Cybernetic Avatar

This open access book presents a vision of a future, where avatars play an integral role in shaping the fabric of our interconnected society. The book introduces the authors’ ongoing efforts to advance avatar technologies and is structured into nine chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the potentially revolutionary impact of cybernetic avatars (CAs) as a new medium of communication, liberating individuals from physical barriers and creating more flexible work environments. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 present developments in CAs with advanced autonomous functionality. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss the creation of a CA platform that connects multiple operators and CAs. Chapter 7 explores the physiological and neuroscientific effects of avatars and other media on operators and users. Finally, Chapters 8 and 9 discuss the societal implementation of CAs.

This book is stemmed from one of the Moonshot R&D projects funded by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).

Hiroshi Ishiguro received his Ph.D. from Osaka University, Japan, in 1991. He is a distinguished professor at Osaka University, the visiting director of Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR), and a project manager there, and CEO at AVITA, Inc. His research interests are interactive robotics and avatars.   In 2011, he won the Osaka Cultural Award. In 2015, he received the Prize for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. He was also awarded the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Award in Dubai in 2015, the Tateisi Award in 2020, and an honorary doctorate from Aarhus University, Denmark in 2021.

Fuki Ueno is a researcher in the Graduate School of Informatics at Nagoya University, Japan. She is working on the Moonshot R&D project managed by Hiroshi Ishiguro.

Eiki Tachibana is a project assistant professor in the Graduate School of Engineering Science at Osaka University, Japan. He is working on the Moonshot R&D project managed by Hiroshi Ishiguro.