A****0
发帖数: 12393 | 1 The Uncanny Valley
Masahiro Mori
1970
Energy, 7(4), pp. 33-35
Translated by Karl F. MacDorman and Takashi Minato
Valley of familiarity
There are mathematical functions of the form y = f(x) for which the
value of
y increases (or decreases) continuously with the value of x. For
example,
as the effort x increases, income y increases, or as a car's accelerator
is
pressed, the car moves faster. This kind of relationship is ubiquitous
and
easily understood. In fact, it covers most phenomena, so we might think
that
this function can represent all relations. That is why people are
usually
upset when faced with some phenomenon it cannot represent.
Climbing a mountain is an example of a function that does not increase
continuously: a person's altitude y does not always increase as the
distance
from the summit decreases owing to the intervening hills and valleys. I
have noticed that, as robots appear more humanlike, our sense of their
familiarity increases until we come to a valley. I call this relation
the "
uncanny valley."
Recently there are many industrial robots, and as we know the robots do
not
have a face or legs, and just rotate or extend or contract their arms,
and
they bear no resemblance to human beings. Certainly the policy for
designing
these kinds of robots is based on functionality. From this standpoint,
the
robots must perform functions similar to those of human factory workers,
but
their appearance is not evaluated. If we plot these industrial robots
on a
graph of familiarity versus appearance, they lie near the origin (see
Figure
1). So they bear little resemblance to a human being, and in general
people
do not find them to be familiar. But if the designer of a toy robot
puts
importance on a robot's appearance rather than its function, the robot
will
have a somewhat humanlike appearance with a face, two arms, two legs,
and a
torso. This design lets children enjoy a sense of familiarity with the
humanoid toy. So the toy robot is approaching the top of the first peak.
http://www.androidscience.com/theuncannyvalley/proceedings2005/
riuncannyvalley.gif
Fig. 1. [Note: This is a simplified version of the figure appearing in
the
Energy article. -Trans.]
Of course, human beings themselves lie at the final goal of robotics,
which
is why we make an effort to build humanlike robots. For example, a
robot's
arms may be composed of a metal cylinder with many bolts, but to achieve
a
more humanlike appearance, we paint over the metal in skin tones. These
cosmetic efforts cause a resultant increase in our sense of the robot's
familiarity. Some readers may have felt sympathy for handicapped people
they
have seen who attach a prosthetic arm or leg to replace a missing limb.
But
recently prosthetic hands have improved greatly, and we cannot
distinguish
them from real hands at a glance. Some prosthetic hands attempt to
simulate
veins, muscles, tendons, finger nails, and finger prints, and their
color
resembles human pigmentation. So maybe the prosthetic arm has achieved a
degree of human verisimilitude on par with false teeth. But this kind of
prosthetic hand is too real and when we notice it is prosthetic, we have
a
sense of strangeness. So if we shake the hand, we are surprised by the
lack
of soft tissue and cold temperature. In this case, there is no longer a
sense of familiarity. It is uncanny. In mathematical terms, strangeness
can
be represented by negative familiarity, so the prosthetic hand is at the
bottom of the valley. So in this case, the appearance is quite human
like,
but the familiarity is negative. This is the uncanny valley.
I don't think a bunraku puppet is similar to human beings on close
observation. Its realism in terms of size, skin, and so on, does not
approach that of a prosthetic hand. But when we enjoy a puppet show in
the
theater, we are seated far from the puppets. Their absolute size is
ignored,
and their total appearance including eye and hand movements is close to
that of human beings. So although the puppets' body is not humanlike, we
can
feel that they are humanlike owing to their movement. And from this
evidence I think their familiarity is very high.
From the above maybe readers can understand the concept of the uncanny
valley. So in the following I consider the relationship between movement
and
the uncanny valley.
The effects of movement
For creatures, including robots, movement is generally a sign of life.
As
shown in Figure 1, adding movement changes the shape of the uncanny
valley
by exaggerating the peaks and valley. For the industrial robot, the
impact
of movement is relatively slight because we see it as just a machine. If
it
stops moving, it just stops working. But if programmed properly to
generate
humanlike movements, we can enjoy some sense of familiarity. Humanlike
movement requires similarity of velocity and acceleration. Conversely,
if we
add movement to a prosthetic hand, which is at the bottom of the
uncanny
valley, our sensation of strangeness grows quite large. Some readers may
know that recent technology has enabled prosthetic fingers to move
automatically. A commercially available prosthetic hand made with the
highest technique was developed in Vienna. To explain how it works, the
intention to move the forearm, even if missing, produces current in the
arm
muscles that can be detected by an electromyogram. So the prosthetic
hand
detects the current by means of electrodes and amplifies the signal to
activates a small motor in the prosthetic arm to move the fingers. This
hand
can move in a way that causes some healthy people to feel uneasy. If
you
shook a woman's hand with this hand in a dark place, the woman must be
shocked!
Since these effects are apparent for just a prosthetic arm, the
strangeness
will be magnified if we build an entire robot. You can imagine going to
a
work place where there are many mannequins: if a mannequin started to
move,
you might be shocked. This is a kind of horror.
In the World Expo held in Osaka this year, the robots displayed a more
elaborate design. For example, one robot has 29 artificial muscles in
the
face to make humanlike facial expressions. According to the designer,
laughing is a kind of sequence of face distortions, and the distortion
speed
is an important factor. If we cut the speed in half, laughing looks
unnatural. This illustrates how slight variations in movement can cause
a
robot, puppet, or prosthetic hand to tumble down into the uncanny
valley.
