Positive Technology Journal

• "Designing technology to meet the needs of the older user", edited by Eva Lindh Waterworth and John Waterworth
• "Mobile media and communication – reconfiguring human experience and social practices?", edited by Ilkka Arminen
• "Emerging trends in Cybertherapy", edited by Giuseppe Riva and Brenda K. Wiederhold

Calls for papers and deadlines are available at the following address

Via Usability News

 

DOWNLOAD CALL (RTF FORMAT)

This workshop aims at exploring the techno-ethics of human interactions with adaptive and cognitive systems developed in the framework of Robotics, Bionics, and Artificial Intelligence. These interactions notably include:

 

•  human-robot non-invasive interactions, involving autonomous robots which inhabit human environments;

•  human-machine invasive interactions, involving bionic systems for restoring or enhancing human functionalities;

•  human-softbot interactions, involving AI systems for information access and communication.

Critical ethical issues arising in these domains concern

•  preservation and promotion of human freedom, rights, and identity;

•  fair access to adaptive machinery resources;

•  scientific method and techno-ethical policies;

•  precautionary principles in human-machine interactions;

•  responsibilities for cooperative human-machine deliberation and action;

•  machine autonomy and accountability;

•  individual and societal impact of human-machine cognitive and affective bonds;

•  intercultural aspects of robot development, design, and use.

 

The joint effort of researchers in various areas of inquiry - including robotics, bionics, the cognitive (neuro-)sciences, artificial intelligence, anthropology, philosophy, and law - is needed to identify and analyze techno-ethical issues concerning the interaction of human beings with adaptive and cognitive machines. This workshop aims at providing a multidisciplinary forum for discussing these techno-ethical issues and understanding their import on the proper implementation of ethical monitoring, triaging, warning, and institutional opinion generation.

The workshop is supported by the ETHICBOTS European Project (http://ethicbots.na.infn.it).

Scientific Board (to be completed): Daniela Cerqui (Switzerland), Paolo Dario (Italy), Rüdiger Dillmann (Germany), Armin Grunwald (Germany), Alan Mackworth (Canada), Abbe Mowshowitz (USA) Brian O'Connell (USA), Richard Rosenberg (Canada), Jutta Weber (Austria).

Organizing committee: Rafael Capurro (Hochschule der Medien, Stuttgart, GER), Raja Chatila (LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse, FR), Thomas Christaller (Fraunhofer Institut-AIS, Sankt Augustin, GER), Adriano Fabris (Università di Pisa, IT), Satinder Gill (Middlesex University, London, UK), Alessandro Giordani (Facoltà di Teologia, Lugano, CH), Cecilia Laschi (Scuola Superiore S. Anna, Pisa, IT), Guglielmo Tamburrini (Università Federico II, Napoli, IT), Gianmarco Veruggio (Scuola di Robotica, Genova, IT), Kevin Warwick (Dept. of Cybernetics, University of Reading, UK)

Important dates:

Extended abstract (max 4 pages) : Submission by June 15, 2006

Acceptance notification for the workshop working notes : By 15 July, 2006.Post-conference publications : Journals 2007 special issues

Venue : Centro Congressi Università di Napoli Federico II, Via Partenope 36, 80121 Napoli, Italy http://www.centrocongressi.unina.it/lungomare/lungomare.h...

Fees: 75 euros. Free admission for students.

The study was conducted with Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Investigational Device Exemptions (IDE) approval. Six patients, four females and two males, with an average age of 48, were enrolled in the study from 2003 to 2005. All six patients had a history of being highly resistant to other treatments, including medication, psychotherapy, and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Bilateral DBS leads were implanted stereotactically in a region of the brain known as the ventral anterior internal capsule.
 
Participants underwent standardized and detailed psychiatric, quality-of-life, and neuropsychological assessments on a regularly scheduled basis, both pre- and postsurgically. At a minimum of six months postsurgery, four of the six patients showed a clinically significant reduction in depression severity of 50 percent or greater on the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale. Quality-of-life measures improved as well, and patients showed progressive improvements in mood and functioning over time. One patient experienced persistent occipital pain that was alleviated with repositioning of a subcutaneous connector wire.