How do social robots emerge from simple, soft shapes? As part of their final thesis at the School of Business FHNW, Nhi Tran Hoang Yen and Thang Hoang Vu from Ho Chi Minh City have answered this question posed by their supervisor Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel. They have submitted eleven proposals for novel robots. All are shown on informationsethik.net. The third proposal is a variant of Hugvie, Ishiguro’s communication and hugging robot (go here to the previous). A pocket for a smartphone is attached to its head. People who are far away from each other can talk to each other and have the feeling of hugging and feeling each other. Hugvie has more feminine forms at the moment. At least this was the impression of the two students. But what if the human counterpart, who is far away, is a boy or a man? Then perhaps male forms would be more appropriate. The two students have called the possibility of gender variants of the communication and hugging robot „Gendering Hugvie“. Two books by Oliver Bendel on social robots – „300 Keywords Soziale Robotik“ and „Soziale Roboter“ – will be published in October 2021.

Fig.: Gendering Hugvie (image: Trần Hoàng Yến Nhi & Hoàng Vũ Thắng, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, Việt Nam)