ERCIM News No. 130 Special Theme: "Assistive Technologies for a More Accessible and Inclusive Society"

Dear ERCIM News reader, 

Assistive Technologies for a More Accessible and Inclusive Society is the special theme of ERCIM News No.130, just published at https://ercim-news.ercim.eu/ 

ERCIM NEWS 130

This issue's Special Theme presents numerous contributions with studies in the field of assistive technology with different and complementary approaches. This special theme has been coordinated by our guest editors Christine Azevedo Coste (Inria) and Barbara Leporini (ISTI-CNR). 

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Next issue: No. 131, October 2022 Special Theme: "Ethical Software Engineering and Ethically Aligned Design". 

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ERCIM News No. 114 Special Theme "Human-Robot Interaction"

ERCIM News 114

Dear ERCIM News Reader,

ERCIM News No. 114 has just been published at https://ercim-news.ercim.eu/

featuring the Special Theme"Human-Robot Interaction", coordinated by Serena Ivaldi (Inria) and Maria Pateraki (ICS-FORTH)

The section "Research and Innovation" reports on news about research activities and innovative developments from European research institutes.

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Includes:

"Assistive robots and healthcare applications within the context of HRI are discussed in Cesta et al. (page 18), Hindriks et al. (page 20) and Efthimiou et al. (page 21). Cesta et al. present a cognitive architecture combining human perception and AI techniques to infer knowledge about the status of a user and the environment and plan personalised assistive robot actions for elderly people. Hindriks et al. report on their first experiments on a social robot that supports collection of patient data in a hospital, to reduce the workload of nurses. Efthimiou et al. are developing a multimodal user-centred HRI solution that encourages trust and acceptance of assistive robots for elderly people." p.7.

p. 35 Corpus Conversion Service: A Machine Learning Platform to Ingest Documents at Scale
by Michele Dolfi, Christoph Auer, Peter W J Staar and Costas Bekas (IBM Research Zurich)

Next issue:
No. 115  July 2018
Special Theme: "Digital Twins"

Watch this caring space: Workshop - Robots 4 independence

The KT-EQUAL initiative has another event scheduled for later this month, another workshop on the application of technology to improve the quality of life of older people and their carers. Please find the call copied below. The workshop I attended in September and reported on here was very enjoyable and a great source of information and inspiration.

The topic for the 24th November paradoxically sends me back to The Which Computer Shows at the NEC in Birmingham which I used to attend with my father. In the late 80s and 90s the pace of change was clear to see. The topic for the 24th November is Robots and of course they are already everywhere, but the combination of:

• demographic change - ageing population(s)
• hence need to focus the skills and knowledge of the care workforce
• emerging and refinement of safety and quality standards
• design and innovation
• the rise of 'single households'
• mobile comms and ubiquitous computing
• the expectations of the baby-boomer generation (and those who follow!)
• lessons learned through early telecare(?)
• and much more besides

- means that change isn't just on the cards, it's in neural nets, speech synthesis and the programme for this event. So as they say watch this space - it will change and move! Here is a marvellous opportunity to find out what is really happening in this field ....

---

Robots supporting personal independence and rehabilitation

This workshop organised with the University of Hertfordshire will present and discuss the role of technology in the rehabilitation of older people and children, including some of the latest developments in the use of 'robotic' technologies. The perspectives of research scientists, clinicians and users will be explored through presentations, videos and breakout sessions.
Hosted by: University of Hertfordshire
Sponsored by: KT-EQUAL
Event organisers:
Dr Farshid Amirabdollahian, University of Hertfordshire
Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn, University of Hertfordshire
Professor Gail Mountain, KT-EQUAL Director
Verity Smith KT-EQUAL Coordinator
Date: 24 November 2009

Venue: The Comet Hotel (Ramada Hatfield Hotel)
St. Albans Road West
Hatfield, AL10 9RH
Hertfordshire
United Kingdom

This workshop aims to stimulate debate among key stakeholders regarding the nature of assistive technologies developed using the latest developments in robotic technologies.
It will include presentations from experts working across the spectrum of development, from basic technology to neuroscience.
The workshop will be of interest to a wide range of practitioners and policy makers, health and social care practitioners, employers, charitable and government bodies concerned with the needs of older and disabled people, as well as researchers and academics from engineering, biological, social science, medical and health care disciplines especially those who are interested in looking forward to a time when radically new technologies will be available. Older people are especially welcome at this workshop.
There is no charge for attendance just an enthusiasm and interest in extending the quality of life through informed user-focused research and its application. Registration is essential. To book a place, please refer to the registration page.