76 SERVO 03.2014
The Uncanny Valley
Some of the most important
factors that make us feel comfortable
around robots are how they look and
move. The term 'uncanny valley' was
coined by robotics professor
Masahiro Mori to describe this
feeling of acceptance of inanimate
and animated creations designed to
look like humans. Here is the
Wikipedia Encyclopedia: 'The
uncanny valley is a hypothesis in the
field of human aesthetics which
holds that when human features
look and move almost — but not
exactly — like natural human beings,
it causes a response of revulsion
among human observers.'
Figure 6 shows a dual graph of
animate and inanimate figures
depicted at points along the two
curves that demonstrate the positive
and negative feelings of human
observers.
Can Robots Really
Look Like Humans?
Another Japanese professor,
Hiroshi Ishiguro is shown in Figure 7
with a very good robotic
doppelgänger of himself. Ishiguro is
Engineering Science at Osaka
University in Japan. He is one of the
very few robot creators who can
accurately reproduce the human face
with all the subtle nuances that make
a duplicated human likeness more
accurate than a typical department
store mannequin.
His Geminoid replica of himself is
an example of the extreme precision
he undertakes in his creations. His
robots use pneumatic actuators for
movement — a departure from other
humanoid robotic faces that use
small model aircraft type servos.
Figure 8 shows part of the
interior of a Geminoid head — a bit
scary without the rubber skin
covering.
Ishiguro has said, "I have
developed many robots before, but I
soon realized the importance of its
appearance. A human-like
appearance gives a robot a strong
feeling of presence." He has
Figure 6. The Uncanny Valley.
Figure 7. Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro
and his robot likeness.
Figure 9. Ishiguro's Geminoid F.
Figure 8. Interior of
Geminoid skull.
Figure 10. David Hanson and his
Einstein/Hubo combination.
