Pixelspaces I: Human Robot Harmony – Humanoid Robot „Honda ASIMO“
Ars Electronica Futurelab and Honda R&D are currently conducting collaborative research into the next generation-relationship between humans and robots. From industrial robots supporting the production process to humanoid robots, many researchers have explored the range of possibilities for robots. Recently, these robot technologies are integrated mostly with information technology, and we see the robotization of physical space emerging. Therefore the applied research contains important questions, such as how will we integrate technologies like the “Humanoid Robot ASIMO” into our daily life, and how we can influence human acceptance and coexistence.
Pixelspaces II: Playing Beyond Borders
Real experiences and emotions play an important role for the immersive embedding of users in interactive entertainment & media formats that display great future promise. Here, the boundary between reality and virtuality becomes increasingly blurred. Interaction is considered the crux of modern digital media; it enables a global and mobile society to engage in new forms of exchange and encounter. Within the scope of this research, we are endeavoring to identify possibilities of how to playfully combine technology and entertainment, and what could serve as the basis of this fusion.
Pixelspaces III: Beyond the facade
The possibilities of integrating media design in architecture are vast and we have just begun to explore what we can do beyond putting big screens on façades. By converting the walls into a membrane for the dialog between the city and the citizens, we can construct attractive experiences that communicate the story of a building – be it commercial, as in retail environments, or educational, as in museums. We can respond to the need to find our way through endless corridors with the opportunity to create challenging artistic works.
Pixelspaces IV: The Labs as Repairshops?
If labs want to continue to lodge a claim to design excellence that they have rightfully earned, we’ll have to deal with the world around us. Incessantly progressing global warming, he widening of the so-called digital gap between urban areas and regions with lower-grade infrastructure and between industrialized and developing countries are just a few of the scenarios on which labs are expected to take a stand. The labs of the future will (have to) deploy their entire creative potential in order to utilize technology as a means of bringing about advances in other sectors (like social welfare and education) that have a major impact on culture.