Henrik Schärfe

Conceptual Structures in Practice

Presenting perspectives from both the conceptual graph and FCA communities, this volume takes you through the basic yet nontrivial task of establishing conceptual relations as the foundation for research in knowledge representation and knowledge mining. After providing the formal background in FCA and conceptual graphs, it describes various software tools for analysis and computation, including the ToscanaJ suite. Written by the original visionaries of the field, the next section discusses the history and future directions of conceptual structures. The final chapters explore prominent application areas in computer science, including text analysis, web semantics, and intelligent systems.

Android emotions revealed

This work presents a method for designing facial interfaces for sociable android robots with respect to the fundamental rules of human affect expression. Extending the work of Paul Ekman towards a robotic direction, we follow the judgment-based approach for evaluating facial expressions to test in which case an android robot like the Geminoid|DK ---a duplicate of an Original person- reveals emotions convincingly; when following an empirical perspective, or when following a theoretical one. The methodology includes the processes of acquiring the empirical data, and gathering feedback on them. Our findings are based on the results derived from a number of judgments, and suggest that before programming the facial expressions of a Geminoid, the Original should pass through the proposed procedure. According to our recommendations, the facial expressions of an android should be tested by judges, even in cases that no Original is engaged in the android face creation.

A geminoid as lecturer

In this paper we report our findings from an experiment with the tele-operated android Geminoid-DK. The geminoid took up the role of a university lecturer and delivered a 45 minute lecture in front of 150 freshmen students at Aalborg University. While considering the role of the geminoid in this educational context, we report results relating to large-room teaching, as well as gender differences in the perception of the robot.

Plotting to persuade: exploring the theoretical cross field between persuasion and learning

This paper presents a few of the initial reflections related to ongoing research on the notion of Persuasive Learning. In addition the paper briefly comments upon some of the benefits and challenges related to the cross field between persuasive technologies and learning objects, and between persuasion and learning in general.

The Geminoid Reality

Our society is on the borderline of information era, experiencing a transition towards a robotic one. Humanoid and android robots are entering with a steady pace into our everyday lives taking up roles related to companionship, partnership, wellness, healthcare, and education among others. The fusion of information technology, ubiquitous computing, robotics, and android science has generated the Geminoid Reality. The Geminoid is a teleoperated, connected to a computer network, android robot that works as a duplicate of an existing person. A motion-capture system tracks facial expressions, and head movements of the operator, and transmits them to the robot, overriding at run-time the preprogrammed configurations of the robots actuators. The Geminoid Reality is combining the Visual Reality (users’ and robot’s point of view) with an Augmented one (operator’s point of view) into a new kind of mixed reality involving physical embodiment, and representation, causing the ownership transfer, and blended presence phenomena.

Towards a context oriented approach to ethical evaluation of interactive technologies

This paper explores and develops the notion of applying the ethical perspective of Danish philosopher and theologian K.E. Logstrup, when designing and developing interactive technologies. The ethical reflections presented in this paper are currently considered in the development of Persuasive Learning Designs within the EU funded PLOT project, thus enabling this paper to support the argumentation with a practical example of integrating ethical considerations into the different stages of a design process.

Social Robots as Persuasive Agents

The topic of human robot interaction HRI is an important part of human computer interaction HCI. Robots are more and more used in a social context, and in this paper we try to formulate a research agenda concerning ethical issues around social HRI in order to be prepared for future scenarios where robots may be a naturally integrated part of human society. We outline different paradigms to describe the role of social robots in communication processes with humans, and connect HRI with the topic of persuasive technology in health care, to critically reflect the potential benefits of using social robots as persuasive agents. The ability of a robotic system to conform to the demands behaviors, understanding, roles, and tasks that arise from the place the robot is designed to perform, affect the user and his/er sense of place attachment. Places are constantly changing, and so do interactions, thus robotic systems should continually adjust to change by modifying their behavior accordingly.

A Priorean Approach to Time Ontologies

Any non-trivial top-level ontology should take temporal notions into account. The details of how this should be done, however, are frequently debated. In this paper it is argued that “the four grades of tense-logical involvement” suggested by A.N. Prior form a useful framework for discussing how various temporal notions are related in a top-level ontology. Furthermore, a number of modern ontologies are analysed with respect to their incorporation of temporal notions. It is argued that all of them correspond to Prior’s first and second grade, and that none of them reflect the views which Prior’s third and fourth grade represent. Finally, the paper deals with Prior’s ideas on a tensed ontology and it is argued that a logic based on the third grade and will be useful in the further development of tensed ontology.

An open-ended approach to evaluating Android faces

Expectation and intention understanding through nonverbal behavior is a key topic of interest in socially embedded robots. This study presents the results of an open-ended evaluation method pertaining to the interpretation of Android facial expressions by adult subjects through an online survey with video stimuli. An open-ended question yields more spontaneous answers regarding the situation that can be associated with the synthetic emotional displays of an Android face. The robot used was the Geminoid-DK, while communicating the six basic emotions. The filtered results revealed situations highly relevant to the portrayed facial expressions for the emotions of Surprise, Fear, Anger, and Happiness, and less relevant for the emotions of Disgust, and Sadness. Statistical analysis indicated the existence of a moderate degree of correlation between the emotions of Fear-Surprise, and a high degree of correlation between the pair Disgust-Sadness. With a set of validated facial expressions prior to nonverbal emotional communication, androids and other humanoids can convey more accurate messages to their interaction partners, and overcome the limitations of their current limited affective interface.

Branching time as a conceptual structure

This paper deals with the history and the philosophy of some important conceptual structures of time and modality. In particular, the focus is on the historical and philosophical background of the introduction of the notion of branching time as a useful conceptual structure in philosophical logic. It is pointed out that the idea was first suggested by Saul Kripke in a letter to A.N. Prior, dated Sept. 3, 1958. It is also shown in the paper that Prior received the idea positively and that he developed it significantly in his later writings, although he at least in the beginning met the idea with some reservation and hesitation. Priors development of branching time may be understood as a crucial part of his attempt at the formulation of a conceptual framework integrating basic human notions of time, free choice and ethics. Finally, the paper presents some challenges regarding the significance of branching time in philosophy and in the study of information architecture.