Famous 'Uncanny Valley' Essay Translated, Published In Full

An anonymous reader writes "IEEE has published an English translation of the 1970 essay in which Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori introduced the now-famous concept of the Uncanny Valley. The original essay was in Japanese, and IEEE says this is the first publication of a translation authorized and reviewed by Mori. They also have an interview with Mori, who still thinks that robot designers should not attempt to 'cross' the Uncanny Valley."

Comments

Reminds me of Asimov

[cpu6502]

In his 1940s and 50s short stories, the science of robotics progressed from primitive metal men to humanoid form. But real humans objected that the robots acted unnaturally, and the government stepped in (per usual), and banned the production of human-looking robots.

Very interesting

[azalin]

The whole concept is very interesting and should be mandatory reading for vr/cgi/games designers. The implications while focused on robotics also hold true for computer generated humans (and creatures) in movies and video games.

Re:Very interesting

[gblackwo]

Perhaps it is a good thing to be disturbed.

Earlier this semester, I had shown my roommate actual footage of insurgents being taken out from the air. He was a bit disturbed, but later that week when he bought Modern Warfare 3, he was more disturbed at how similar it was- and for the first time felt uneasy about pulling the trigger in a videogame.

For a different anecdote, my father and I were on the highway, and we passed by a crew tossing animal corpses into a flatbed truck. Unexpectedly, to see them lifelessly thrown as such, was a bit disturbing to me. I mentioned this, and he said he was glad- he had been worried that violent games had desensitized me and was simply glad to see a "normal" response to gore/corpses.

So, what exactly is the downside of an extremely realistic game? Is it that we could actually be traumatized? De-sensitized? Or simply that the game would be less marketable with less people wanting to expose themselves to it? Maybe the game would actually be more marketable with people lining up to play it. What if it makes people realize what war actually looks like, and feels like? Would the next generation be less willing to go to war? To kill non-digital people?

Re:Refuted?

[ls671]

I did know what it was myself so here is a link for the lazy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley

Re:Refuted?

[ls671]

damn I mean I did NOT know...

Goes the other way too

[vlm]

The uncanny valley goes the other direction too.
Too much work done on a human female by a plastic surgeon, hair stylist, body piercer, tattoo artist, or makeup artist makes her look really weird, you could even say "uncanny".

I would postulate that a overlap situation either already exists or soon will, where a silicone female can be found who is weirder looking in the artificial direction than a silicon female in the human direction. This has interesting implications for hollywood and pr0n actors where at least some fraction of human beings are better replaced with CGI equivalents.

Earlier hominids

[Empiric]

It would be interesting to see where earlier hominids would fall along the "uncanny valley" curve. Perhaps by VR simulation or even cloning if we found some viable DNA for that.

I'd like to see how this would play into conceptual, rather than perceptual, differentiation of "human", as, it seems most have no actual specifiable basis for this.

(Note to attentive mods: Yes, I am indeed going for the record for most-subtle troll today. The karma will be worth it, and such an experiment I actually would like to see...)

I was creeped out by Final Fantasy movie

[peter303]

Its was both too fake and real. Polar express was like that too.

Dreamwork artists said that had to make Shrek characters more cartoonist because they were getting too close to the Valley.

Re:I was creeped out by Final Fantasy movie

[Anonymous Coward]

Really? I wasn't creeped out by Final Fantasy except when they kiss in space. In fact, when the bad guy pulls a gun against his head, I thought "Damn, what a scene!".

/me notes down "Cannot discern between corpses and characters, questionable taste in character development, most likely frothing Final Fantasy fan; Diagnosis: HIGHLY HAZARDOUS; Recommendations: Safe to ignore subject's artistic, writing, or video game tastes; Make sure to post anonymously to avoid having to talk to subject; Observe subject from afar to avoid spread of infection."

Entirely Subjective

[drkstr1]

Interesting read, but entirely subjective. How does one measure "affinity"? It seems as though the original author simply plotted a graph that matches his own perceptions. I suppose one could determine the data points through a survey, but I didn't see anything such in the essay (although I did just skim the second half, so maybe I missed it). Regardless, it doesn't seem very scientific to me. Interesting read though.

Re:Refuted?

[Anonymous Coward]

It doesn't mention it in the Wikipedia entry, but this effect is also why some of the newer, more "realistic" CGI movies (eg, Polar Express) seem eerie instead of cute. I'd like to think it also explains why Prince Valiant is so lame, but I'm not sure I could make the hypothesis stretch that far.

Don't know what 'uncanny valley' feels like? See..

[stiebing.ja]

... the video of the robot Octavia in action to get a feeling of it. Developed by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) it looks so much like a mixture of Alien (out of the famous movie) and the cute Nao that it is the most scary thing I ever saw moving.

This thing is so far in the Uncanny Valley - you could also just call him "Uncle Vanney".
It's look is strange enough that my brain just can't decide wether it's cute or evil, so decides to panic and makes we want to flee immediatly - and might it be into the open flames...

(Just to be on the safe side: I for one welcome our new firefighting Octavia lords)