Towards a Policy Development Methodology for Human-Centred IoT Collectives

Abstract

Embedding ethical concepts into smart Internet-connected devices and making them behave in a more human-centred manner, i.e., ethically and in a socially acceptable manner, has received significant attention in the software industry. To make smart devices behave in more human-centered manners, it is important to develop a methodology for defining smart devices’ key roles and mapping them with socio-ethical and administrative policies. This paper proposes a policy development methodology for making smart devices more human-centred by following its four phases i.e., concept development, defining and mapping policies, implementing the processing of policies, and deploying the devices. The suggested methodology may be used in a variety of situations where smart devices interact with people. For illustration, the proposed methodology has been applied to three different settings, including a supermarket, a children’s hospital, and early learning centers, where each phase defined in the methodology has been followed. The application of the methodology to smart internet-connected devices, including robots, smart cameras, and smart speakers, has shown significant results. It has been observed that the devices behave in more human-centric ways while performing their core functions, adhering to socio-ethical policies.