2019 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Data Protection in Human-Robot Interaction: A Focus on Healthcare Robots
| Project/Area Number |
19K13579
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| Research Institution | Tohoku University |
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Principal Investigator |
翁 岳暄 東北大学, 学際科学フロンティア研究所, 助教 (40810891)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | Data Protection / Human-Robot Interaction / Robot Law / Privacy by Design / AI Ethics |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The embodiment characteristics of healthcare robots allows for new possibilities for human-robot interaction (HRI) by enabling a wider range of interface development. This impacts their relationship with the law and raises a number of issues. Among these issues, the legal concern about privacy and data protection associated with embodiment in HRI is the main focus of this research project. After a systemic review of the literature on social robotics and HRI, I chose to focus on three key variables for my investigation of embodiment and privacy in HRI: deception, proximity, and safety. The research output of this theoretical review will be published in The Cambridge Handbook on the Law of Algorithms: Human Rights, Intellectual Property, Government Regulation.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The two-year project includes three main parts: A theoretical review, HRI experiments, and comparative legal studies. The theoretical review has been successfully realized. The setup HRI experiments have also been prepared. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the budgets which were originally planned for travel abroad have been adjusted. However, I believe that there are a number technological solutions which should enable international collaboration across the USA, Europe and Japan.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Based on the output of the theoretical review “Embodiment and Algorithms for Human-Robot Interaction” from the Cambridge Handbook, I plan to design a HRI experiment using real healthcare robots for the legal validation of three variables within the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). When considering AI legislation, one problem that arises is that many existing laws might not fit well with emerging AI technologies, because these technologies did not exist when these laws were drafted. To solve this problem, my plan is to use the GDPR as a legal validation to inspect if any legal gap exists when the regulation is applied to social robots via empirical HRI experiments.
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| Causes of Carryover |
The grant in the second year will be used mainly for the empirical study and the other comparative legal study on Embodiment and Privacy in HRI. It covers expenses in personnel, books materials, travel costs, and consumable supplies.
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