Future Roles for Android Robots -Survey and Trial Tomoya Hoshikawa Osaka University Osaka, Japan hoshikawa.tomoya@irl.sys.es.osaka- u.ac.jp Kohei Ogawa Osaka University Osaka, Japan ogawa@irl.sys.es.osaka- u.ac.jp Hiroshi Ishiguro Osaka University Osaka, Japan ishiguro@irl.sys.es.osaka- u.ac.jp ABSTRACT The future role of android robots is discussed. Survey results reveal that people are capable of viewing androids as compan- ions and will accept androids operating in various roles within human society; however, people are uncomfortable with an- droids operating in roles in which they are able to persuade humans to do something, affect humans’ minds, or supervise young children. To examine people’s response to an actual android robot within human society, an android capable of operating as “lecturer” was implemented and an evaluative experiment conducted. It was found that androids can evoke feelings of attentiveness that are much stronger than those evoked by existing media. Furthermore, use of the lecturer android did not improve efficiency. It is possible that people expected the android to have human-like abilities because of its human-like appearance. However, regardless of the cause, it is clear from the experiment that it is necessary to program androids with more human-like functions if they are to fill useful roles within human society. Author Keywords android; human-robot interaction; role of robot ACM Classification Keywords I.2.9. Robotics: Commercial robots and applications I INTRODUCTION In recent years, there has been growing interest in robots play- ing an active role in everyday life[4][6]. There have been sev- eral studies on robot substitutes for humans[7] [17] as well as on communication robots providing people with informa- tion[2] [15]. It is expected that robots will fulfill roles within human society in the future. Android robots, which have a very human-like appearance, have been used in several studies. Sakamoto et al. have re- ported that tele-operating systems operated by androids cre- ate a stronger sense of connection with the people using such systems than can be achieved by a standard telephone sys- tem[13]. Furthermore, it has also been found that patients Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full cita- tion on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or re- publish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from Permissions@acm.org. HAI 2015, October 21-24, 2015, Daegu, Kyungpook, Republic of Korea Copyright ©2015 ACM. ISBN 978-1-4503-3527-0/15/10$15.00. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2814940.2814960 tend to accept androids as hospital staff [16]. A study by Nishio et al.[11] reveals that an android operator’s sense of body ownership transfers to the android during operation. The human-like appearance of androids, one of the most no- table android characteristics, may cause humans to accept an- droids in the aforementioned roles. When we install a new media like androids, several consider- ations from several points of view are necessary. For instance, we must consider whether the new media is more useful than existing media, taking cost into consideration as well. To date, researchers’ intuition has been used to determine which situations are best for android use[11][13][16]. Androids are a very new form of media and few examples exist of their installation within human society. Thus, there is very little evidence making it completely clear, one way or the other, whether androids are actually useful in any given situation or role; likewise, there is little clarification regarding situations in which androids may be most helpful. Implementing an ap- plication that uses androids may prove useful in determining future android use from a subjective point of view. There is a general assumption that androids may serve as human companions, working with and communicating with general citizens. For this reason, this study focuses on the general public’s impressions of androids. Before adopting an application that uses androids, one of the most important fac- tors to consider is whether or not the android will be accepted in that scene and role. Daustenhahn et al.[3] have investigated the future relation- ship between nonhumanoid robots and humans. There are many kinds of robots, some of which are humanoid and some of which are more robotic in appearance. These different robotic characteristics of (for example, appearance and func- tions) could determine in which situations a robot may be use- ful. Although androids, which have a human-like appearance, are expected to work closely with humans, few studies have attempted to consider their actual use. It is unclear, for instance, whether androids will be useful in the roles expected of them. Questions of whether androids can successfully fill their role in human society by imple- menting present technology and what kind of elements should be implemented to solve potential problems still remain. To answer these questions, we must clarify the effectiveness of using androids in human society as well as the responses peo- ple have concerning androids. Comparing androids to exist- ing media and investigating the effectiveness of systems that 41