Methods for Expressing Robot Intent for Human–Robot Collaboration in Shared Workspaces

Human–robot collaboration is becoming increasingly common in factories around the world; accordingly, we need to improve the interaction experiences between humans and robots working in these spaces. In this article, we report on a user study that investigated methods for providing information to a person about a robot’s intent to move when working together in a shared workspace through signals provided by the robot. In this case, the workspace was the surface of a tabletop. Our study tested the effectiveness of three motion-based and three light-based intent signals as well as the overall level of comfort participants felt while working with the robot to sort colored blocks on the tabletop. Although not significant, our findings suggest that the light signal located closest to the workspace—an LED bracelet located closest to the robot’s end effector—was the most noticeable and least confusing to participants. These findings can be leveraged to support human–robot collaborations in shared spaces.

The Difference Between Legal Control and Material Control - Coordination of Access Rights in Shared Workspaces

Research purpose. Modern work is increasingly taking place in temporary workgroups embedded in decentralized work environments that transcend organizational boundaries. The first implementations of the shared workspace idea emerged in the 1990s in the CSCW research area and are now firmly integrated into the working world with systems such as Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox. However, when it comes to accessing documents, problems arise in terms of coordinating access to documents. Who can access the documents, modify them, and upload them back to the shared workspace? It should be noted that concurrent changes can lead to inconsistencies. Furthermore, incorrect changes to the content of documents can have economic and legal consequences. Who is responsible for this? Strict access control can avoid this problem if necessary. However, it contradicts the approach of agile cooperation, which benefits, among other things, from access to documents that is not restricted in terms of time and place. Design / Methodology / Approach. The article proposes a semantic approach for access coordination of shared workspaces. Its basis is the legal distinction between the levels of legal control (owner) and material control (possessor). The owner of an object has the right and the duty to allow the other participants of the shared workspace to access it, i.e., to have material control. This is done through an agreement between the owner and the possessor, which specifies the conditions of material control. In addition to coordinating access, the owner is also responsible for arbitrating in case of conflict and deciding which changes are valid and which are not. Findings. Transferring the distinction between owner and possessor leads to three possible classes of conflicts: Ownership vs ownership, ownership vs possession, and possession vs possession. Conflict schemes within these classes of conflict are analyzed in detail. On the one hand, it is possible to use strict, conflict-avoiding settings, but this tends to limit cooperation. On the other hand, greater cooperation agility can be enabled if the owner situationally controls access or if the owner has preset flexible response tactics in case a conflict arises. A closer look at possible conflict classes shows that it is necessary to adapt the legal concepts of owner and possessor to the cooperation situation. Originality / Value / Practical implications. The concept of the legal distinction between owner and possessor has not yet been applied to the domain of access coordination in shared workspaces. This approach can introduce the previously missing semantics for access coordination, at least on an informal basis. It also improves participants’ awareness of the context of cooperation.

The role of sociomaterial assemblage on entrepreneurship in coworking-spaces

PurposeCoworking-spaces are considered as a new formula to facilitate autonomy, creativity, self-efficacy, work satisfaction and innovation, yet they also might overburden their users who in that course intend to limit social interaction and collaboration in the workspace. Thus, the question is how coworking-spaces shape entrepreneurial ventures.Design/methodology/approachThis study used an inductive research methodology based on data from three different data sources, including observations, archives and interviews from managers and entrepreneurs.FindingsThe findings suggest that the materiality in the form of spatial architectures (working, socialization and support structures) shared facilities and infrastructures (utilities, luxuries and specialties), and integrated digital technologies (applications and platforms) influence the flow of communication, internal and external linkages, as well as functional uniformity and distinctiveness. However, there exists an inherent dualism in sociomaterial assemblage in coworking-spaces, which can lead to instrumental and detrimental outcomes for entrepreneurs.Originality/valueThis study explains the role of sociomaterial assemblage on the working of entrepreneurs in shared workspaces.

Classifying changes. A taxonomy of contemporary coworking spaces

Purpose During the past decade, the coworking concept has expanded and evolved along with the industry associated with it, so that references to coworking often refer to notions quite distinct from the original conception. The purpose of this paper is to establish a classification of contemporary coworking environments and clarify the scholarly, as well as the industry usage of a coworking model. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews popular and scientific literature and the authors’ field experience in the industry to derive three defining features of coworking and distinct categories that help clarify the concept and can be used to identify and evaluate coworking spaces. Findings The main finding behind the following paper is the taxonomy of contemporary coworking spaces that takes into account the broad spectrum of shared workspaces that commonly receive the coworking label, specifies the features required to warrant that label and provides a framework for understanding the defining factors of a coworking model. The taxonomy showcases four unalike types of coworking spaces and the three types of non-coworking shared offices that are repeatedly and somewhat mistakenly labeled as coworking environments. Originality/value Understanding the core differentiation between unalike models would enable scholars to guide and structure the study to evolve in coworking research. The taxonomy can be seen as a base for further research in the field of coworking that helps ensure scholars are sufficiently specific and distinctive in the shared subject of their research, suggests a roadmap for future coworking research and provides a tool to evaluate real-world examples of work environments concerning the degree they fit the coworking concept.

