Page 20 - Socially Intelligent Agents Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots

Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots 3

are interested in learning about and participating in SIA research, but at present
the only way to learn about the field is to go through and select among a large
number of widely ‘distributed’ and often difficult to access publications, i.e.
journal issues, books, conference and workshop proceedings etc. Our motiva-
tion to edit this book was therefore based on the belief that there is a strong
demand for a book that can be used by students, researchers and anybody in-
terested in learning about Socially Intelligent Agents. The main strength of
the book is the breadth of research topics presented and the references given at
the end of each chapter, so that researchers who want to work in that field are
given pointers to literature and other important work not included in the book.
The book presents a coherent and structured presentation of state-of-the-art
in the field. It does not require the reader to possess any specialist knowledge
and is suitable for any student / researcher with a general background in Com-
puter Science and/or Artificial Intelligence or related fields (e.g. Cognitive
Science, Cybernetics, Adaptive Behavior, Artificial Life etc.). Also, at present
the growing field of Socially Intelligent Agents has no core text that can be
used in university courses. This book fills this gap and might be used in differ-
ent courses for postgraduate studies, and as research material for PhD students,
e.g. for studies in Applied Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent and Autonomous
Agents, Adaptive Systems, Human-Computer Interaction, or Situated, Embod-
ied AI.

2. Book Structure and Chapter Overviews

The remaining thirty-two chapters of this book are organized into two parts.
The structure of the book is visually shown in figure 1.2. The first part ad-
dresses the theory, concepts and technology of Socially Intelligent Agents. The
second part addresses current and potential applications of Socially Intelligent
Agents. The first part of the book has twelve chapters organized in three sec-
tions covering three major themes, namely relationships between agents and
humans, edited by Alan Bond, agents and emotions/personality edited by Lola
Cañamero, and communities of social agents, edited by Bruce Edmonds. The
second part of the book consists of twenty chapters organized in five sections
covering the themes of interactive therapeutic agent systems, edited by Kerstin
Dautenhahn, socially intelligent robots, edited by Lola Cañamero, interactive
education and training, edited by Kerstin Dautenhahn, social agents in games
and entertainment, edited by Alan Bond, and social agents in e-commerce,
edited by Bruce Edmonds. The content of the sections and chapters is de-
scribed in more detail below.
Note, that thematically we have strong overlaps between all chapters in this
book, the division into thematic sections is mainly of practical nature. This