About The Guest

Oliver Korn is a full professor for Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and director of the Affective & Cognitive Institute (ACI) at Offenburg University in Germany. He also is a certified Project Manager (German Chamber of Commerce), Senior Member of the ACM and Professional Member of the IEEE. His main areas of research are: Context-aware, Smart Systems, Assistive Technologies & Robotics, Affective Computing, Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality as well as Gaming & Gamification.

In the ACI, he bundles these fields together with an interdisciplinary research team. The overall vision is to enrich environments by intuitive interfaces: “intelligent” systems which can recognize and adapt to the context and ideally also the users’ mental and emotional state. Fun or enjoyment are of particular importance: especially when physical or mental limitations are present, interactive systems should be designed in an appealing way.

Another important concern for him is the communication and dissemination of research results beyond the academic world in the sense of a “Third Mission”. Since 2012, he has been teaching children and young people about scientific topics as part of the program “Research Exchange”. Since 2016, he has produced several science documentary films (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYetO2MEXJ0KMVWyxLXMS1g) and, in 2020, a comprehensive science comic on social robots and AI, which is freely available (https://affective-lab.org/social-robots-a-science-comic/).

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliverkorn/
Comic Book on Social Robots: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/science-comic-social-robots-oliver-korn/?trackingId=CxmGJ1aUQn2P1g2OHmVM1A%3D%3D

About The Episode

Previously on the podcast we have looked at industrial robots a number of times, but there is an entirely different type of robot which doesn’t get explored as much but might have an even more important role to play. Social Robots will be the focus of the discussion today with Oliver Korn the Director of the Affective & Cognitive Institute at Offenburg University in Germany. 

We talk about where social robots are being used today, and why they can even be a better alternative than living creatures in places like elderly care. We also dive into one of the main issues surrounding social robots which deals with whether programming the mimicking of emotion and mannerisms is actually ethical or not. The conversation moves to looking at the challenges for this technology and why they are so far used in limited scope. The episode also explores what the potential future of social robots could look like and what impact an increase in their use in our society would bring.