Editorial: Investigating Human Nature and Communication through Robots

The aim of this research topic was to gather findings and hypothesis on how robotic devices have changed, or may change, ways of communication between people. In the last two decades, people acquired new means for communication; cellphones, e-mail, chat, SNS, and so on. With such communication media, along with the progress in information technologies and devices such as World Wide Web (WWW) and smartphones, ones lifestyle has rapidly changed. We can now talk with others anywhere and anytime, can send and receive not just text or voice but also images, movies to express our ideas and feelings in finer detail. Such changes not only increased the bandwidth and relaxed the distance limitation of communication; they also changed how people communicate with each other. Such changes provided researchers with new sources and methods for investigating human nature such as cognitive properties and sociological tendencies. Now various types of robots that are aimed to work in our daily environment are developed and starting to appear in markets. Some robots can make simple conversation with people autonomously. Some cannot speak but people anthropomorphize them and talk to them. Some work as a mobile video chat system. Robots differ from existing information devices in that they can physically interact with real world objects. They can move round in the world we live, can carry things, can touch people or can be touched by people. You can feel a strong presence of the robot. Having conversation with such robots, or having conversation with other persons through such robots may redefine the meaning of communication. People are starting to apply this new possibility in various fields. Some are making theater performance and art works with robots. Some are trying to use robots as means to understand and to talk to people with cognitive impairments such as dementia and autism. And some are using robots to refine communication with others. Such trials, as well as efforts to refine robots so that people can easily interact with them, are shedding lights on previously unknown human nature; e.g., how we recognize ourselves and others, what it is to have communication with others. In this research topic, human communication with robots or through robots were examined from versatile aspects. Two papers examined how robots or their behavior are recognized by people. Matsuda et al. tested if infant can discriminate androids, a robot with very humanlike appearance. It is well …