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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."
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.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
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.
I did know what it was myself so here is a link for the lazy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
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damn I mean I did NOT know...
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
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.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
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...)
~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
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.
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.
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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.
... 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)
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