Actor & Avatar: A Scientific and Artistic Catalog

What kind of relationship do we have with artificial beings (avatars, puppets, robots, etc.)? What does it mean to mirror ourselves in them, to perform them or to play trial identity games with them? Actor & Avatar addresses these questions from artistic and scholarly angles. Contributions on the making of "technical others" and philosophical reflections on artificial alterity are flanked by neuroscientific studies on different ways of perceiving living persons and artificial counterparts. The contributors have achieved a successful artistic-scientific collaboration with extensive visual material

Customer Responses to Service Robots – Comparing Human-Robot Interaction with Human-Human Interaction

This paper investigates how service failures affect customers by comparing human-robot interactions with human-human interactions. More specifically, it compares customers’ satisfaction in a service robot interaction depending on a service failure with the customers’ satisfaction in a frontline service employee interaction. On a theoretical basis, extant literature on the uncanny valley paradigm proposed that service robots would create lower satisfaction than human frontline employees would. However, I find that service robots could keep up with human frontline employees. Based on an extensive literature research on service failures, I propose that customer satisfaction after a service failure declines far less for a human frontline employee compared with a service robot. Nevertheless, I find evidence that service robots create even higher customer satisfaction than human frontline employees after the exactly similar service failure. I base my findings on an experimental laboratory study with 120 student participants and the service robot “Pepper” from Softbank Corp

Towards the techno-social Uncanny

This paper explores a technical unfinished half-method [Halbzeug] of a metaphorology (Blumenberg) of the technological other in its variations and the philosophical mise-en-scène of the techno-social uncanny. The roboticist Mori had revived the concept of a technological uncanny in human machine interaction in the spatial metaphor derived from a diagram of an uncanny valley in the reaction of a human being shaking an artificial hand in order to show why we feel a certain eeriness in relation to technological artefacts, a topic that gains importance today to reflect human technological automata relations with robots/AI/Avatars that mimic and socially resonate with humans and may even drive further technological transhumanism. Although in an artefact design approach uncanniness is said to be avoided in the human-like automaton-human encounter this paper dwells on the critic of techno-social otherness avoidance by technological overcoming of obstacles and thus argues for a cybernetic uncanny that can’t be avoided. This paper introduces in a broader sense than Mori’s a philosophical dramaturgy of Emmanuel Levinas’ temporal notion of the relation to the other, including a preliminary metaphorological variation of the temporal techno-social uncanny.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Uncanniliy Human - Experimental Investigation of the Uncanny Valley Phenomenon

