[No abstract available]

[No abstract available]

With power comes responsibility: as robots become more advanced and prevalent, the role they will play in human society becomes increasingly important. Given that violence is an important problem, the question emerges if robots could defend people, even if doing so might cause harm to someone. The current study explores the broad context of how people perceive the acceptability of such robot self-defense (RSD) in terms of (1) theory, via a rapid scoping review, and (2) public opinion in two countries. As a result, we summarize and discuss: increasing usage of robots capable of wielding force by law enforcement and military, negativity toward robots, ethics and legal questions (including differences to the well-known trolley problem), control in the presence of potential failures, and practical capabilities that such robots might require. Furthermore, a survey was conducted, indicating that participants accepted the idea of RSD, with some cultural differences. We believe that, while substantial obstacles will need to be overcome to realize RSD, society stands to gain from exploring its possibilities over the longer term, toward supporting human well-being in difficult times. © 2023 by the authors.

The COVID-19 pandemic helped spark a surge in innovative usages of technology in education, from robot-based remote graduation ceremonies to immersive learning through extended reality, meetings in fantastical game worlds, automatic examination methods, and flexible learning options such as hybrid classes. It’s been said that we can’t go back to “normal” because this is normal now–but what exactly is today’s “new normal”? The current paper reports on the results of an anonymous online survey conducted with 42 teachers in business, IT, nursing, and education at our university in October 2021, to gain insight into where some teachers on the “front lines” currently stand on the use of technology in education. Some insights included that: More teachers than we had expected were using robotics and extended reality (XR), suggesting that silo effects can exist in education, even at small universities; furthermore, the rates of teachers who had seen such usage seemed close to the rates of teachers who had tried using them, suggesting the usefulness of raising awareness to promote professional digital competence (PDC). Rates for using games and exam tools were lower than expected, despite the availability of game platforms and a growing need to consider the threat of how technology can be misused to cheat in exams, possibly due to teachers’ limited time for pedagogical development. Also, teachers appeared to have strong and differing opinions about learning formats, although a general preference was observed for physical classes and exams, and hybrid teacher meetings. Our aim is that these results will be used by our university’s pedagogical center to support our teachers’ PDC and uses of edtech in the near future. © 2023, ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.

Motivated by the expectation that robot presence at crime scenes will become increasingly prevalent, the question arises of how they can protect humans in their care or vicinity. The current paper delves into the concept of 'robot self-defense' and explores whether a robot should be tele-operated or autonomous, and how humans perceive imperfections in robot performance. To gain insight into how people feel, an online survey was conducted with 180 participants, who watched six videos of a robot defending a victim. The study provides insights into trust in human-robot interactions and sheds light on the complex dynamics involved in robot self-defense. The results indicate that people found a tele-operated robot to be more accepted, and that attempting to help but failing is more acceptable than just observing. © 2023 IEEE.

'Magic' is referred to here and there in the robotics literature, from 'magical moments' afforded by a mobile bubble machine, to 'spells' intended to entertain and motivate children-but what exactly could this concept mean for designers? Here, we present (1) some theoretical discussion on how magic could inform interaction designs based on reviewing the literature, followed by (2) a practical description of using such ideas to develop a simplified prototype, which received an award in an international robot magic competition. Although this topic can be considered unusual and some negative connotations exist (e.g., unrealistic thinking can be referred to as magical), our results seem to suggest that magic, in the experiential, supernatural, and illusory senses of the term, could be useful to consider in various robot design contexts, also for artifacts like home assistants and autonomous vehicles-thus, inviting further discussion and exploration. © 2022 IEEE.

How will learning “look” in the future? Everyone learns–and we do so in a creative and emotional way. However, learners’ creativity and emotions are often not explicitly included in the design process when exploring how technology can be used to provide new learning opportunities, which could result in shallow learning. One way to support such learning with technology could be playfulness. The current paper reports on some of our ongoing experiences in recent years using a playful design perspective to develop three educational Artificial Intelligence (AI) prototypes. Tackling applications intended to facilitate freedom, ease, and engagement in learning, the prototypes comprise an intelligent tutoring system, an automatic display tool, and a hand-waving detector. In closing, some lessons learned are shared to inform subsequent designs.

Would it be okay for a robot to hurt a human, if by doing so it could protect someone else? Such ethical questions could be vital to consider, as the market for social robots grows larger and robots become increasingly prevalent in our surroundings. Here we introduce the topic of “robot self-defense”, which involves the use of force by a robot in response to violence, to protect a human in its care. To explore this topic, we conducted a preliminary analysis of the literature, as well as brainstorming sessions, which led us to formulate an idea about how people will perceive robot self-defense based on the perceived risk of loss. Additionally, we propose a study design to investigate how the general public will perceive the acceptability of a robot using self- defense techniques. As part of this, we describe some hypotheses based on the assumption that the perceived acceptability will be affected by both the entities involved in a violent situation and the amount of force that is applied. The proposed scenarios will be used in a future survey to evaluate participants’ perception of a social robot using self-defense techniques under varying circumstances, toward stimulating ideation and discussion on how robots will be able to help people to live better lives. © 2022 IEEE.

Could a social robot use force to prevent violence directed toward humans in its care?-Might crime be eradicated, or conversely could excessive use of force proliferate and human dignity become trampled beneath cold robotic wheels? Such speculation is one part of a larger, increasingly important question of how social robots will be expected to behave in our societies, as robotic technologies develop and become increasingly widespread. Here, to gain some insight into this topic of "robot self-defense", we proposed a simplified heuristic based on perceived risk of loss to predict acceptability, and conducted a user survey with 304 participants, who watched eight animated videos of robots and humans in a violent altercation. The results indicated that people largely accept the idea that a humanoid robot can use force on attackers to help others. Furthermore, self-defense was perceived as more acceptable when the appearance of the defender was humanoid rather than mechanical, and when the force disparity between attacker and defender was high. The immediate suggestion is that it could be beneficial to re-examine common assumptions that a robot should never harm or risk harming humans, and to discuss and consider the possibilities for robot self-defense. © 2022 IEEE.

Robots are being designed to communicate with people in various public and domestic venues in a perceptive, helpful, and discreet way. Here, we use a speculative prototyping approach to shine light on a new concept of robot steganography (RS): that a robot could seek to help vulnerable populations by discreetly warning of potential threats: We first identify some potentially useful scenarios for RS related to safety and security– concerns that are estimated to cost the world trillions of dollars each year–with a focus on two kinds of robots, a socially assistive robot (SAR) and an autonomous vehicle (AV). Next, we propose that existing, powerful, computer-based steganography (CS) approaches can be adopted with little effort in new contexts (SARs), while also pointing out potential benefits of human-like steganography (HS): Although less efficient and robust than CS, HS represents a currently-unused form of RS that could also be used to avoid requiring a computer to receive messages, detection by more technically advanced adversaries, or a lack of alternative connectivity (e.g., if a wireless channel is being jammed). Some unique challenges of RS are also introduced, that arise from message generation, indirect perception, and effects of perspective. Finally, we confirm the feasibility of the basic concept for RS, that messages can be hidden in a robot’s behaviors, via a simplified, initial user study, also making available some code and a video. The immediate implication is that RS could potentially help to improve people’s lives and mitigate some costly problems, as robots become increasingly prevalent in our society–suggesting the usefulness of further discussion, ideation, and consideration by designers.