The perception of aging populations is a major factor driving the social robot development movement. A growing body of research reflects the expanding interest in social robots. This paper synthesizes research on the development of social robots with a literature review of academic articles with publication dates ranging from 2006 to 2017. The review is divided into three themes: (a) robots as an aid in treatment; (b) robots as social assistants and home companions; and (c) robots as custodial caregivers that are viewed in terms of ethical implications. This paper outlines the issues surrounding social, commitment, assistive, and companion robots for use in medical treatment, mental health therapy, physiotherapy, care facilities, and private homes. It describes some of the ethical concerns raised by researchers and media, including questions of control, privacy, consent, and the issue of simulated versus human compassion in caregiving. The research also points out that a rhetoric of urgency concerning aging populations drives the development of robots, which frames citizens who will benefit from robots in reductive ways. We argue that the contribution of humanities and social science research, including age studies and critical gerontology, should be better integrated with discourses of social robot development, largely from technical fields.

Cultural heritage artifacts connect us to past generations and provide links to previous worlds that are beyond our reach. We developed TombSeer, an augmented reality application that aims to immerse the wearer in a museum space engaging two senses (seeing and gesturing) through a holographic heads-up interface that brings virtual, historical artifacts "back to life" through gestural interactivity. This article introduces the TombSeer software prototype and highlights the application of embodied interaction to museum visits using an emerging hardware platform for 3D interactive holographic images (e.g., Meta head-mounted display). This article discusses the TombSeer prototype's development and functionality testing with the Tomb of Kitines exhibit, which was conducted at The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada. TombSeer's embodied gestural and visual augmented reality experience functions to aesthetically enhance museum exhibits, cultural heritage sites, and galleries.CCS Concepts: r Human-centered computing → Mixed/augmented reality; r Hardware → Analysis and design of emerging devices and systems Additional

This article focuses on described video (DV), which makes television accessible to persons who are blind or who have low vision by providing voice-over descriptions of shows. The article highlights the lack of DV content in Canada and outlines the factors inhibiting more DV production, including policy, the commercial and organizational structure of television, and the established conventions that were developed for certain genres (e.g., documentary and drama). It uses the described version of the recent CBC mini-series Death Comes to Town, created by the comedy troupe Kids in the Hall, to illustrate how different genres of television, such as comedy, require unconventional styles of description to convey their full cultural meaning. Finally, it argues that true accessibility and participation in national media culture for people who are blind or have low vision, as mandated in Canadian and international law, depend on adequate DV.RÉSUMÉ  Cet article porte sur l’audiodescription, service qui rend la télévision accessible aux aveugles et aux malvoyants en leur fournissant une description en voix off de ce qu’ils sont en train de regarder. Cet article souligne le manque de contenu audiodescriptif au Canada et indique les facteurs empêchant une production audiodescriptive accrue, y compris certaines politiques, la structure commerciale et organisationnelle de la télévision, et les conventions établies pour certains genres (par exemple, le documentaire et la télésérie dramatique). L’article porte une attention particulière à l’audiodescription utilisée pour la minisérie canadienne Death Comes to Town (« La Mort arrive en ville »), créée par la troupe comique Kids in the Hall, afin d’illustrer comment des types d’émission différents comme les comédies requièrent des descriptions inhabituelles pour que leur sens soit pleinement communiqué. Enfin, l’article soutient que l’accès à un service audiodescriptif adéquat est essentiel pour faire en sorte que les aveugles et les malvoyants participent à la culture médiatique nationale conformément aux lois canadiennes et internationales.

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The series "Studies in Computational Intelligence" (SCI) publishes new developments and advances in the various areas of computational intelligence-quickly and with a high quality. The intent is to cover the theory, applications, and design methods of computational intelligence, as embedded in the fields of engineering, computer science, physics and life sciences, as well as the methodologies behind them. The series contains monographs, lecture notes and edited volumes in computational intelligence spanning the areas of neural networks, connectionist systems, genetic algorithms, evolutionary computation, artificial intelligence, cellular automata, selforganizing systems, soft computing, fuzzy systems, and hybrid intelligent systems. Of particular value to both the contributors and the readership are the short publication timeframe and the world-wide distribution, which enable both wide and rapid dissemination of research output.

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