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Item Open Access The HRI Journal Publishing Guide [Podcast](2023) Bartneck, ChristophPublishing your human-robot interaction study in a journal is an excellent way to share your insights. But in which journal should you publish and what do the journals expect? In this episode, we talk to editors from the three dedicated HRI journals, Agnieszka Wykowska (International Journal of Social Robotics), Selma Sabanovic (ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction) and Bilge Mutlu (Frontiers in Robotics and AI | Human-Robot Interaction). We talk about Open Access publishing and what the future of scientific publishing might look like. Besides the three dedicated journals, there are also some journals that encourage HRI topics without focusing completely on them. I talked with Kerstin Dautenhahn from the Interaction Studies journal and Ramanarayan Vasudevan from the IEEE Transactions on Robotics.Item Open Access Should I use chatGPT? [Podcast](2023) Bartneck, ChristophShould you use chatGPT for podcasting? I asked chatGPT this question and used Descript’s Overdub feature to voice the response. Generating this episode was quicker than any other I ever created. Is it any good? Probably not. Still, it shows how quickly it is possible to generate superficial content. This might be useful for enabling robots to have superficial conversations with people. Just don’t expect any originality or accuracy.Item Open Access Aldebaran Again - Is this the end of Pepper? [Podcast](2022) Allan, Dwain; Bartneck, ChristophSoftbank Robotics sold their Nao and Pepper robots to the United Robotics Group (URG) which reversed the name of this business back to its orginal “Aldebaran”. In this episode Dwain Allan and I discuss the uncertain future of Nao and Pepper based on direct correspondence with URG. We try to answer the question whether you should still invest in this robotic platform. Is Aldebaran another zombie robotic company?Item Open Access Autonomous Vehicles – Do We Really Know The Risks? [Podcast](2022) Bartneck, ChristophAutonomous Vehicles (AV) are the riskiest form of human-robot interaction. One the one hand they offer unparalleled improvements to the safety and comfort of drivers, passengers and other traffic participants. They also promise to reduce emission. On the other hand, they demand new considerations for trust and responsibilities in human-robot interaction. The field of tension between autonomy, trust and liability can only be manoeuvred on the basis of objective data. Government agencies will have to implement clear obligations and standards for reporting the performances of AVs. This is the only way for consumers to make informed decisions about their purchases and the associated risks. In this podcast episode we will critically review the available data, the market situation and the recent developments.Item Open Access Zombies - Can robots be conscious? [Podcast](2022) Bartneck, ChristophAre robots zombies? This might seem like a strange question at first, but it leads to one of the most important questions in science today: what is consciousness and can robot’s become conscious? These questions fascinate many people. And when Blake Lemoine suggested that Google’s latest AI Lambda had become sentient, it triggered a worldwide media frenzy. In this HRI podcast episode, I talk with Professor Jack Copeland about machine consciousness.Item Open Access Emotions And Consciousness In Robots [Podcast](2022) Bartneck, ChristophIn the last HRI podcast episode we talked about the role of emotions for humans and robots. The interview with Douglas Campbell truly inspired me and there was not enough time in the last episode to go into the full depth of our conversation. So here it is, our full discussion about emotions and consciousness in robots.Item Open Access The Sad Robot [Podcast](2022) Bartneck, ChristophWhat roles do emotions, affect and moods play for humans and robots? We will discuss how robots can sense, reason and express emotions. Furthermore, we talk about if emotions make robots more human. I had the pleasure to talk with Rosalind Picard (MIT), Lola Canamero (CY Cergy Paris University), Hiroshi Ishiguro (Osaka University) and Douglas Campbell (University of Canterbury) about these exciting questions.Item Open Access The Science Beyond the Horizon [Podcast](2021) Bartneck, ChristophPredatory conferences have become a global problem that plagues the scientific community. The Science Horizon Conferences claims to organize ten conference in 2022 in Europe, including the International Conference and Expo on Robotics & Artificial Intelligence. In this podcast episode I investigate this conference and its organizers Shaik Riyaz and Devasai Udarapu. My nonsensical abstract submission passed their peer review process and was accepted for a keynote presentation. I confronted Devasai with this complete lack of academic rigor in an interview. Anton Angelo and David Kaye share their view on this conference, predatory conferences in general and what impact they have on the scientific endeavour.Item Open Access The Story Of Boston Dynamics [Podcast](2022) Allan, Dwain; Bartneck, ChristophBoston Dynamics is the rock star of robotics. It recently featured in a beer commercial during the Super Bowl. How did a company that started as a military contractor become a novelty in beer commercials? Dwain Allan and Christoph Bartneck discuss the past, present and future of the company with Robert Cheek and Stephen Hickson.Item Open Access The Laws Of Robotics [Podcast](2021) Bartneck, ChristophIn our previous podcast episode The Good Robot we discussed the difficulty of enabling robots to act ethically. When talking to journalists or policy makers about machine ethics you frequently get the response, well, Issac Asimov already solved that problem with his three laws of robotics. These laws are so seductively