1978
Genre: Science
ISBN:

Geminoid Studies

Geminoid Studies
Author: Hiroshi Ishiguro
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 462
Release: 2018-04-27
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9811087024

This book describes the teleoperated android Geminoid, which has a very humanlike appearance, movements, and perceptions, requiring unique developmental techniques. The book facilitates understanding of the framework of android science and how to use it in real human societies. Creating body parts of soft material by molding an existing person using a shape-memory form provides not only the humanlike texture of the body surface but also safe physical interaction, that is, humanlike interpersonal interaction between people and the android. The teleoperation also highlights novel effects in telecommunication. Operators of the Geminoid feel the robot's body as their own, and people encountering the teleoperated Geminoid perceive the robot's body as being possessed by the operator as well.Where does the feeling of human presence come from? Can we transfer or reproduce human presence by technology? Geminoid may help to answer these questions.

Beyond Artificial Intelligence

Beyond Artificial Intelligence
Author: Jan Romportl
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2014-08-11
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3319096680

This book is an edited collection of chapters based on the papers presented at the conference “Beyond AI: Artificial Dreams” held in Pilsen in November 2012. The aim of the conference was to question deep-rooted ideas of artificial intelligence and cast critical reflection on methods standing at its foundations. Artificial Dreams epitomize our controversial quest for non-biological intelligence and therefore the contributors of this book tried to fully exploit such a controversy in their respective chapters, which resulted in an interdisciplinary dialogue between experts from engineering, natural sciences and humanities. While pursuing the Artificial Dreams, it has become clear that it is still more and more difficult to draw a clear divide between human and machine. And therefore this book tries to portrait such an image of what lies beyond artificial intelligence: we can see the disappearing human-machine divide, a very important phenomenon of nowadays technological society, the phenomenon which is often uncritically praised, or hypocritically condemned. And so this phenomenon found its place in the subtitle of the whole volume as well as in the title of the chapter of Kevin Warwick, one of the keynote speakers at “Beyond AI: Artificial Dreams”.

Robot Sex

Robot Sex
Author: John Danaher
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2018-09-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0262536021

Perspectives from philosophy, psychology religious studies, economics, and law on the possible future of robot-human sexual relationships. Sexbots are coming. Given the pace of technological advances, it is inevitable that realistic robots specifically designed for people's sexual gratification will be developed in the not-too-distant future. Despite popular culture's fascination with the topic, and the emergence of the much-publicized Campaign Against Sex Robots, there has been little academic research on the social, philosophical, moral, and legal implications of robot sex. This book fills the gap, offering perspectives from philosophy, psychology, religious studies, economics, and law on the possible future of robot-human sexual relationships. Contributors discuss what a sex robot is, if they exist, why we should take the issue seriously, and what it means to “have sex” with a robot. They make the case for developing sex robots, arguing for their beneficial nature, and the case against it, on religious and moral grounds; they consider the subject from the robot's perspective, addressing such issues as consent and agency; and they ask whether it is possible for a human to form a mutually satisfying, loving relationship with a robot. Finally, they speculate about the future of human-robot sexual interaction, considering the social acceptability of sex robots and the possible effect on society. Contributors Marina Adshade, Thomas Arnold, Julie Carpenter, John Danaher, Brian Earp, Lily Eva Frank, Joshua Goldstein, Michael Hauskeller, Noreen Herzfeld, Neil McArthur, Mark Migotti, Sven Nyholm, Ezio di Nucci, Steve Petersen, Anders Sandberg, Matthias Scheutz, Litska Strikwerda, Nicole Wyatt

Advances in Usability, User Experience and Assistive Technology

Advances in Usability, User Experience and Assistive Technology
Author: Tareq Z. Ahram
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 1026
Release: 2018-06-27
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3319949470

This book focuses on emerging issues in usability, interface design, human–computer interaction, user experience and assistive technology. It highlights research aimed at understanding human interaction with products, services and systems, and focuses on finding effective approaches for improving user experience. It also discusses key issues in designing and providing assistive devices and services to individuals with disabilities or impairment, to assist mobility, communication, positioning, environmental control and daily living. The book covers modelling as well as innovative design concepts, with a special emphasis on user-centered design, and design for specific populations, particularly the elderly. Virtual reality, digital environments, heuristic evaluation and forms of device interface feedback of (e.g. visual and haptic) are also among the topics covered. Based on the AHFE 2018 Conference on Usability & User Experience and the AHFE 2018 Conference on Human Factors and Assistive Technology, held on July 21–25, 2018, in Orlando, Florida, USA, this book reports on cutting-edge findings, research methods and user-centred evaluation approaches.

