Remember Sophia, the first robot in the world to gain citizenship? Well she has a Christmas greeting to offer you.
Aww, that¡¯s just¡.. positively horrifying. While it may be an absolutely pleasant wish for the season, is there something that also creeps you out just a little bit??
¡°I would like to wish all of you a spectacular holiday season full of great fun,¡± *grins widely* ¡°and? smart robots,¡± *positively bearing her teeth*. Yeah, not strange at all lady. That¡¯s the kind of smile that, if you encountered it alone at home at night, would make you barricade yourself in a room and stay awake till morning with a knife in your hands.
And you can¡¯t admit, there¡¯s something warning you that all is not well right? Something you can¡¯t really point to? If that¡¯s the case, then you¡¯re not alone. It¡¯s just your instincts warning you of danger.
It¡¯s called the ¡°Uncanny Valley¡± effect, and it¡¯s a pretty common term in robotics, lifelike toys, and 3D animation. It describes the negative emotions you feel when something that looks almost human, but something¡¯s just a little off.?
For instance, take a look at the graph above. That plots a thing¡¯s likeness to a human on the X axis, against its likeability on the Y axis. At the starting point of the wave is when something looks nothing like a human. In this case, as you can see, it¡¯s easier to accept. Examples here would be robotic arms in a factory, or stylised cartoon animations. They¡¯re just meant to be humanoid, not look like real humans with our proportions, so they¡¯re just fine.
On the other end of the wave are things like prosthetic arms, basically mechanical accessories attached to humans. We're okay with that it seems. But even further along that line are incredibly lifelike animations or robots, ones so real that it¡¯s actually tough to find flaws in their looks that reveal their true nature. This is the ideal end goal for robots and lifelike dolls, as having something so real makes it even more likeable than the previous category.
But do you see where that wave dips sharply right in the middle? That¡¯s where a robot or doll or animation looks close enough that it should look human, but there¡¯s something fundamentally wrong. Maybe it¡¯s proportions are too way off, or it doesn¡¯t smile properly, or it¡¯s movements are stiff and jerky. Our subconscious then warns us of danger from the unfamiliar by making us feel fear or disgust. That trough in the wave, that¡¯s the Uncanny Valley. And that, sadly, is squarely where Sophia falls.
It¡¯s something animators have to take into consideration when making Hollywood blockbusters for the likes of Disney, Pixar, or others. For instance, they can give characters the extra wide eyes often used in animated creations, but they can¡¯t then also give a character photorealistic human skin.?
It¡¯s a fine balance to maintain, and one that robotics experts have to keep to until the day we can make robots that look exactly like us