Seit seiner Einführung in den wissenschaftlichen Diskurs im Jahr 1970 (Mori, 1970; Mori et al., 2012) ist das Uncanny Valley eine der meist diskutierten und referenzierten Theorien in der Robotik. Obwohl die Theorie vor mehr als 40 Jahren postuliert wurde, wurde sie kaum empirisch untersucht. Erst in den letzten sieben Jahren haben Wissenschaftler aus dem Bereich Robotik, aber auch aus anderen Disziplinen, angefangen, das Uncanny Valley systematischer zu erforschen. Allerdings blieben bisher viele Fragen offen. Einiger dieser Fragen wurden in dem vorliegenden Forschungsprojekt im Rahmen von vier aufeinander aufbauenden Studien untersucht. Der Schwerpunkt der Arbeit liegt auf der systematischen Untersuchung des Einflusses von statischen und dynamischen Merkmalen von Robotern, wie etwa dem Design bzw. Erscheinungsbild und der Bewegung, auf die Wahrnehmung und Evaluation von diesen Robotern. Eine Besonderheit der vorliegenden Arbeit ist der multi-methodologische Ansatz, bei dem die durch verschiedenste Methoden und Messinstrumente beobachteten Effekte auf ihre Relevanz für die Uncanny Valley Theorie hin untersucht wurden. Zudem wurden die in der bisherigen Literatur postulierten Erklärungsansätze für den Uncanny Valley Effekt empirisch getestet. In der ersten Studie wurde anhand von qualitativen Interviews, in denen Probanden Bilder und Videos von humanoiden und androiden Robotern gezeigt wurden, untersucht, wie Probanden sehr menschenähnliche Roboter evaluieren, ob sie emotionale Reaktionen zeigen, und wie ihre Einstellungen gegenüber diesen Robotern sind. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass emotionale Reaktion, wenn überhaupt vorhanden, individuell sehr verschieden ausfallen. Das Erscheinungsbild der Roboter war sehr wichtig, denn bestimmte Designmerkmale wurden mit bestimmten Fähigkeiten gleichgesetzt. Ein menschliches Erscheinungsbild ohne Funktionalität wurde eher negativ bewertet. Zudem schienen die Probanden bei androiden Robotern dieselben Maßstäbe zur Bewertung von Attraktivität anzulegen wie sie dies bei Menschen tun. Die Analyse zeigte auch die Relevanz der Bewegungen der Roboter und des Kontextes, in welchem der jeweilige Roboter präsentiert wurde. Es wurde erste Evidenz gefunden für die Annahme, dass Menschen Unsicherheit verspüren bei der Kategorisierung von androiden Robotern als entweder Roboter oder Mensch. Zudem fühlten sich die Probanden unwohl bei dem Gedanken, dass Roboter sie ersetzten könnten. Die zweite Studie untersuchte den Einfluss von robotischer Bewegung. In einem quasi-experimentellen Feldexperiment wurden Passanten mit dem androiden Roboter Geminoid HI-1 konfrontiert, der sich entweder still verhielt oder Bewegungsverhalten zeigte. Die Interaktionen wurden analysiert hinsichtlich des nonverbalen Verhaltens der Passanten (z.B. auf den Roboter gerichtete Aufmerksamkeit, interpersonale Distanz zum Roboter). Die Resultate zeigen, dass das Verhalten der Passanten von dem Verhalten des Roboters beeinflusst wurde, zum Beispiel waren die Interaktionen länger, die Probanden stellten mehr Blickkontakt her und testeten die Fähigkeiten des Roboters wenn dieser Bewegungsverhalten zeigte. Zudem diente das Verhalten des Roboters als Hinweisreiz für die richtige Kategorisierung des Roboters als solchen. Der Aspekt des Erscheinungsbildes wurde in der dritten Studie systematisch untersucht. Zu diesem Zweck wurden in einem webbasierten Fragebogen 40 standardisierte Bilder von Robotern evaluiert, um die Evaluation beeinflussende Designmerkmale zu identifizieren. Eine Clusteranalyse ergab sechs Cluster von Robotern, die auf sechs Dimensionen unterschiedlich bewertet wurden. Mögliche Beziehungen zwischen Designmerkmalen und Evaluationen der Cluster wurden aufgezeigt und diskutiert. Zudem wurde die Aussagekraft des Uncanny Valley Graphen untersucht. Ausgehend von Mori’s Überlegungen ist der Uncanny Valley Effekt eine kubische Funktion. Demnach müssten sich die Daten am besten durch eine kubische Funktion erklären lassen. Die Ergebnisse zeigten allerdings eine bessere Modellpassung für lineare oder quadratische Zusammenhänge. In der letzten Studie wurden perzeptions-orientiert und evolutionsbiologische Erklärungsansätze für das Uncanny Valley systematisch getestet. In dieser Studie wurden Daten aus Selbstauskunft, Verhaltensdaten und funktionelle Bildgebung kombiniert, um zu untersuchen ob sich die Effekte auf Basis der Selbstauskunft und der Verhaltensdaten erklären lassen durch a) zusätzliche Verarbeitungsleistung während der Perzeption von Gesichtern, b) automatisch ablaufende Prozesse sozialer Kognition, oder c) eine Überempfindlichkeit des sogenannten Verhaltensimmunsystems (behavioral immune system). Die Ergebnisse unterstützen die perzeptions-orientierten Erklärungen für den Uncanny Valley Effekt. Zum einen scheinen die Verhaltenseffekte durch neuronale Prozesse während der Wahrnehmung von Gesichtern begründet zu sein. Zum anderen gibt es Befunde, die auf eine kategoriale Wahrnehmung von Robotern und Menschen hinweisen. Evolutionsbiologische Erklärungen konnten durch die vorliegenden Daten nicht gestützt werden.Since its