Human-like Robots and the Uncanny Valley

With the advances in technology, nothing really impresses us anymore, since anything seems possible. We have tiny devices that can play music, navigation systems in our cars that can show us exactly how to get where we want to go, and robots that sweep and vaccum the floor by themselves. Still, whenever I saw a news report showing a realistic, human-like robot, one that could blink, move, or smile, I would first be impressed, then repulsed, and even afraid.

At first I wasn't sure where this fear was coming from, since it wasn't as if this robot was threatening to invade people's homes and attack them. There was, however, something eerie about a robot that looked human, and acted as if it was alive.

It turns out, that creepy feeling associated with human-like robots has a name: the Uncanny Valley. The term was coined by Masahiro Mori, a Japanese robot designer who wrote a paper on the reactions people had to realistic robots. "I have noticed that, as robots appear more humanlike, our sense of their familiarity increases until we come to a valley", he wrote, and dubbed it "the uncanny valley". In his paper, Mori notes that recent prostethetic limbs look quite realistic, resembling real flesh with veins and muscles. Mori wrote that "when we notice it is prosthetic, we have a sense of strangeness". (1)

What is it about realistic robots that creep people out? Any horror movie fan will tell you that what makes zombie movies so frightening is that it's people who are the villains, rather than elaborate aliens or monsters. Plus, it seems that technology is replacing us in some ways - ATMs have replaced tellers, self-check machines have replaced cashiers, etc. It's understandable that some forms of technology can frighten people, namely when it mimics us. The human-like voice of HAL in "2001: A Space Odyssey" is freaky, as is a realistic wax figure. At first it's impressive, but then the strange feeling creeps in.

It's an idea that the horror movie industry has tapped into, with films like "House of Wax", "Child's Play", "Dead Silence", "The Terminator", and "The Stepford Wives". What makes human-like figures in cartoons work is when they are exaggerated enough or simplistic enough that we don't really think of them as humanoids. The Simpsons have yellow skin, big eyes, and an overbite; the characters in Family Guy have large heads and eyes; the South Park children are basically shapes that move.

For all that advanced technology can do for us, there are still some things that hit a little too close to home, and a humanoid robot is the ultimate example of this. The Uncanny Valley is still a theory, but it taps into the fear we have when we see something trying to be human.

SOURCES:

1 - "The Uncanny Valley" Masahiro Mori, Translated by Karl F. MacDorman and Takashi Minato (http://www.androidscience.com/theuncannyvalley/proceedings2005/uncannyvalley.html)