Masahiro Mori’s Uncanny Valley hypothesis states that, as artificial beings get closer to resembling real humans, the slightest errors or inaccuracies can shift our responses from empathy to disbelief and even disgust. It’s why, in Toy Story, we love Woody and Buzz Lightyear, but are totally unmoved by Andy, their human owner.
This is something both videogame and movie special effects artists are having to grapple with now that processing power is allowing ever more naturalistic representations of human characters. And grappling with it they are. —Artists climb the uncanny valley (Guardian)
A good introduction to the subject.
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Liz, I was just on your blog reading through your SIGGRAPH summaries... thanks for posting them.
I was at the SIGGRAPH panel on Mori's hypothesis to which the Guardian gives an overly quick pass and posted a summary over on Virtualpolitik (http://virtualpolitik.blogspot.com/2007/08/ishiguros-daughter.html). It's funny that Scott McCloud came up in the other comment, because he delivered one of the SIGGRAPH keynotes (http://virtualpolitik.blogspot.com/2007/08/angriest-dog-in-world.html).
I believe that Scott McCloud covered this point beautifully in his "Understanding Comics" complete with visual illustration. I know that the concept surprised me at the time but thinking about it confirmed the idea.