More Human Than Human: Does The Uncanny Curve Really Matter?

Type of content
Conference Contributions - Published
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
University of Canterbury. Human Interface Technology Laboratory
University of Canterbury. School of Social and Political Sciences
University of Canterbury. Philosophy
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2013
Authors
Zlotowski, J.
Proudfoot, D.
Bartneck, Christoph
Abstract

Anthropomorphism is a common phenomenon known already in ancient times. It is not a thing of the past, but still has a profound impact on major aspects of our lives and on research in AI and HRI. Its importance in the field of HRI is emphasized by the hotly-discussed uncanny valley hypothesis. However, in spite of its popularity, the uncanny valley hypothesis lacks empirical evidence. In this paper we suggest that the community should stop trying to fit data to this hypothesis, but rather, based on the available evidence, start talking about the ‘uncanny curve’. Moreover, we point out mistakes in the previous studies of the uncanny curve and strongly encourage exploring it in a real HRI for it to be really relevant. We suggest that understanding the opposite process of anthropomorphisation, known as dehumanization, can help to cross the uncanny bottom of the graph.

Description
Citation
Zlotowski, J., Proudfoot, D., Bartneck, C. (2013) More Human Than Human: Does The Uncanny Curve Really Matter?. Tokyo, Japan: HRI2013 Workshop on Design of Humanlikeness in HRI: from uncanny valley to minimal design, 3-6 Mar 2013. 7-13.
Keywords
human-robot interaction, uncanny valley, uncanny curve, anthropomorphism
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Field of Research::08 - Information and Computing Sciences::0806 - Information Systems::080602 - Computer-Human Interaction
Field of Research::08 - Information and Computing Sciences::0801 - Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
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