scholarly journals Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues

10.3791/4375 ◽  
2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Cheetham ◽  
Lutz Jancke
Keyword(s):  
Uncanny Valley ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
Human Likeness

scholarly journals Sending an Avatar to Do a Human's Job: Compliance with Authority Persists Despite the Uncanny Valley

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Himalaya Patel ◽  
Karl F. MacDorman
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Dilemma ◽  
Sensitive Information ◽  
Uncanny Valley ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Risk Of Falling ◽  
Computer Interfaces ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
Authority Figure ◽  
Human Likeness ◽  
Motion Quality

Just as physical appearance affects social influence in human communication, it may also affect the processing of advice conveyed through avatars, computer-animated characters, and other human-like interfaces. Although the most persuasive computer interfaces are often the most human-like, they have been predicted to incur the greatest risk of falling into the uncanny valley, the loss of empathy attributed to characters that appear eerily human. Previous studies compared interfaces on the left side of the uncanny valley, namely, those with low human likeness. To examine interfaces with higher human realism, a between-groups factorial experiment was conducted through the internet with 426 midwestern U.S. undergraduates. This experiment presented a hypothetical ethical dilemma followed by the advice of an authority figure. The authority was manipulated in three ways: depiction (digitally recorded or computer animated), motion quality (smooth or jerky), and advice (disclose or refrain from disclosing sensitive information). Of these, only the advice changed opinion about the ethical dilemma, even though the animated depiction was significantly eerier than the human depiction. These results indicate that compliance with an authority persists even when using an uncannily realistic computer-animated double.

scholarly journals Virtual faces evoke only a weak uncanny valley effect: An empirical investigation with controlled virtual face images

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jari Kätsyri ◽  
Beatrice de Gelder ◽  
Tapio Takala
Keyword(s):  
Linear Relationship ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Subjective Evaluation ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Uncanny Valley ◽  
Face Images ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
Human Likeness ◽  
Upward Curvature ◽  
Virtual Face

The uncanny valley (UV) hypothesis suggests that increasingly human-like robots or virtual characters elicit more familiarity in their observers (positive affinity) with the exception of near-human characters that elicit strong feelings of eeriness (negative affinity). We studied this hypothesis in three experiments with carefully matched images of virtual faces varying from artificial to realistic. We investigated both painted and computer-generated (CG) faces to tap a broad range of human-likeness and to test whether CG faces would be particularly sensitive to the UV effect. Overall, we observed a linear relationship with a slight upward curvature between human-likeness and affinity. In other words, less realistic faces triggered greater eeriness in an accelerating manner. We also observed a weak UV effect for CG faces; however, least human-like faces elicited much more negative affinity in comparison. We conclude that although CG faces elicit a weak UV effect, this effect is not fully analogous to the original UV hypothesis. Instead, the subjective evaluation curve for face images resembles an uncanny slope more than a UV. Based on our results, we also argue that subjective affinity should be contrasted against subjective ratherthan objective measures of human-likeness when testing UV.

scholarly journals Category Processing and the human likeness dimension of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis: Eye-Tracking Data

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Cheetham ◽  
Ivana Pavlovic ◽  
Nicola Jordan ◽  
Pascal Suter ◽  
Lutz Jancke
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Uncanny Valley ◽  
Tracking Data ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
Human Likeness

Human-likeness assessment for the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paweł Łupkowski ◽  
Marek Rybka ◽  
Dagmara Dziedzic ◽  
Wojciech Włodarczyk
Keyword(s):  
Uncanny Valley ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
Internal Part ◽  
Human Likeness ◽  
Typical Model ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe Uncanny Valley Hypothesis (UVH, proposed in the 1970s) suggests that looking at or interacting with almost human-like artificial characters would trigger eeriness or discomfort. We studied how well subjects can assess degrees of human likeness for computer-generated characters. We conducted two studies, where subjects were asked to assess human likeness of given computer-generated models (Study 1) and to point the most typical model for a given category (Study 2). The results suggest that evaluation of the way human likeness is assessed should be an internal part of UVH research.

