The IEET is a 501(c)3 non-profit, tax-exempt organization registered in the State of Connecticut in the United States. Please give as you are able, and help support our work for a brighter future.
I have to disagree with the suggestion as to why the far end of the uncanny valley is still disturbing. I don't think it's because that area of simulation evokes death and mortality, it more seems as if something's missing. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it might be the lack of fluidity of motion. We don't realize it, but even the motion and sound of taking a breath makes the simulation much more lifelike, just as with the facial animation of the woman. So far I haven't seen much in the humanoids that replicate these mannerisms. Just as we unconsciously learn many unspoken cultural mannerisms, such as the distance one stands when talking a friend, I think we unconsciously notice when the basic life signs of a human are absent. It's not creepy because they seem dead, it's creepy because we don't find them human enough, just like when talk to someone of a different nationality and they stand to close or too far away from you.
Well one reason may be because the eyes appear as life-less? I can overcome the lack of plasticity in the facial features and even accept the plastic skin - but it's the eyes man!
So yes.. it lies in the details that we see and subconsciously scan and analyse.
I much prefer the white hardcase robots and their artificial faces.
I agree with Clint and CygnusX1: it's not fear of death. When we meet someone new (or even, to a lesser extent, someone we know) we are continually sizing them up to figure out how we can expect them to behave, how far we can trust them etc. To do so we pick up very subtle signals, of which we are usually not consciously aware. When some of these are "off", we tend to get very nervous. The problem with the uncanny valley is that it's close enough to make us instinctively perceive them as human, but different enough to convince us that "something is wrong". An interesting question would be to what extent this can be compensated for by conscious knowledge and/or familiarity.
I agree with Clint, CygnusX1 and Peter.
I think it relates most to an intuitive level of trust.
Trust goes both ways. Perhaps needing to be known and understood is a nearly universal. Over time, we'll begin to trust the machines with which we interact.
The machines, however, may not be able to reflect back to us they they know us and I'm not sure how that will influence our ability to trust them. (Would love to work on a project to test that, though).
I've never had the 'dead eyes' sense that many do (though it's consistently described that way), but it is often clear that there's something 'not right' about them, either.
Some of it is clearly just a matter of being open inappropriately wide on a realistic human face, but the only other thing I can suggest is that they don't seem to be properly looking at/tracking and giving the right sense of attention to the appropriate persons/things in a given setting...
As the others say, there's something very subtle happening (or missing), that we should be able to quantify.
Peter Wicks • http://peterwicks.wordpress.com • Mar 20, 2011
With regard to eyes...there must be some reason why they are often described as "the windows of the soul", and I can think of a few possible ones. One is that we are extremely sensitive to anyone (or any animal) staring at us, even on the periphery of our vision, for fairly obvious predator-prey reasons. This goes to Frank's point about tracking and giving the right sense of attention. Then I'm pretty sure that the appearance of the eyes can alter in very subtle ways depending on the person's emotional/hormonal sense. In the most obvious sense this will occur when our eyes fill with tears (have we designed a robot to do that yet?). Eyes may be shiny or dull, red-streaked or not. Oh and there's pupil dilation of course.
@dor..I don't see any reason in principle why we shouldn't be able to design machines that know us essentially as we know them, at least as far as picking up and giving off the right signals is concerned.
IEET Blog |
email list |
newsletter |
The IEET is a 501(c)3 non-profit, tax-exempt organization registered in the State of Connecticut in the United States.
Contact: Executive Director, Dr. James J. Hughes,
Williams 119, Trinity College, 300 Summit St., Hartford CT
06106 USA
Email: director @ ieet.org phone:
860-297-2376
Listen/View
IEET Blog