Professor Rosa Maria Ballardini and Professor of Practice Rob van den Hoven van Genderen. Photo: Ville Rinne.
Professor Rosa Maria Ballardini and Professor of Practice Rob van den Hoven van Genderen have received a Business Finland funding of 351,500 euros as a part of a research consortium which will study and develop physical spaces with emotionally aware, intelligent, and integrated services. Within the project, they will focus on the legal and ethical concerns which are affiliated with such technologies.
Although it is known that emotions can influence our way of living and
our experiences, conditioning our wellbeing, current technologies are
failing to read and interpret them. Human-technology interoperability
and artificial emotional intelligence (HIPE) research project by VTT,
the Faculty of Law at the University of Lapland and several business
partners aims to enhance physical spaces with emotionally aware,
intelligent, and integrated services that can respond to the demand and
expectations of users – at work or home, in school or cars, in public or
private spaces.
Within the project, Professor Rosa Maria
Ballardini and Professor of Practice Rob van den Hoven van Genderen will
focus on the legal and ethical concerns which are affiliated with such
technologies, for example from the viewpoints of artificial intelligence
and the use and protection of data and information. Moreover, the
project will examine how law relates to emotion, empathy, and
sustainability, as well as user-centric approaches in law. The results
will help to evaluate the feasibility of the existing solutions, as well
as to develop and test propositions for further legislative
improvements in the field, overall ensuring acceptability of the
solutions. Outside the HIPE consortium partners, there is also close
collaboration with the Vrije University Amsterdam, especially with
Professor Britta van Beers and Professor Arno R. Lodder.
Human-technology
interoperability and artificial emotional intelligence (HIPE) research
project is led by VTT, and it includes also the industrial partners
Helvar, Isku and Teleste, as well as Framery, Mall of Tripla and
Ambientia. The project will run for three years during 2022–2025. The
total budget of the subproject at the University of Lapland is 502,000
euros, out of which the funding of Business Finland is 351,500 euros.
More information:
Rosa
Maria Ballardini, Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Vice-Dean
(research), Faculty of Law, rosa.ballardini (at) ulapland.fi,
Ballardini's research profile
Rob van
den Hoven van Genderen, Professor of Practice, Faculty of Law,
Rob.vandenHovenvanGenderen (at) ulapland.fi; van den Hoven van Genderen's research profile
Project information at the research portal of the University of Lapland