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the uncanny valley

Scattershot offers a piece on how all the pretty dollies are not real, based on a BBC article. Though it fails to mention the theory (BBC: research, hello?) it immediately got me started thinking about and commenting on the uncanny valley, of course. The concept has fascinated me for a while; previously the frontpage of my site was an explanation of the theory. Simply put, it seems the further CG manages to push the envelope toward realism, the more the autonomous nitpicking function in our heads start to work on it. Not just CG, either. Robots, zombies, dolls; anything that attempts to be humanlike but is not human, has difficulty in somewhat inverse proportion to how nearly successful it has become.

Why is it simpler to evoke an empathic reaction out of a smiley. Why should Munch's "The Scream" have more effect on us than this one? Even this rendering: :-O is more likely to get a response than poor Aki Ross.

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