The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of people’s lives, and seems to have affected people’s wellbeing and relation to technology now, and in the future. Not only has it changed people’s lives and the way citizens live, work, exercise, craft and stay connected, the pandemic has also altered …

In this chapter on makers, the authors provide a critical overview of the different cultures of making, their motivations as well as the socio technical infrastructures that encourage these forms of peer production. They draw on a growing body of scholarship on making and hacking in the social sciences, …

The agrifood sector is crucial for achieving global food security and environmental sustainability. In the Netherlands, innovations in food technology and adjacent areas are achieved in attractive projects at Universities of Applied Sciences (UASs) in close interaction with government, industry, other …

Emotion has been investigated from various perspectives and across several domains within human-computer interaction (HCI) including intelligent tutoring systems, interactive web applications, social media, and human-robot interaction. One of the most promising and, nevertheless, challenging applications …

Using the latest industrial robot technology, the collaborative robot (cobot), industrial manufacturers work towards high-mix low-volume production systems that could satisfy a diversifying customer demand. As the utilization of the cobot’s potential depends on the dynamic interaction with operators, …

The crossroads of living in cities on the one hand and ageing of the population on the other is studied in an interdisciplinary field of research called urban ageing (van Hoof and Kazak 2018, van Hoof et al. 2018). People live longer and in better health than ever before in Europe. Despite all the positive …

Currently, in a fast-growing electronic age, digital presence is becoming a necessity in order to maintain pace with the current technological evolution. In addition, increasing labor costs due to governmental regulations is challenging McDonalds’ scheme of providing low priced meals. Resorting to technology …

Quality of life serves a reference against which you can measure the various domains of your own life or that of other individuals, and that can change over time. This definition of the World Health Organization encompasses many elements of daily living, including features of the individual and the environment …

By having a healthy and happy social life, social needs are fulfilled. When social needs are not fulfilled, loneliness and social isolation can occur, which have negative consequences for one’s physical and mental health. Social technology, technology that enables social interaction, can be a resource …

Privacy by design is a widely acknowledged necessity, yet its practice is still in its infancy. Many scholars have argued that privacy by design requires a cross-disciplinary approach in which privacy perspectives from different disciplines need to be integrated from the beginning of the design process. …