Body, Sound and Space in Music and Beyond: Multimodal Explorations

Body, Sound and Space in Music and Beyond: Multimodal Explorations
Author: Clemens Wöllner
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 473
Release: 2017-04-07
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1317173465

Body and space refer to vital and interrelated dimensions in the experience of sounds and music. Sounds have an overwhelming impact on feelings of bodily presence and inform us about the space we experience. Even in situations where visual information is artificial or blurred, such as in virtual environments or certain genres of film and computer games, sounds may shape our perceptions and lead to surprising new experiences. This book discusses recent developments in a range of interdisciplinary fields, taking into account the rapidly changing ways of experiencing sounds and music, the consequences for how we engage with sonic events in daily life and the technological advancements that offer insights into state-of-the-art methods and future perspectives. Topics range from the pleasures of being locked into the beat of the music, perception–action coupling and bodily resonance, and affordances of musical instruments, to neural processing and cross-modal experiences of space and pitch. Applications of these findings are discussed for movement sonification, room acoustics, networked performance, and for the spatial coordination of movements in dance, computer gaming and interactive artistic installations.

New Trends in Disruptive Technologies, Tech Ethics and Artificial Intelligence

New Trends in Disruptive Technologies, Tech Ethics and Artificial Intelligence
Author: Juan F. de Paz Santana
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2021-10-29
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 303087687X

This book includes recent research on disruptive technologies, tech ethics, and artificial intelligence. Due to the important advances in technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, the Internet of Things or bioinformatics produced in recent years, it is necessary to conduct a thorough review of current ethical patterns. One of the research fields that is in full expansion and with a broad future is technology ethics or tech ethics. Just a few years ago, this type of research was a small part, and they did not have too many technology researchers involved. At present, due to the explosion of new applications of artificial intelligence, their problems and their legal barriers have flourished innumerable initiatives, declarations, principles, guides and analyses focused on measuring the social impact of these systems and on the development of a more ethical technology. It is, therefore, a problem that needs to be addressed from an academic and multidisciplinary point of view, where experts in ethics and behavior work together with experts in new and disruptive technologies. The international conference “Disruptive Technologies Tech Ethics and Artificial Intelligence” (DITTET 2021) provides a forum to present and discuss the latest scientific and technical advances and their implications in the field of ethics. It also provides a forum for experts to present their latest research in disruptive technologies, promoting knowledge transfer. It provides a unique opportunity to bring together experts in different fields, academics and professionals to exchange their experience in the development and deployment of disruptive technologies, artificial intelligence and their ethical problems. DiTTEt intends to bring together researchers and developers from industry, humanities and academia to report on the latest scientific advances and the application of artificial intelligence as well as its ethical implications in fields as diverse as climate change, politics, economy or security in today’s world. This book constitutes the refereed proceedings selected by an expert panel through a peer-review process. All these works will be presented by the experts in the different sessions organized at the DITTET congress to be held at the Pontifical University of Salamanca (Salamanca, Spain) on September 15, 26 and 17, 2021.

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
Author: Julian Jaynes
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 580
Release: 2000-08-15
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0547527543

National Book Award Finalist: “This man’s ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century.”—Columbus Dispatch At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion—and indeed our future. “Don’t be put off by the academic title of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Its prose is always lucid and often lyrical…he unfolds his case with the utmost intellectual rigor.”—The New York Times “When Julian Jaynes . . . speculates that until late in the twentieth millennium BC men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of the gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “He is as startling as Freud was in The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jaynes is equally as adept at forcing a new view of known human behavior.”—American Journal of Psychiatry