Emotion Categorization from Faces of People with Sunglasses and Facemasks

Emotional information is considered to convey much meaning in communication. Hence, artificial emotion categorization methods are being developed to meet the increasing demand to introduce intelligent systems, such as robots, into shared workspaces. Deep learning algorithms have demonstrated limited competency in categorizing images from posed datasets with the main features of the face being visible. However, the use of sunglasses and facemasks is common in our daily lives, especially with the outbreak of communicable diseases such as the recent coronavirus. Anecdotally, partial coverings of the face reduces the effectiveness of human communication, so would this have hampering effects on computer vision, and if so, would the different emotion categories be affected equally? Here, we use a modern deep learning algorithm (i.e. VGG19) to categorize emotion from faces of people obscured with simulated sunglasses and facemasks. We found that face coverings obscure emotion categorization by up to 74%, whereby emotion categories are affected differently by different coverings, e.g. clear mouth coverings have little effect in categorizing happiness, but sadness is affected badly. While an overall accuracy of up to 97% has been achieved with nothing added to the face, the achieved accuracy decreases in all other cases when the face is obscured. Notably, clear visors have only a small effect across all emotions, where the classifier achieved an accuracy of up to 89.0% compared to other types of facemasks in which the achieved accuracy is less than 36%.

Shared Spaces or Shelters for Precarious Workers? Coworking Spaces in Italy

This paper critically discusses the relationship between new workspaces, such as Coworking Spaces (CSs), professionals using such spaces, and the related work patterns, looking at the Italian context in particular. There appears to be a mismatch between the educational level of such workers, their expertise and expected professional status on the one hand, and their reality in terms of employment precariousness and low income, on the other. It appears that CSs and, more in general, new shared workspaces act more as shelters from a difficult and exclusionary job market than as mainly ‘serendipity accelerators’. The hypothesis of this article is that, through a careful interpretation of the emerging dimensions and spatial effects of CSs, it is possible to more clearly identify some dynamics of inclusion and exclusion on the one hand, and of sharing and competition on the other, that characterize the job path of new knowledge-based occupational groups.

SciDataMover: Moving Geochemistry Data from the Lab through to Publication

<p>The SciDataMover platform is a discipline- and scale-agnostic, lightweight, open source Data Movement Platform that transfers data, coupled with metadata from laboratories to shared workspaces then to repositories. The SciDataMover Platform leverages lightweight existing technologies that have a demonstrated capacity to be sustainably managed and can be affordably maintained.</p><p>Despite significant investments in analytical instruments in Australian research laboratories relevant to earth sciences and particularly geochemistry, there has been underinvestment in storage and efficient, lossless transfer of data from ‘Private’ lab instruments to ‘Collaboration’ domains where researchers can analyse and share data, and then persist it to trusted ‘Publication’ domains where researchers can persistently store the data that supports their scholarly publications.</p><p>SciDataMover is a FAIR data movement platform that enables data from instruments to move in a scalable and sustainable manner and comprises:</p><p>1) a data service to transfer data/metadata directly from instruments<br>2) collaboration areas to process, refine, standardise and share this data<br>3) a mechanism to transfer data supporting publications to a trusted repository (e.g., domain, institutional).</p><p>The Platform, being built off existing components will enable researchers to have readily available access to laboratory data when and where they need it, along with the ability to collaborate with colleagues even during a pandemic where physical distancing is required. The benefits of SciDataMover are long term persistence of laboratory-generated data (at various stages from minimally processed to final published form), greater collaboration efficiency and enhanced scientific reproducibility.</p>

Impact of Tools on the Acquisition of RAM Memory

When responding to a security incident in a system, several basic principles must be followed regarding the collection of pieces of evidence from the system. The capture of these pieces of evidence has to be done according to its order of volatility. In this sense, RAM memory constitute the most important element to capture, given its extreme volatility. RAM memory must be acquired and analyzed because the data it holds, which may belong to the system itself or to any other device connected to it, can survive a certain amount of time in it. Since RAM is a constantly changing element, it must be stood out that any action carried on the system under analysis will modify the contents of the RAM. In this article a comparative and an objective analysis has been carried out, showing the impact that the execution of some tools for the capture of RAM has on the system. This comparative study details both the private shared workspaces, for each of the processes executed by each of the tools used.

Perceptions and performance of knowledge workers transitioning from single-cell offices to shared workspaces: evidence from panel data

Purposeto evaluate the experiences of knowledge workers who work in shared workspaces and those who moved from single-cell offices to shared workspaces.Design/methodology/approachKnowledge workers were surveyed before and after 34% moved from single-cell offices to shared workspaces. The authors exploit this panel design in the analysis.FindingsShared offices were rated as providing more distraction, less privacy and worsened indoor environment quality (IEQ) (p < 0.05). Perceptions of collaboration and networking also declined in shared workspaces. Distraction and a lack of privacy were negatively associated with self-reported productivity (p < 0.10). Neither IEQ nor collaboration nor networking was significantly associated with productivity. The perceptions of those who moved to shared workspaces and those who had worked in shared workspaces all along were statistically indistinguishable.Research limitations/implicationsThe quasi-experimental control provides evidence that it is the office type, not the experience of moving, that accounts for the evaluative changes. There are limitations inherent in using a self-rating performance measure.Practical implicationsOrganisations should be aware that the positive outcomes ascribed to shared spaces may not be apparent and that demands may outweigh benefits.Originality/valueKnowledge workers are particularly impacted by distraction and interruptions to concentrated work. The quasi-experimental design controlled for the Hawthorne effect, demonstrating that it is the office type, not the move, that accounts for differences in perceptions.