Month: October 2022

Posted on

The CARE-MOMO Project

Two of the most important conferences for social robotics are Robophilosophy and ICSR. After Robophilosophy, a biennial, was last held in Helsinki in August 2022, ICSR is now coming up in Florence (13 – 16 December 2022). “The 14th International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2022) brings together researchers and practitioners working on the interaction between humans and intelligent robots and on the integration of social robots into our society. … The theme of this year’s conference is Social Robots for Assisted Living and Healthcare, emphasising on the increasing importance of social robotics in human daily living and society.” (Website ICSR) The committee sent out notifications by October 15, 2022. The paper “The CARE-MOMO Project” by Oliver Bendel and Marc Heimann was accepted. This is a project that combines machine ethics and social robotics. The invention of the morality menu was transferred to a care robot for the first time. The care recipient can use sliders on the display to determine how he or she wants to be treated. This allows them to transfer their moral and social beliefs and ideas to the machine. The morality module (MOMO) is intended for the Lio assistance robot from F&P Robotics. The result will be presented at the end of October 2022 at the company headquarters in Glattbrugg near Zurich. More information on the conference via www.icsr2022.it.

Posted on

Progress with the Starline Project

Google has given an update on its Starline project in a blog post dated October 11, 2022. With this system, two people can hold a video conference in which the respective conversation partner is displayed as a 3D projection – a quasi-hologram. A display based on light field technology is used for this purpose. Several high-resolution cameras film the participants in real time. The company describes this process in a very non-technical or poetic way: “The technology works like a magic window, where users can talk, gesture and make eye contact with another person, life-size and in three dimensions. It is made possible through major research advances across machine learning, computer vision, spatial audio and light field display systems.” (Company News, 11 October 2022) The company hopes to improve hybrid working with Starline. Indeed, quasi-holograms would be interesting not only for concerts, but also for companies that allow and encourage homeworking or that are highly networked and distributed.