AN ADDED VALUE FOR THE PEOPLE In an interview, professor Oliver Korn takes a look into the future of robots. Coming into Oliver Korn’s office, first thing, the visitor meets Pepper. The little guy certainly looks nice and friendly, but the interaction with the professor is still a bit of a struggle. But Korn is …
Welcome to the Team, Pepper!
After already welcoming QTrobot in our team last March, Pepper joins us as a new team member. He too will assist us in further researching the topic of social robots and will eventually become the foundation of future studies. Pepper is a social-humanoid robot from SoftBank Robotics. His specialty is the interaction with humans. This …
5th SUITCEYES Project Meeting in Offenburg
One of the last work weeks before Christmas. Everybody is preparing for a merry celebration. Well, not entirely. One group of international researchers still keep their minds sharp and active. They gather up at University of Applied Sciences Offenburg to continue their work in the SUITCEYES project. On 5th – 6th December the 5th SUITCEYES …
“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. …
ACI in Borås, Sweden – SUITCEYES Symposium 2019
On 22nd August 2019, the SUITCEYES symposium “Haptic Communication – Breaking the Barriers for Inclusion and Participation” took place in the wonderful city of Borås, Sweden. With one and a half years having passed since the launch of the SUITCEYES project, consortium members, stakeholders and decision makers assembled to report on the latest findings in …
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 …