Escape by design
We hope to design robots or prosthetic hands that will not fall into the
uncanny valley. So I recommend designers take the first peak as the goal
in
building robots rather than the second. Although the second peak is
higher,
there is a far greater risk of falling into the uncanny valley. We
predict
that it is possible to produce a safe familiarity by a nonhumanlike
design.
So designers please consider this point. A good example is glasses.
Glasses
do not resemble the real eyeball, but this design is adequate and can
make
the eyes more charming. So we should follow this principle when we
design
prosthetic eyes. We can create an elegant prosthetic hand ? one that
must be
fashionable. Artist who makes statues of Buddhas created a model of a
human
hand that is made from wood. The fingers bend at their joints. The hand
has
no finger print, and it assumes the natural color of wood. But we feel
it
is beautiful and there is no sense of the uncanny. Maybe wooden hand can
serve as a reference for future design.
The significance of the uncanny
In Figure 1, a healthy person is at the top of the second peak. And when
we
die, we fall into the trough of the uncanny valley. Our body becomes
cold,
our color changes, and movement ceases. Therefore, our impression of
death
can be explained by the movement from the second peak to the uncanny
valley
as shown by the dashed line in the figure. We might be happy this line
is
into the still valley of a corpse and that of not the living dead! I
think
this explains the mystery of the uncanny valley: Why do we humans have
such
a feeling of strangeness? Is this necessary? I have not yet considered
it
deeply, but it may be important to our self-preservation.
We must complete the map of the uncanny valley to know what is human or
to
establish the design methodology for creating familiar devices through
robotics research.
Copyright (c) 2005 Karl F. MacDorman and Takashi Minato. Permission is
granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms
of
the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2. | c**i
发帖数: 13113 | | d*********e
发帖数: 1194 | | A****0
发帖数: 12393 | 4 就是说类似人类的形体在人类心理中产生的亲切感不是线性的
并非越象人，人就越喜欢。象到一定程度，由于某些类似处的不完善反而会使人厌恶。
这就是他主张机器人不要做得太象人的理由，否则，会在人类心理上产生恐惧。
【在 d*********e 的大作中提到】
: 太长，简单总结一下？
| d*********e
发帖数: 1194 | 5
恩 很好的理论，小日本就是反例哈
还是把图配上比较好理解
【在 A****0 的大作中提到】
: 就是说类似人类的形体在人类心理中产生的亲切感不是线性的
: 并非越象人，人就越喜欢。象到一定程度，由于某些类似处的不完善反而会使人厌恶。
: 这就是他主张机器人不要做得太象人的理由，否则，会在人类心理上产生恐惧。
| A****0
发帖数: 12393 | 6 雨花就是个例子
她长得太像人了。
【在 d*********e 的大作中提到】
:
: 恩 很好的理论，小日本就是反例哈
: 还是把图配上比较好理解
| c**i
发帖数: 13113 | 7 主要恐怖圆因还是因为知道它不是人
那人可推荐给海日做情人哈哈
【在 A****0 的大作中提到】
: 就是说类似人类的形体在人类心理中产生的亲切感不是线性的
: 并非越象人，人就越喜欢。象到一定程度，由于某些类似处的不完善反而会使人厌恶。
: 这就是他主张机器人不要做得太象人的理由，否则，会在人类心理上产生恐惧。
| A****0
发帖数: 12393 | 8 海日总是揶揄我对雨花的恐惧
他肯定爱上了她。
【在 c**i 的大作中提到】
: 主要恐怖圆因还是因为知道它不是人
: 那人可推荐给海日做情人哈哈
| c**i
发帖数: 13113 | 9 真的啊，哈哈
真恐怖，兴许还娶了她呢！
【在 A****0 的大作中提到】
: 海日总是揶揄我对雨花的恐惧
: 他肯定爱上了她。
| A****0
发帖数: 12393 | 10 他肯定爱上了她
【在 c**i 的大作中提到】
: 真的啊，哈哈
: 真恐怖，兴许还娶了她呢！
| | | I********l
发帖数: 8702 | 11 就是画鬼容易画人难喽
【在 A****0 的大作中提到】
: The Uncanny Valley
: Masahiro Mori
: 1970
: Energy, 7(4), pp. 33-35
: Translated by Karl F. MacDorman and Takashi Minato
: Valley of familiarity
: There are mathematical functions of the form y = f(x) for which the
: value of
: y increases (or decreases) continuously with the value of x. For
: example,
| c**i
发帖数: 13113 | 12 哈哈哈，这样皆大欢喜，海日也是机器人，来来回回几句话
【在 A****0 的大作中提到】
: 他肯定爱上了她
| A****0
发帖数: 12393 | 13 类似的意思吧
就是说最可怕的鬼是最象人的鬼
【在 I********l 的大作中提到】
: 就是画鬼容易画人难喽
| c**i
发帖数: 13113 | 14 有死气就让人恐惧
我发觉穿民国喜庆（红色）服装拍照鬼气很盛
【在 A****0 的大作中提到】
: 类似的意思吧
: 就是说最可怕的鬼是最象人的鬼
| A****0
发帖数: 12393 | 15 丹蕾那个照片，非常恐惧
【在 c**i 的大作中提到】
: 有死气就让人恐惧
: 我发觉穿民国喜庆（红色）服装拍照鬼气很盛
| c**i
发帖数: 13113 | 16 嗯，冥照
【在 A****0 的大作中提到】
: 丹蕾那个照片，非常恐惧
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