Would you like a kiss via a robotic messenger?

Recently, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) published an article: Would you kiss someone via robot messenger? Using touch sensitive artificial lips (a robot), called kiss messenger or Kissenger, the little cartoonish robots allow users separated by distance to engage in intimate touch (kisses) - perhaps to augment Skype or Messenger interactions.
 

The technology was developed by Lovotics and AI researcher Hooman Samani (I attended a conference with him a few years ago in the Netherlands).  Lovotics research interests seem to be in pushing the boundaries of human-to-robot interactions.

According to the Lovotics website, Kissenger enables three modes of interaction:

1. Human to Human tele-kiss through the device: bridges the physical gap between two intimately connected individuals. Kissenger plays the mediating role in the kiss interaction by imitating and recreating the lip movement of both users in real time using two digitally connected artificial lips.

2. Human to Robot kiss: enabling an intimate relationship with a robot, such technology provides a new facility for closer and more realistic interactions between humans and robots. In this scenario, one set of artificial lips is integrated in a humanoid robot.

3. Human to Virtual character physical/virtual kiss: provides a link between the virtual and real worlds. Here, humans can kiss virtual characters while playing games and receive physical kisses from their favorite virtual characters. Further, Kissenger can be integrated into modern communication devices to facilitate the interactive communication between natural and technologically mediated environments and enhance human tele-presence.

CBC has asked readers to vote (no, it's not scientific) on whether or not readers might accept a kiss from Kissenger? When I checked the informal poll this morning, 13% (222 voters) of respondents said that yes, they would kiss a loved one or virtual character via Kissenger :). However, 75% (1291 voters) are not tempted whatsoever.
 

As a researcher of social robots and culture, I probably would. Would you?

Conference Updates...

June 5th: I presented my paper: Hacking, Hacktivism and Women: Hacking the Shadow Myth of Technology at the 2008 CCA Annual Conference hosted at UBC. I feel very fortunate to have presented on a wonderful panel comprised of:

Sara Grimes, PhD Candidate, School of Communication, Simon Fraser University
Deconstructing the Girl Gamer: From the "Girls' Games Movement" to "Rule of Rose" and,

Eva Nesselroth-Woyzbun, PhD Student, Ryerson University
The cake is a lie: Defying the dysfunctional matriarch in the game “Portal.”
.....

June 13th: I recently returned from the Netherlands, where I presented: "Looking Forward to Sociable Robots" at the 1st International Conference on Human-Robot Personal Relationships. The conference program included 19 papers and a panel discussion covering a range of human-robot relationship dimensions, including:
* Robot Emotions
* Robot Personalities
* Gender Approaches
* Affective Approaches
* Psychological Approaches
* Sociological Approaches
* Roboethics
* Philosophical Approaches

The media interest was keen, with an entire section of the conference seating reserved for media from Canada, Spain, Netherlands, and beyond.

Stories about the conference have emerged in such publications as the Chronicle of Higher Education:

How to Turn On a Robot

By INGRID NORTON

A man decides whether to purchase a sexbot that can say no. A female robot visits a psychiatrist to cope with an abusive human partner. A traveler stops for directions and wonders afterward if she spoke to a robot or a human.

According to presentations at the First International Conference on Human-Robot Personal Relationships, such scenarios aren't far off. This month academics from around the world met at the University of Maastricht, in the Netherlands, to discuss a not-so-distant future when robots care for the elderly, participate in the military, and are used as sex partners. One speaker gave her talk from California via a robot-mounted view screen.

The conference was organized by David Levy, author of Love and Sex With Robots. In about 40 years, Levy expects artificial intelligence to have progressed to the point where human-robot dating will be commonplace.

"Being loved by a robot?" Levy says. "It sounds a bit weird, but someday, for many, many people, being in love with a robot will be just as good as love with a human."

Conference attendees grappled with other issues of a complicated, roboticized future: Will having perfect, compliant robots make us less patient with vexing human relationships? Will using female robots for cleaning promote gender stereotypes? If you force your robot to have sex with you, is it rape?

Ron Arkin, a professor of computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology who participated in the conference, says the questions aren't spurious. Just as pornography provided incentive for the development of video recording and the Internet, Arkin says, sex will drive robotic developments. "It's gonna be here before we know it," he says. "If the questions aren't asked, the technology will just show up on your doorstep."

Other stories include:

When Robots Live Among Us (Discover: Science, Technology and the Future)

In 2050, Your Lover May be a...Robot

Who's Mating Whom? (The Times of India)

.....

Some of my favorite presentations included:

• Dr. Ronald Arkin (Georgia Institute of Technology) presented a paper on the, "Ethical Aspects of Personal Human-Robot Interaction."

• Professor Sally Wyatt (Universiteit Maastricht) presented interesting insights from feminist theories of technology and STS perspectives to the field of human-robot personal interaction in a talk entitled: "Me Robot, You Jane."

• Dr. Anne Foerst (St. Bonaventure University, New York) presented "The Community of Human and Non-Human Persons."