Yves MakhoulUncanny Valley Effect -- the onslaught of the creepy three dimensions
December 17th 2008 00:36
Do you believe?
The uncanny valley is an idea that when robots or (in our case video game characters / computer animation) look and act like humans, it causes a negative response from real people -- a response of revulsion or disgust.
Why would this happen?
Well the theory was introduced by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970. The idea is that as a robot is made more intelligent and more human-like we'll grow very fond of the thing and even show some empathy towards it. However once it becomes too human-like, we'll start to be repelled by it. This is simply because the thing will never be quite human. It may reach 90% or even 99%, but that 1% is enough to force us to step back and feel a tad confused at what we're looking at.
Films such as The Polar Express, Beowolf and both the Final Fantasy outings have managed to touch on the uncanny valley. Game developers such as Naughty Dog have tried to avoid the uncanny valley response by animating their Nathan Drake realistically, but not allowing the realism to be the main selling point of the game. They kept some aspects "cartoony" in an effort to keep it lively and keep the audience relating to all the characters. From my multiple play-throughs of the game, they accomplished their task.
There's a new game coming out of Paris called "Heavy Rain". It promises to take video gaming to a whole new cinematic level, with almost photo realistic visual effects. The uncanny valley theory goes one step further which may help us get through the game without having to take a vomit run.
Apparently, and I quote wiki here: "as the appearance and motion continue to become less distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once more and approaches human-to-human empathy levels". In effect, once the robot/animation goes beyond uncanny valley uncomfortableness, we'll believe what we're watching is human enough to believe.
Right down to the wrinkles
Take a look at some videos of Heavy Rain. Do you believe it reaches this point? The game makers have even gone so far as to motion capture and 3d render the actor's eyes in order to avoid the uncanny valley effect.
Personally, I feel it comes damn close.
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