introduction into scientific discourse in 1970 (Mori, 1970; Mori et al., 2012) the uncanny valley has been a highly discussed and referenced theory in the field of robotics. Although the theory was postulated more than 40 years ago, it has barely been tested empirically. However, in the last seven years robot scientists addressed themselves to the task of investigating the uncanny valley more systematically. But there are still open questions, some of which have been addressed within this research in the course of four consecutive studies. This project focussed on the systematic investigation of how static and dynamic characteristics of robots such as appearance and movement determine evaluations of and behavior towards robots. The work applied a multi-methodological approach and the various observed effects were examined with regard to their importance for the assumed uncanny valley. In addition, previously proposed explanations for the uncanny valley effect were tested. The first study utilized qualitative interviews in which participants were presented with pictures and videos of humanoid and android robots to explore participants’ evaluations of very human-like robots, their attitudes about these robots, and their emotional reactions towards these robots. Results showed that emotional experiences, if existent, were very individual. The robots’ appearance was of great importance for the participants, because certain characteristics were equalized with certain abilities, merely human appearance without a connected functionality was not appreciated, and human rules of attractiveness were applied to the android robots. The analysis also demonstrated the importance of the robots’ movements and the social context they were placed in. First evidence was found supporting the assumption that participants experienced uncertainty how to categorize android robots (as human or machine) and that they felt uncomfortable at the thought to be replaced by robots. The influence of movement, as one of the important factors in the uncanny valley hypothesis, was examined in the second study. In a quasi-experimental observational field study people were confronted with the android robot Geminoid HI-1 either moving or not moving. These interactions between humans and the android robot were analyzed with regard to the participants’ nonverbal behavior (e.g. attention paid to the robot, proximity). Results show that participants’ behavior towards the android robot was influenced by the behavior the robot displayed. For instance, when the robot established eye-contact participants engaged in longer interactions, also established more eye-contact and tried to test the robots’ capabilities. The robot’s behavior served as cue for the participants to categorize the robot as such. The aspect of robot appearances was examined systematically in the third study in order to identify certain robot attractiveness indices or design characteristics which determine how people perceive robots. A web-based survey was conducted with standardized pictures of 40 different mechanoid, humanoid and android robots. A cluster analysis revealed six clusters of robots which were rated significantly different on six dimensions. Possible relationships of design characteristics and the evaluation of robots have been outlined. Moreover, it has been tested whether the data of this study can best be explained by a cubic funtion as would be suggested by the graph proposed by Mori. Results revealed that the data can be best explained by linear or quadratic relationships. The last study systematically tested perception-oriented and evolutionary-biological approaches for the uncanny valley. In this multi-methodological study, self-report and behavioral data were combined with functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques in order to examine whether the observed effects in self-report and behavior occur due to a) additional processing during face perception of human and robotic stimuli, b) automatically elicited processes of social cognition, or c) oversensitivity of the behavioral immune system. The study found strong support for perception-oriented explanations for the uncanny valley effect. First, effects seem to be driven by face perception processes. Further, there were indicators for the assumption that categorical perception takes place. In the contrary, evolutionary-biological driven explanations assuming that uncanny valley related reactions are due to oversensitivity of the behavioral immune system were not supported by this work. Altogether, this dissertation explored the importance of characteristics of robots which are relevant for the uncanny valley hypothesis. Uncanny valley related responses were examined using a variety of measures, for instance, self-reporting, behavior, and brain activation, allowing conclusions with regard to the influence of the choice of measurements on the detection of uncanny valley related responses. Most importantly, explanations for the uncanny valley were tested systematically and support was found for cognitive-oriented and perception-oriented explanations

