[humaine news] Call for Commentaries on "Robot Nannies" (target article in journal Interaction Studies)

[Kerstin Dautenhahn]

Dear colleagues,

For those of you interested in the use of robots in everyday environments, 
and specifically in the use of robots as toys, interaction partners or 
possible caretakers of children, or ethical issues involving human-robot 
interaction, the following target article and call for commentaries might 
be of interest:

The article  The crying shame of robot nannies: an ethical appraisal by 
Noel Sharkey and Amanda Sharkey has been accepted as a target article to 
appear in 2010 in the journal Interaction Studies: Social Behaviour and 
Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems, published by John 
Benjamins Publishing Company (2008 Impact Factor: 1.359).
http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_seriesview.cgi?series=IS

We are inviting commentaries (up to 2000 words) on this article, the 
abstract is included below and the final accepted version is available at: 
http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqkd/SharkeyandSharkey-TargetArticle-IS.pdf

Interaction Studies is an interdisciplinary journal and we invite 
commentaries from various viewpoints and disciplines.

Deadlines:

If you intend to submit a commentary please contact the 
k.dautenhahn at herts.ac.uk as soon as possible, stating your proposed title 
and (briefly) the key message that you would like to address in your 
commentary.

Submission of commentaries (to k.dautenhahn at herts.ac.uk): 31 October 2009 
(PDF, up to 2000 words)

Notification: 20 November 2009
Final version of accepted commentaries to be submitted: 15 December 2009
Publication of target article and commentaries: Interaction Studies, 
volume 11, 2010

Regards,

Kerstin Dautenhahn

--------------------

Prof. Dr. Kerstin Dautenhahn
Editor in Chief of Interaction Studies
http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_seriesview.cgi?series=IS
Professor of Artificial Intelligence, University of Hertfordshire
http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqkd/

---------------------

Abstract of target article:

Childcare robots are being manufactured and developed with the long term 
aim of creating surrogate carers. While total child-care is not yet being 
promoted, there are indications that it is on the cards. We examine recent 
research and developments in childcare robots and speculate on progress 
over the coming years by extrapolating from other ongoing robotics work. 
Our main aim is to raise ethical questions about the part or full-time 
replacement of primary carers. The questions are about human rights, 
privacy, robot use of restraint, deception of children and accountability. 
But the most pressing ethical issues throughout the paper concern the 
consequences for the psychological and emotional wellbeing of children. We 
set these in the context of the child development literature on the 
pathology and causes of attachment disorders. We then consider the 
adequacy of current legislation and international ethical guidelines on 
the protection of children from the overuse of robot care.

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Prof. Dr. Kerstin Dautenhahn
Professor of Artificial Intelligence
Adaptive Systems Research Group
The University of Hertfordshire, School of Computer Science
College Lane, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 9AB, United Kingdom
URL: http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~comqkd
E-mail: K.Dautenhahn at herts.ac.uk
Fax: +44-1707-284-303  Tel: +44-1707-284-333