Emotional Machines: Research Project on Interaction between People and Robots

Japanese Studies Scholar Elena Giannoulis Receives ERC Starting Grant for Project on Technological Transformation of Intimacy in Japan. ' 311/2016 from Sep 22, 2016 Elena Giannoulis, a junior professor of Japanese studies at Freie Universität Berlin, is receiving a Starting Grant amounting to 1.5 million euros over five years from the European Research Council (ERC) to investigate human-robot interaction. Giannoulis will deal with the increasing ability of robots and other affect-reading devices to detect and interpret emotions in humans and to interact with humans on an emotional level. One of the theses of the project is that this interaction will change both the state of scientific knowledge about human emotions as well as the emotions themselves. In addition, the project considers the possibilities for emotion robots to increase the human ability to form affective bonds with machines, in particular, outside of traditional social structures. This study focuses on Japanese society, where robots that can communicate with humans increasingly play a role in everyday life. The study will also investigate the consequences of this development with regard to intimacy as a fundamental component for the formation of social structures.