Introduction to This Special Issue on Human-Robot Interaction

Human–computer interaction (HCI), as a field, has made great strides toward understanding and improving our interactions with computer-based technologies. From the early explorations of direct interaction with computers, we have reached the point where usability, usefulness, and an appreciation of technology’s social impact, including its risks, are widely accepted goals in computing. HCI researchers, designers, and usability engineers work in a variety of settings on many kinds of technologies. Recent proceedings of the CHI conference give evidence of this diversity. Topics include not only the office systems where HCI work began, but also tiny mobile devices, Web and Internet services, games, and large networked systems. This special issue introduces a rapidly emerging technology and new focus for HCI—autonomous robots and the human–robot interactions required by these robots. Until recently, HCI researchers have done little work with robots. Keywords related to robots or to human–robot interaction have not been included HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION, 2004, Volume 19, pp. 1–8 Copyright © 2004, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.