Many animations, robotics, and avatars are made with the goal of looking as realistic as possible, but is there such a thing as too real looking? The answer is yes, and the eerie sensation you may experience when viewing a robot or CGI that’s a little too humanlike for comfort, is described as The Uncanny Valley effect. A term coined by Masahiro Mori in the 1970s, the “Uncanny Valley” describes the point at which robots or animated characters become unappealing due to appearing too humanlike. This concept suggests that certain mannerisms, behaviors, and expressions can be recognized as familiar by humans, but only to a certain degree, after that they become borderline creepy. “The sense of viewer familiarity drops sharply into the uncanny valley once the artificial figure tries but fails to mimic a realistic human” says Jeremy Hsu on Scientific American. A sensation arises in us when we sense that something is not human, like an alert within our brains.
A movie that comes to mind when I think of the uncanny valley is Cats. The 2019 film is about humanoid cats that look creepily realistic. Many gave the movie a poor rating just because of how disturbing they find the animation to be. The movie includes cat and humanlike movements, which may not be helping it’s case. The cats are also bipedal. Mori proposed that motion can add to the eerie effect. So, being too human looking may not build good rapport between characters and real humans, instead people view them as cold and vacant.
Possible explanations for our disturbance at extremely realistic looking figures are still under investigation. Some think it’s mismatching elements which don’t naturally occur together that put us on alert. Robots with human voices, for example, are considered off putting. Another theory is inconsistency in robotics and CGI. As humans, we’re able to identify very minor inconsistencies in animation or robotic humanoids, which is why it’s so easy for characters to be alarming. Another claim is that our survival instincts kick in when we see something that looks humanlike, but is not lifelike. It may trigger the same feeling we get when we come across dead or dying things.
Learning how to avoid the uncanny valley may be in our best interest as we increasingly rely on technology, and robotics are becoming more important in everyday life. Maybe the next step is figuring out how to make robots even more human like, so that they pass the uncanny valley and become likeable. However, the thought of a world where robots are so realistic that they’re able to fool humans is a scary one for many. What are your thoughts on extremely lifelike robotics?