How Real Is Too Real In The Uncanny Valley?

In an age of groundbreaking CGI blockbusters and ultra-realistic computer game graphics, can virtual humans become anymore real? Or, is the question – do we want them to?
That’s been the focus of research by University of Bolton Senior Lecturer, Dr Angela Tinwell, for her now completed PhD. The concept is called the Uncanny Valley. The Uncanny Valley is the negative reaction people can have to human-like characters in computer games, animation and CGI films that are too realistic.
Angela said: ‘Generally, we respond positively to characters with a nonhuman-like appearance, but human-like traits, such as Shrek or Super Mario and regard them as cute or comical. However, when a character becomes too realistic, with just a few slight imperfections or something that we don’t quite recognise – our perceptions change very quickly.
‘Rather than being able empathise more with the character, the opposite happens, and we can experience a negative response to it. That is the Uncanny Valley phenomenon.’
The concept was originally pioneered by Japanese roboticist, Masahiro Mori and the name Uncanny Valley comes from his original hypothesis. The ‘uncanny’ aspect is our emotional response to a robot or character. The ‘valley’ comes from a graph Mori created to demonstrate the phenomenon. The graph plots the dip or ‘valley’ in the positivity of human reaction to the realism of a character.
While Mori’s original research looked solely at robots, Angela’s work has applied the Uncanny Valley to our world of CGI and cutting-edge graphics.
She said: "I used a series of empirical studies to research the Uncanny Valley phenomenon in realistic, human-like characters in animation and computer games. I wanted to find out how we, as humans, respond physically and psychologically to animated characters at different levels of realism, and why that is."
Angela’s findings have shown that even the slightest anomaly in a very realistic character can send us plunging into the Uncanny Valley.
She said: ‘It can be something as simple as eyelid or eyebrow movement. As human beings we are programmed to detect these slightest things. Even the tiny wrinkles on the face that appear during speech reveal a lot to us. For example, if a character smiles, but there are no wrinkles around the eyes, then we may perceive a false smile or that the character is trying to lie to us.
‘This is another particularly common area that can send us into the Valley. It's these basic human interactions, smiling, eye contact and so on, which even with the most advanced CGI are very hard to perfect.’
And Angela believes that is where the greatest challenge lies for developers. She added: "The development of technology is key. At the moment, even though tech is getting more and more sophisticated, so are our perceptions of what is and isn’t real. I’m not saying we will never overcome the Uncanny, but it will be difficult because as CGI and graphics advance, so do we in becoming more attuned to those advances."
Angela has provided her expertise on the Uncanny Valley on the BBC’s One Show and in an article for the Guardian about Spielberg’s film, The Adventures of Tintin. BBC2 documentary makers are also using her research to form part of a series on facial expression in humans called Prehistoric Autopsy, to be broadcast later this year.
(GK)