Would you let a robot take your blood? The answer to this question illuminates our real relationship to machines that aspire to rise above the robot vac. Is there another sort of uncanny valley?
Veebot is a very clever use of some basic image processing plus some very accurate positioning mechanisms. It first locates a good vein using infrared. Once it has a target it switches to ultrasound to make sure that there is enough blood flow to make it worth inserting the needle.
My source: International Society for Presence Research: June http://ispr.info/
individual INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
group
trust, confidence, anxiety, expectations, 'needles' - phobia, previous experiences, model of the 'other', intelligence, physical tests to differentiate mental health problems, subjective feelings - 'creepiness'
With the usual apologies for duplications and request for cross-posting to suitable lists and potentially interested colleagues - on behalf of my co-editors:
Call for Papers: Social Robots: Form, Content, Critique special issue of The International Journal of Social Robotics
Co-editors: Michaela Pfadenhauer (Karlsruhe University / Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Satomi Sugiyama (Franklin College, Switzerland), Charles Ess (University of Oslo).
We invite papers from scholars and researchers across the disciplines (including philosophy, robot ethics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, media/sociology, information science, art history) that examine and explore social robots through three distinct but inextricably interwoven frameworks:
Form/appearance (e.g., human/animal likeness in appearance; everyday media forms and robotic functions; cultural attitudes toward robot forms, etc.)
Content/AI/applications (e.g., implications of artificial intelligence in everyday human experiences such as memories, relationships, and conceptions of the self and self-understanding; applications that shape human-robot interactions; applications of mobile media and their implications in human's robotic experiences, etc.)
Critical issues that undergird the above, including; ethics, intimacy, emotions, authenticity, etc.
Paper submission deadline: 1 January 2014 Notification to authors: 1 March 2014 Submission of authors' revised papers: 1 May 2014 Final acceptance: 1 June 2014 (accepted papers will be immediately published at the IJSR webpage with a Digital Object Identifier for citation purposes) Publication: August, 2014
The call is an outcome of the COST Strategic Workshop on Social Robotic and Sustainability that took place in Brussels, Belgium, on 10-13 June 2013. http://www.cost.eu/events/socialrobotics
The online submission system is available at: http://www.editorialmanager.com/soro/ Authors are required to register on the website and to follow the Journal's Instructions for Authors' as provided there.
Special Theme: "Image Understanding" Guest editors: Michal Haindl, Institute of Information Theory and Automation, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and Josef Kittler, University of Surrey, UK http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en95/special/
Keynote: "Image Understanding – An EU Perspective" by Libor Král, Head of Unit A2 – Robotics in Directorate General Communication Networks, Content & Technology, European Commission
Thank you for your interest in ERCIM News. Feel free to forward this message to others who might be interested.
Best regards, Peter Kunz ERCIM News central editor
------------------------------------------------------------------------ ERCIM "Alain Bensoussan" Fellowship Programme ERCIM offers fellowships for PhD holders from all over the world. The next round is open! Next deadline 31 October 2013 http://fellowship.ercim.eu/
Special Theme: "Smart Energy Systems" Guest editors: Carl Binding, IBM Research Lab, Switzerland and Han La Poutré, CWI and Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Modern, industrialized, society is heavily dependent on ubiquitous, cheap energy, which we expect to be readily available, not to be polluting, and to be convenient to use. Since the invention of the steam engine by James Watt, this paradigm has lead towards tremendous improvement of life quality in the developed world, and developing countries eagerly aspire to similar energy standards. However, the price of this hunger for energy is increasing. Fossil fuel resources such as oil or gas are becoming harder to explore, even leading to environmental disasters as with the Gulf of Mexico oil-platform, recently. Exploration of shale gas (“fracking”) causes negative environmental impact, beyond the well-known CO2 problematics. Besides the sheer availability of fossil energy, associated CO2 emissions have caused wide-spread concerns about impacts on climate and on human health (fine particle emissions). http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en92/special
Includes: Research and Innovation A Projector as Mobile Visualization device on an Assistive Robot (p.48) by Paul Panek, Christian Beck, Georg Edelmayer, Peter Mayer and Wolfgang L. Zagler
Thank you for your interest in ERCIM News. Feel free to forward this message to others who might be interested.
Peter Kunz ERCIM News central editor -------------------------------------------------------------------- ERCIM "Alain Bensoussan" Fellowship Programme ERCIM offers fellowships for PhD holders from all over the world. The next round is now open! Next deadline for applications is exceptionally 28 February 2013 http://fellowship.ercim.eu/
In the 1970s I could go into (the old) Smiths in Wigan with £1 and buy three paperbacks. I built quite an SF library that includes Heinlin, Clarke, Smith, Aldiss, Van Vogt, and Asimov, all a bit musty now and boxed.
Robots featured in many of those old books and Issac Asimov in particular with his Three Laws of Robotics. As a result I've tended to take robots for granted, not just in fiction and film but health care too. Big mistake!
It's almost as if every decade we should watch Blade Runner again and reflect. Take our bearings, triangulating them with these other things-beings. ...
The demographic time bomb is proving quite an incentive for developments in leading edge robotics.
One of the IPONS keynotes with Dr Susan Barnes and Dr Theodore Metzler presented Three Dialogues Concerning Robots in Elder Care.
We were introduced to general developments including Asimo, which I remember seeing on QI:
- and a specific nursing example:
Through their three dialogues ranging through the developments of artificial intelligence and consciousness, Drs Barnes and Metzler also introduced Paro a Therapeutic Robot, which is modeled after a baby harp seal. For many years dolls of various sorts have been used in residential and nursing homes to provide comfort for selected residents. This is an example of personalised care. I know because there are times when it has seemed not quite right. The paradox is that this arises not necessarily from the client's response to the doll, but sometimes that of the other residents. The response of relatives and visitors can also vary, especially when efforts are ongoing to find ways to help someone settle. Seeing - and hearing someone who is agitated is distressing for all.
Needless to say the keynote prompted many robot related questions. Are we deceiving people who are cognitively impaired? Is this a variation of covert administration of medicine? It was later afternoon 1500 hours or thereabouts, which had me thinking about the phenomena of sundowning. A time of day when some residents can feel they need to be elsewhere. Former responsibilities and roles come back to the fore with what can be chaotic results.
This excellent keynote also made me think about how care needs are matched to technologies. What is the ethical spectrum of telecare, of remote care, of robotics (surgical, locomotion, dementia care)?
A person living with dementia at home may benefit from have a robotic carer / assistant who can respond to the repetitive questions that often follow. A robot is not going to get frustrated, angry (Asimov's Laws?) by such behaviour, unless it were conscious?
On the other hand don't we need the frustration of a family member, a carer, a human to alert society at large to this local crisis - situation? What are the reporting capabilities of the robot system?
I realised many years ago the notion of windows of opportunity in terms of supporting independence - delivering care. There may be an optimum period in a person's health career to introduce day care, respite care, care at home, a robot ...?
Nursing (like me) needs to wake up.
The next twenty - thirty years are going to be a real challenge in all sorts of ways and for many reasons. Throughout that time and beyond a good dose of philosophical thought will be the order of the day. IPONS got me thinking anew: perhaps you too? The society are planning changes to the website, membership and journal options.
Back at month end. P.S. ICN abstract submitted. Prospect of a public health presentation next month.