Cognitive Conflict as Possible Origin of the Uncanny Valley

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 1599-1603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick P. Weis ◽  
Eva Wiese
Keyword(s):  
Positive Affect ◽  
Categorical Perception ◽  
Cognitive Conflict ◽  
Social Robotics ◽  
Linear Increase ◽  
Uncanny Valley ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
Human Likeness ◽  
Popular View ◽  
Simultaneous Activation

In social robotics, the term Uncanny Valley describes the phenomenon that linear increases in human-likeness of an agent do not entail an equally linear increase in favorable reactions towards that agent. Instead, a pronounced dip or ‘valley’ at around 70% human-likeness emerges. One currently popular view to explain this drop in favorable reactions is delivered by the Categorical Perception Hypothesis. It is suggested that categorization of agents with mixed human and non-human features is associated with additional cognitive costs and that these costs are the cause of the Uncanny Valley. However, the nature of the cognitive costs is still matter of debate. The current study explores whether the cognitive costs associated with stimulus categorization around the Uncanny Valley could be due to cognitive conflict as evoked by simultaneous activation of two categories. Using the mouse tracking technique, we show that cognitive conflict indeed peaks around the Uncanny Valley region of human-likeness. Our findings lay the foundation for investigating the effects of cognitive conflict on positive affect towards agents of around 70% human-likeness, possibly leading to the unraveling of the origins of the Uncanny Valley.

scholarly journals Investigating the uncanny valley for prosthetic hands

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Poliakoff ◽  
Sophie O’Kane ◽  
Olivia Carefoot ◽  
Peter Kyberd ◽  
Emma Gowen
Keyword(s):  
Uncanny Valley ◽  
Prosthetic Design ◽  
Control Task ◽  
Photographic Images ◽  
Prosthetic Hands ◽  
Hand Orientation ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
Human Likeness ◽  
Location Judgment

Background: In 1970, Mori hypothesised the existence of an ‘uncanny valley’, whereby stimuli falling short of being fully human are found to be creepy or eerie. Objectives: To investigate how eerie people find different prosthetic hands and whether perceptions of eeriness can be accounted for by categorical ambiguity. Study design: Students participated in computerised experiments during which photographic images of hands were presented. Methods: We compared photographs of prosthetic hands pre-selected as more (H+) or less human-like (H–), as well as mechanical and real hands. Participants rated the hands for eeriness and human-likeness, as well as performing a speeded classification (human/non-human) and location judgment (control) task. Results: The H– prosthetic hands were rated as more eerie than the H+ prosthetic, mechanical and real hands, and this was unaffected by hand orientation. Participants were significantly slower to categorise the H+ prosthetic hands compared to the H– prosthetic and real hands, which was not due to generally slower responses to the H+ prosthetic hands (control task). Conclusion: People find prosthetic hands to be eerie, most consistently for less human-like prosthetic hands. This effect is not driven by ambiguity about whether to categorise the prosthetic hand as human or artificial. Clinical relevance More obviously artificial, less-realistic, prosthetic hands consistently generate a sense of eeriness, while more realistic prosthetic hands avoid the uncanny valley, at least on initial viewing. Thus, greater realism in prosthetic design may not always incur a cost, although the role of movement and cutaneous input requires further investigation.

scholarly journals Circling Around the Uncanny Valley: Design Principles for Research Into the Relation Between Human Likeness and Eeriness

i-Perception ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 204166951668130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Lay ◽  
Nicola Brace ◽  
Graham Pike ◽  
Frank Pollick
Keyword(s):  
Design Principles ◽  
Uncanny Valley ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
Human Likeness

Human Perception of Animacy in Light of the Uncanny Valley Phenomenon

Perception ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (12) ◽  
pp. 1386-1411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shensheng Wang ◽  
Philippe Rochat
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Sorting Task ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Uncanny Valley ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
Human Likeness ◽  
Nonlinear Relation ◽  
Human Faces

The uncanny valley hypothesis by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori posits a nonlinear relation between human replicas’ human likeness and the emotional responses they elicit. In three studies, we corroborated the uncanny valley hypothesis, using the uncanny phenomenon as a vehicle to shed a new light on human animacy perception. In Study 1, 62 participants rated emotional responses and human likeness of 89 artificial and human faces. In Study 2, another 62 participants conducted a visual looming task with the same 89 faces allowing for the measurement of perceived threat. Results support the uncanny valley hypothesis, suggesting that the uncanny feeling may serve a function to wary humans of the potential danger of entities crossing the animate–inanimate boundary. In Study 3, 36 participants sorted faces as either real or unreal as quickly as possible in a reaction time sorting task allowing for the measurement of categorical uncertainty associated with animacy perception. Faces associated with longer sorting reaction times were also those associated with the highest ratings of negative emotions, suggesting that categorical uncertainty in animacy detection is related to the uncanny feeling. Results are discussed in light of human animacy perception and new directions for future research are suggested.

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