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ICTs for a Sustainable World




           Singapore Taxis, and Airplane taxis as reported recently in   Robotics  &  Automation  Society,  Universities  and  R&D
           media,  to  name  a  few.  The  positive  impact  of  these   Labs, to assess impact on society, impact on work culture in
           innovations  such  as  intelligent  vehicles  can  be  enormous.   the upcoming era with human - robots interaction, whether
           Consider the potential ecological savings of using highways   it would be helpful or hateful, collaborative or competitive,
           so much more efficiently and from the safety aspect reduce   or  simply  aligned  with  humans.  The  recent  edition  (April
           the  injuries  and  deaths  in  road  accidents.  Elderly  and   2016) of “ITU News” deliberates about:  Do ICTs deserve
           disabled people would be able to travel around in such cars   our trust? Technologies are becoming more autonomous in
           on  their  own.  People  could  dispatch  their  cars  to  the   their  interaction  and  decision-making,  but  how  does  one
           automated  parking  warehouse  autonomously  instead  of   trust in future ICTs? ITU-T has published a new technical
           using  surface  land  for  parking  and  then  recall  them  later.   report for experts in the field. The impact on society is vast
           Truly,  gains  in  this  area  are  enormous  and  most   and  wide-ranging.  Tesla’s  autopilot  [10]  highlighted  the
           encouraging.  The  stuff  of  science  fiction  is  rapidly   need to address important issues regarding an autonomous
           becoming a fact of life. But this presupposes robust, reliable   automotive future, including regulatory challenges, human
           and  secure  networks,  devices,  and  systems,  in  which   override capabilities; and the pursuit of safer driving.
           individuals and society can repose complete trust.
                                                              China  is  leading  the  global  M2M  technologies  –  an
           By  most  indications  and  practical  product  developments   essential component for IoT – thanks to a huge smart phone
           and integrated systems, AI is now mature, both as a science   subscriber  base  and  the  country’s  ambitious  and  wide-
           and as an engineering discipline. Many opportunities exist   ranging  M2M  plans,  says  a  new  E&Y  report.  A  GSMA
           for  AI  to  have  a  positive  impact  on  our  planet's   report [11] predicts that the country would reach 1 billion
           environment.  AI  researchers  and  development  engineers   M2M  connections  by  2020.  Obviously,  therefore,  it  calls
           have a unique perspective, tools and the skills required to   for  urgency  in  addressing  the  challenges.  Another  IEEE
           contribute  practically  to  address  concerns  of  global   report [12] on the subject also raises the question of trusting
           warming,  poverty,  food  production,  arms  control,   the robots.
           healthcare  including  care  of  the  elderly,  education,  and
           demographic issues.                                According to this report, ever more autonomous machines
                                                              will present challenges spanning technical, regulatory, legal
                                                              and  even  philosophical  realms.  They  will  force  us  to
           How would real-time monitoring of emotions impact IoT?   confront deep moral quandaries, and might even tweak our
           At  the  moment,  emotional  response  is  being  tested  by   sense of what it means to be human.  It has been seen that
           advertising  agencies,  but  the  applications  don’t  stop  there   technology  precedes  before  the  laws  to  deal  with  its
           [7], according to the information in the referred ITU News.   consequences  are  in  place.  Self-driving  cars  are  ready
           Reasoning ability in robots, feeling of pleasure and pain has   before the laws are. Robots  are performing surgeries with
           been reported to be possible in the vast literature published   dexterity  and  precision  –  should  they  be  allowed  to  take
           on the subject. Unveiled in June 2014, Pepper, a robot that   over the operation theatre? How much trust can one put in
           is  capable  of  expressing  and  responding  to  emotions is   care giver robots? Should robots be only used for hazardous
           a humanoid   robot jointly   developed   by Aldebaran   jobs  like  mining,  working  in  nuclear  facilities,  chemical
           Robotics of  France  and SoftBank of  Japan  [8].  It  has  the   plants, etc., or used as warriors or autonomous weapons to
           ability  to  read  emotions  and.  the  ability  to  analyze   decide  who  lives  or  dies?  Could  robots  be  taught  human
           expressions and voice tones. It is much more than a robot,   values and morals and imparted the sense to discern what is
           designed to be a genuine humanoid companion created to   physically and morally right and what is absolutely wrong.
           communicate      and      respond     in      the   These,  among  others  are  critical  issues  that  need  to  be
           most natural and intuitive way, through its body movements   urgently addressed.
           and voice. Pepper keeps on learning about the tastes, habits
           so  as  to  personalize  to  the  human  companion,  gradually   Wang in his classical paper on Cognitive Informatics [13],
           memorizing  the personality traits,  preferences,  and  adapts   an emerging discipline that studies the internal information
           itself.  Pepper  has  been  designed  to identify  human   processing  mechanisms  of  the  brain and their  engineering
           emotions and  to  select  the  behaviour  best  suited  to  the   applications, via an inter disciplinary approach states how,
           situation. While the technology behind these advances are   human  beings  acquire,  process,  interpret,  and  express
           astounding  and  even  cause  delight,  the  potential  negative   information by using the brain, and how minds of different
           ramifications are to be considered. For instance, can fraud   individuals are understood that is, in a way, relevant to the
           be committed by creating a humanoid robot to impersonate   design of  super intelligence  machines.  In his  recent  paper
           someone?  Samani  in  his  book  on  cognitive  robotics  [9]   [14], Wang expands the methodology and soft computing to
           highlighted  the  need  for  aligning  humanoid  robots   cover  philosophical,   mathematical,  and  theoretical
           mimicking human behavior with human interest.      foundations for cognitive robotics and eBrain.


               3. TRUST IN THE EMERGING SCENARIO              This paper does not dwell on the technology aspects of the
                                                              control structure, cognitive informatics, soft computing, and
           The  subject  of  Trust  has  caught  the  attention  of  several   so on, which are being dealt with in depth by experts in the
           scientists,  professional  institutions,  e.g.,  IEEE,  IEEE   scientific community and academia, and confines the scope




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