Cognition and emotions in Japanese humanoid robotics. (3rd April 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Frumer, Yulia
• Is Part Of: History and technology. Volume 34:Isuse 2(2018)
• Page Start: 157
• Page End: 183
• Publication Date: 2018-04-03
• Subjects: Humanoid robots -- Gakutensoku -- uncanny valley -- Nishimura Makoto -- Mori Masahiro -- Ishiguro Hiroshi; Technology -- History -- Periodicals; Technology -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 306.4605
• DOI: 10.1080/07341512.2018.1544344
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0734-1512

Abstract

ABSTRACT: From the beginning of the twentieth century, Japanese roboticists have observed specific features in the physical designs of humanoid robots that cause users to react with either fear or affection. Analyzing the sources of these reactions, robotics egineers eliminated from robots those features that might trigger negative associations, and instead embedded their designs with cues to norms, theories, and cultural references valued by their society. By analyzing Nishimura Makoto's building of an affable artificial human named Gakutensoku, Mori Masahiro's discovery of the phenomenon of the 'uncanny valley', and Ishiguro Hiroshi's current employment of cognitive, social, and psychological sciences to overcome the 'uncanny' impression of his robots, this essay claims that the development of the field of humanoid robotics in Japan was driven by concern with human emotion and cognition, and shaped by Japanese roboticists' own associations with the social and intellectual environments of their time.