Although we could not visit the wonderful island of Crete, as this year’s ACM PETRA is virtual, the ACI was very successful. We submitted two contributions, a full paper and a poster, which were both accepted. Moreover, the poster received the “Best Poster Award”. Both papers are related to tactile navigation and thus to the …
Research
Our ongoing research activities.
“Follow Your Partner” – SUITCEYES Pilot Study
Having created a prototype for the gamified scenario titled Follow Your Partner, designed to help individuals with deafblindness learn how to navigate with the vest, it was time to conduct a pilot study. The study, part of the SUITCEYES project, took place this November in Stuttgart and at Offenburg University with four individuals with deafblindness. …
New Book on Social Robots
Social robots not only work with humans in collaborative workspaces – we meet them in shopping malls and even more personal settings like health and care. Does this imply they should become more human, able to interpret and adequately respond to human emotions? Do we want them to help elderly persons? Do we want them …
ACI and EPFL Plan to Co-operate on Flexible Haptics
Herbert Shea, head of the EPFL Soft Transducers Lab, and Oliver Korn, director of the ACI, met in Neuchâtel in June. They plan to cooperate in the area of soft haptics. While Herb’s group is one of the drivers of haptic interaction, the ACI’s work on embodiment and assistive systems offers excellent use cases. One …
ACM PETRA 19: Affective Gamification and a Keynote
This year, Oliver Korn once more had the pleasure to work as the chair of the program committee of PETRA, the ACM Conference on Pervasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments. The conference started yesterday, and accepted papers are accessible in the conference proceedings in the ACM Digital Library. With over 30 accepted full papers, many …
Social Robots – Assistance for the Elderly?
In collaboration with Francesca Fracasso, a researcher of the “Planning and Scheduling Technology Laboratory” (PST Lab, headed by Amedeo Cesta), at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC) of the National Research Council of Italy, we are conducting a cross-cultural investigation on people’s believes and opinions on social robots. Social robots differ from other …
Eye-Tracking Study for incluMOVE
After our helpful mouse Gregor has officially been introduced at the eQualfication, he now has to prove his abilities as a virtual assistant in a study. Within the project incluMOVE we are testing the influence of the virtual assistant Gregor regarding the users’ attention and understanding. The virtual assistant Gregor steers the participants of our …
Interview on AI
In December, ACI-director Oliver Korn gave an interview on artificial intelligence and social robots. In the talk with Anja Nolte, they cover not only technological, but also societal and ethical aspects. The interviews as well as a concluding article have been published in January with the Volksbank Freiburg: Part 1 [German] Part 2 [German] Concluding …
Easter-Egg-Hunt Study
We started the new year testing our prototype for the SUITCEYES project in a field study. On Saturday, twelve students from Offenburg University participated in our deafblind simulation and navigated through four different routes guided only by the vibrations of the vest. The SUITCEYES project aims to empower deafblind individuals through the use of a …
ACI-Workshop at AAL Forum on Social Robot Market
Like in 2016 and 2017, the ACI will again be involved in the AAL Forum (Active and Assisted Living) – 2018 hosted in Bilbao. This year’s workshop focuses on market barriers and opportunities for social robots. It starts September 26 at 2 pm and builds on the outcomes from last year’s workshop “Does the Robot …