Christoph Bartneck, Author at Christoph Bartneck, Ph.D.

Adjustable nose bridge for swimming goggles

Pierre Magadur from the French Polytech Angers Engineering School worked on an internship project at the University of Canterbury. His goal was to find a better solution for adjusting the nose bridge for swimming goggles. Somehow they never seem to fit perfectly. Some manufacturers supply 3-4 sizes while others use a simple string. Still, adjusting them to individual needs remains difficult.

Pierre designed a solution that can be fitted to any goggles. The prototype is a proof of concept and focuses on the mechanical solution. Here is a little video on how the design works:

Continue reading “Adjustable nose bridge for swimming goggles”

The Dorian Gray Refutation

The limitations of theories

I finally published an article with a title that could be from The Big Bang Theory: The Dorian Gray Refutation. It is an open peer commentary for the article “Social robots as depictions of social agents” in the Behavioral and Brain Sciences journal. Here is the abstract:

Theories are an integral part of the scientific endeavour. The target article proposes interesting ideas for a theory on human–robot interaction but lacks specificity that would enable us to properly test this theory. No empirical data are yet available to determine its predictive power.

New Zealanders respond to strict regulation of artificial intelligence

What a national survey reveals about AI in New Zealand

We just published the article “Personality and demographic correlates of support for regulating artificial intelligence” in the AI and Ethics journal. We analysed data from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study survey that collected around 48 thousand responses from New Zealanders. The survey asked them if they support the strict regulation limiting the development and use of Artificial Intelligence. We analysed if the response to this question is related to the respondent’s personality and social economic indicators.

Data revealed that support for strict regulation of AI is positively related with agreeableness, neuroticism, and honesty–humility. However, it is negatively related to openness to experiences. Being female, older, non-European, religious, being single, a parent, living rural, being born in NZ, and living in a more economically deprived region were all related to support for strict regulation of AI. However, how secure one felt in their current job and one’s level of education were not significantly related to their support for the strict regulation of AI.

This study will inform policy makers and technology companies on how New Zealanders feel about AI. You can read the full article for free from this address: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-023-00279-4

Robots, AI and Culture Symposium

I will be giving a talk at the Robots, AI and Culture Symposium on 8 February 2023 in Sydney. Come by and join this exciting event.

Here is the video of the event:

HAI2022 Conference has started

The 10th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction has started at UC in Christchurch. The conference proceedings are available at the ACM Digital Library. Two years of hard work and planning are coming together.