Human or Robot?: Investigating voice, appearance and gesture motion realism of conversational social agents

Research on creation of virtual humans enables increasing automatization of their behavior, including synthesis of verbal and nonverbal behavior. As the achievable realism of different aspects of agent design evolves asynchronously, it is important to understand if and how divergence in realism between behavioral channels can elicit negative user responses. Specifically, in this work, we investigate the question of whether autonomous virtual agents relying on synthetic text-to-speech voices should portray a corresponding level of realism in the non-verbal channels of motion and visual appearance, or if, alternatively, the best available realism of each channel should be used. In two perceptual studies, we assess how realism of voice, motion, and appearance influence the perceived match of speech and gesture motion, as well as the agent\u27s likability and human-likeness. Our results suggest that maximizing realism of voice and motion is preferable even when this leads to realism mismatches, but for visual appearance, lower realism may be preferable. (A video abstract can be found at https://youtu.be/arfZZ-hxD1Y.

Children and computers: collected works (1995–2014)

This commentary focuses on my photographic and film work that takes the relationship between children and computers as its theme. The text opens with a description of my earliest digital research project In a Shaded Place (1995), which explored the introduction of computers into early learning. I then go on to discuss a series of projects that focus similarly on the relationship between children and digital culture from this period to 2014. Over a series of chapters I discuss my own practice in relation to the early impact of the computer on photography, the impact of the introduction of the Internet on children and the development and impact of computer gaming on young people. I also discuss the enduring interest in childhood as a theme in photography, reflecting on the work of key artists, curators and writers working in my field whom I have exhibited and been published alongside over the period covered by the commentary. All of the projects included here address the question: How has the computer (and, by extension, the information age) affected the ways in which we describe and depict ourselves? Over the period covered by this commentary there has an unprecedented shift in the understanding of the role and function of photography. There has also been a marked shift in attitude to the representation of the child in society. Both of these subjects have deeply informed my practice. I conclude my commentary with a description and analysis of my 2009 project The Skater and a description of what I perceive as my own contribution to new knowledge, which includes the impact of my work on the understanding of the representation for the child in photography and also its implied critique of the impact of the computer on photography at the beginning of the digital age

The uncanny valley of a virtual animal.

Virtual robots, including virtual animals, are expected to play a major role within affective and aesthetic interfaces, serious games, video instruction, and the personalization of educational instruction. Their actual impact, however, will very much depend on user perception of virtual characters as the uncanny valley hypothesis has shown that the design of virtual characters determines user experiences. In this article, we investigated whether the uncanny valley effect, which has already been found for the human-like appearance of virtual characters, can also be found for animal-like appearances. We conducted an online study (N = 163) in which six different animal designs were evaluated in terms of the following properties: familiarity, commonality, naturalness, attractiveness, interestingness, and animateness. The study participants differed in age (under 10–60 years) and origin (Europe, Asia, North America, and South America). For the evaluation of the results, we ranked the animal-likeness of the character using both expert opinion and participant judgments. Next to that, we investigated the effect of movement and morbidity. The results confirm the existence of the uncanny valley effect for virtual animals, especially with respect to familiarity and commonality, for both still and moving images. The effect was particularly pronounced for morbid images. For naturalness and attractiveness, the effect was only present in the expert-based ranking, but not in the participant-based ranking. No uncanny valley effect was detected for interestingness and animateness. This investigation revealed that the appearance of virtual animals directly affects user perception and thus, presumably, impacts user experience when used in applied settings

Machine Performers: Agents in a Multiple Ontological State

In this thesis, the author explores and develops new attributes for machine performers and merges the trans-disciplinary fields of the performing arts and artificial intelligence. The main aim is to redefine the term “embodiment” for robots on the stage and to demonstrate that this term requires broadening in various fields of research. This redefining has required a multifaceted theoretical analysis of embodiment in the field of artificial intelligence (e.g. the uncanny valley), as well as the construction of new robots for the stage by the author. It is hoped that these practical experimental examples will generate more research by others in similar fields. Even though the historical lineage of robotics is engraved with theatrical strategies and dramaturgy, further application of constructive principles from the performing arts and evidence from psychology and neurology can shift the perception of robotic agents both on stage and in other cultural environments. In this light, the relation between representation, movement and behaviour of bodies has been further explored to establish links between constructed bodies (as in artificial intelligence) and perceived bodies (as performers on the theatrical stage). In the course of this research, several practical works have been designed and built, and subsequently presented to live audiences and research communities. Audience reactions have been analysed with surveys and discussions. Interviews have also been conducted with choreographers, curators and scientists about the value of machine performers. The main conclusions from this study are that fakery and mystification can be used as persuasive elements to enhance agency. Morphologies can also be applied that tightly couple brain and sensorimotor actions and lead to a stronger stage presence. In fact, if this lack of presence is left out of human replicants, it causes an “uncanny” lack of agency. Furthermore, the addition of stage presence leads to stronger identification from audiences, even for bodies dissimilar to their own. The author demonstrates that audience reactions are enhanced by building these effects into machine body structures: rather than identification through mimicry, this causes them to have more unambiguously biological associations. Alongside these traits, atmospheres such as those created by a cast of machine performers tend to cause even more intensely visceral responses. In this thesis, “embodiment” has emerged as a paradigm shift – as well as within this shift – and morphological computing has been explored as a method to deepen this visceral immersion. Therefore, this dissertation considers and builds machine performers as “true” performers for the stage, rather than mere objects with an aura. Their singular and customized embodiment can enable the development of non-anthropocentric performances that encompass the abstract and conceptual patterns in motion and generate – as from human performers – empathy, identification and experiential reactions in live audiences