Project 3;

Main research Question;

Why are some near-human characters scary while others are merely laughable, do we as humans relate better to animated figures that appear to be, but are not quite, human-like, than those that begin to approach the ideal?

What is the uncanny Valley?

In 1970 Masahiro Mori proposed the Hypothesis “The Uncanny Valley”: a relation between human perception of robots and their degree of human likeness. The problem is in the nature of how we identify with robots. The more humanlike robots become, the more people are attracted to them, but only up to a point. If an android become too realistic and lifelike, suddenly people are repelled and disgusted.

The graphs below plots ones emotional response against similarity to human appearance and movement, the curve is not a sure, steady upward trend.

When an android or game character, such as R2-D2 or Finding Nemo, barely looks human, we cut it a lot of slack. It seems cute. We don’t care that it’s only 50 percent humanlike. But when a robot becomes 99 percent lifelike— so short of ideal that people become focused on its imperfections. We notice the slightly slack skin, the absence of a truly human glitter in the eyes. The once-cute robot now looks like an animated corpse.

Theoretical aspects