simple that most will intuitively understand them. In this episode of the Human-Robot Interaction podcast, Sean Welsh and I will have a close look at these laws and try to understand why barely anybody has ever tried to use them in their robot.Item Open Access There is method to the madness [Podcast](2020) Bartneck, ChristophThe success of Human Robot Interaction depends on utilizing our understanding of the interaction between humans and robots in the development of new technology. These new technologies then need to be rigorously tested to proof their benefit. In other words, it is time for an HRI study. In this episode we will discuss some of the major decision you need to make when designing a study with Tony Belpaeme who recently published a book chapter entitled “Advice to new human-robot interaction researchers”. Choose wisely, for while the true study will bring you knowledge, the false study will take it from you.Item Open Access Testbed Evaluation of Multi-Travel Mode in Virtual Reality(2020) Sarupuri, Bhuvaneswari; Jung, Sungchul; Hoermann, Simon; Whitton, Mary C.; Lindeman, Robert W.Most VR applications, regardless of travel distance or complexity of the Virtual Environment, provide only a single locomotion technique for users. Often, travel might require different levels of precision and speed (travel time and effort). Different locomotion techniques will produce different levels of comfort (cybersickness and fatigue) for various distances. A single locomotion technique does not satisfy all the requirements. In this paper, we introduce a Multi- Travel mode that uses different pre-selected locomotion techniques for different travel distances. The Multi-Travel mode uses Teleportation for long-distance travel, Touch-pad navigation for medium- distance travel and TriggerWalking for small- distance travel. Often, virtual environments are explored standing up, which is one of the contributing factors of physical fatigue since it involves high energy expenditure compared to sitting. To evaluate the Multi-Travel mode and pose (sitting and standing), we used LUTE, a standard testbed environment for long-, medium-, and short- distance travel. We tested the user performance, usability, and comfort of the between-subjects effect of travel technique (Multi- Travel mode, Teleportation or Thumb-pad locomotion in isolation) and within-subject effect of pose (seated/standing). While Multi-Travel mode did not outperform the other two locomotion techniques, We found that participants prefer sitting while using Touch-pad navigation and prefer standing while using Teleportation. Cybersickness was significantly higher while using Touch-pad navigation compared to Teleportation. In addition, the standing pose resulted in higher collection scores compared to sitting.Item Open Access Why do all social robots fail in the market? [Podcast](2020) Bartneck, ChristophWhile working on our first Human-Robot Interaction textbook, we noticed that almost all the robots mentioned in the book had failed in the market. Our book had become an obituary. I talked with Lundy Lewis, Frederic Kaplan, Amro Najjar, Robert Cheek and Tomas Concha (NTT Disruption) about why almost all social robots failed in the market. The Aibo and Jibo robots are examples of robots that were brought to the market, failed and were resurrected from the dead. One in fame and one in shame.Item Open Access Artificial Artificial Intelligence [Podcast](2020) Bartneck, ChristophAlan Turing devised the Imitation Game as a test the intelligence of machines. This test is also used in human-robot interaction. But what happens if not a computer is trying to convince you that it is a human, but a human is trying to deceive you in thinking he is an artificial intelligence? In this episode we will discuss the Turing Test, the Zach super computer and what it means to think. I interviewed Diane Proudfoot and David Farrier about the Terrible Foundation, Turing Test and Artificial Intelligence.Item Open Access The Good Robot [Podcast](2020) Bartneck, ChristophHumans have asked themselves since the beginning of time “What is good”? While we have some consensus and even laws, teaching a robot to act ethically remains a delicate problem. It certainly requires more than three laws. How can a robot know what to do while operating in an uncertain world? I interviewed Sean Welsh on Ethics in Human-Robot Interaction.Item Open Access The Rise And Fall of ATR [Podcast](2020) Bartneck, ChristophItem Open Access Humans and/or Robots at ATR [Podcast](2020) Bartneck, ChristophItem Open Access Ask your librarian [Podcast](2019) Bartneck, ChristophItem Open Access Sex Robots [Podcast](2019) Bartneck, ChristophIt is not a question if sex robots will become available but only when. Many companies are working on their development with moderate success. While empirical research on the topic is rare, the ethical implications of sex robots have been discussed passionately. Some want to ban them before they even enter the market while others defend the rights of people to own sex toys. For this episode I interviewed David Levy, Robert Sparrow and Eleanor Hancock.Item Open Access The ACE Controversy: Sex, Robots, and Politics [Podcast](2019) Bartneck, ChristophIf these are not enough publicity buzz words, then I do not know what is. In this episode we will look at the epic events around the Advances in Computer Entertainment (ACE 2018) conference and the associated Love And Sex With Robots Congress. The conferences had to be cancelled following a backlash from academics around the conferences’ organisation and in particular in response to the invitation of Steve Bannon as a keynote speaker to the ACE conference. I interviewed Adrian Cheok, David Levy and Yorim Chisik about the drama that unfolded last year. Adrian is now running for office in the Australian elections for the right wing Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party.