The Uncanny Valley effect is a famous hypothesis. Whether it can be influenced by context is still unclear. In an online experiment, Katharina Kühne and her co-authors Oliver Bendel, Yuefang Zue, and Martin Fischer found a negative linear relationship between a robot’s human likeness and its likeability and trustworthiness, and a positive linear relationship between a robot’s human likeness and its uncaniness. „Social context priming improved overall likability and trust of robots but did not modulate the Uncanny Valley effect.“ (Abstract) Katharina Kühne outlined these conclusions in her presentation „Social, but Still Uncanny“ – the title of the paper – on 25 October 2024 at the International Conference on Social Robotics 2024 in Odense, Denmark. Like Yuefang Zue and Martin Fischer, she is a researcher at the University of Potsdam. Oliver Bendel teaches and researches at the FHNW School of Business. Together with Tamara Siegmann, he presented a second paper at the ICSR.
Friday morning of the ICSR 2024 (23 – 25 October 2024) was filled with an exciting and inspiring program. This included the Special Session Arts. The Robot Design Competition was organized as a parallel session. Fourteen projects of varying maturity were presented. There were three categories: „1. Innovative Idea: The entries, which are innovative but are in the early stages of conceptualization will be considered for this category; 2. Innovative Solution: The entries, which have demonstrated maturity of the proposed solution through prototypes will be considered for this category; 3. Innovative Product: The entries, which have targeted specific applications through a more matured robotics solutions as a potential product will be considered for this category.“ (Website ICSR) The judges included Amit Kumar Pandey (Rovial Space), Kimmo Vänni (Häme University of Applied Sciences HAMK), Mariacarla Staffa (University of Naples Parthenope), and Oliver Bendel (FHNW School of Business). The winner in the Innovative Solution category was „Modular Robotic Furniture“. The researchers presented adaptive furniture that is a side table one moment, a dining table for several people the next, and a container for dirty dishes or worn laundry the next.
The deadline for the International Conference on Social Robotics 2024 (ICSR 2024) has been extended again. Experts in social robotics and related fields have until July 19 to submit their full papers. The prestigious event was last held in Florence (2022) and Qatar (2023). Now it enters its next round. The 16th edition will bring together researchers and practitioners working on human-robot interaction and the integration of social robots into our society. The title of the conference includes the addition „AI“. This is a clarification and demarcation that has to do with the fact that there will be two further formats with the name ICSR in 2024. ICSR’24 (ICSR + AI) will take place as a face-to-face conference in Odense, Denmark, from 23 to 26 October 2024. The theme of this year’s conference is „Empowering Humanity: The role of social and collaborative robotics in shaping our future“. The topics of the Call for Papers include „collaborative robots in service applications (in construction, agriculture, etc.)“, „Human-robot interaction and collaboration“, „Affective and cognitive sciences for socially interactive robots“, and „Context awareness, expectation, and intention understanding“. The general chairs are Oskar Palinko, University of Southern Denmark, and Leon Bodenhagen, University of Southern Denmark. More information is available at icsr2024.dk.
The deadline for the International Conference on Social Robotics 2024 (ICSR 2024) has been extended. Experts in social robotics and related fields have until July 12 to submit their full papers. The prestigious event was last held in Florence (2022) and Qatar (2023). Now it enters its next round. The 16th edition will bring together researchers and practitioners working on human-robot interaction and the integration of social robots into our society. The title of the conference includes the addition „AI“. This is a clarification and demarcation that has to do with the fact that there will be two further formats with the name ICSR in 2024. ICSR’24 (ICSR + AI) will take place as a face-to-face conference in Odense, Denmark, from 23 to 26 October 2024. The theme of this year’s conference is „Empowering Humanity: The role of social and collaborative robotics in shaping our future“. The topics of the Call for Papers include „collaborative robots in service applications (in construction, agriculture, etc.)“, „Human-robot interaction and collaboration“, „Affective and cognitive sciences for socially interactive robots“, and „Context awareness, expectation, and intention understanding“. The general chairs are Oskar Palinko, University of Southern Denmark, and Leon Bodenhagen, University of Southern Denmark. More information is available at icsr2024.dk.
Fig.: The venue of the conference (Photo: Jacob Christensen)
The deadline for the International Conference on Social Robotics 2014 (ICSR 2024) is approaching. Experts in social robotics and related fields have until July 5 to submit their full papers. The prestigious event was last held in Florence (2022) and Qatar (2023). Now it enters its next round. The 16th edition will bring together researchers and practitioners working on human-robot interaction and the integration of social robots into our society. The title of the conference includes the addition „AI“. This is a clarification and demarcation that has to do with the fact that there will be two further formats with the name ICSR in 2024. ICSR’24 (ICSR + AI) will take place as a face-to-face conference in Odense, Denmark, from 23 to 26 October 2024. The theme of this year’s conference is „Empowering Humanity: The role of social and collaborative robotics in shaping our future“. The topics of the Call for Papers include „collaborative robots in service applications (in construction, agriculture, etc.)“, „Human-robot interaction and collaboration“, „Affective and cognitive sciences for socially interactive robots“, and „Context awareness, expectation, and intention understanding“. The general chairs are Oskar Palinko, University of Southern Denmark, and Leon Bodenhagen, University of Southern Denmark. More information is available at icsr2024.dk.
