[QUOTE]
[IMG]http://fastcache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2011/07/female-android-wikipedia.jpg[/IMG]
We've all found ourselves in the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley"]uncanny valley[/URL] before. It's that uneasy feeling you get when viewing a realistic humanoid or CGI person that's so close to looking human that it seems almost spooky.
The actual "valley" refers to a [URL="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/Mori_Uncanny_Valley.svg/1000px-Mori_Uncanny_Valley.svg.png"]precipitous drop[/URL] in "likeability" as onscreen characters and humanoid robots step too far towards being human-like. As in, we enjoy Pixar's [I]Wall-E[/I] and Nintendo's Mario, but we get the heeby jeebies from the ultra-realistic faces of [I]The Polar Express[/I] or the upcoming Tintin movie.
So far, the phenomenon has been described entirely anecdotally, but an international team of researchers, led by Ayse Pinar Saygin of the University of California, San Diego, wanted to[URL="http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/soc/20110714BrainAndroids.asp"]find out[/URL] if the sensation was actually caused by something deep within our brains.
The team picked out 20 subjects, aged 20 to 36. They had no experience working with robots and hadn't spent time in [URL="http://www.wired.co.uk/topics/japan"]Japan[/URL] where there's more [URL="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-07/14/robot-mouth"]cultural[/URL][URL="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-07/01/dentist-bot"]exposure[/URL] to [URL="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-03/09/geminoid-dk-robot"]androids[/URL].
Saygin also recruited the help of [URL="http://www.is.sys.es.osaka-u.ac.jp/development/0006/index.en.html"]Repliee Q2[/URL], an especially human-like robot from Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University. Q2 has 13 degrees of freedom on her face alone, and uses her posable eyes, brows, cheeks, lids, lips and neck to make facial expressions and mouth shapes.
The team made videos of Repliee Q2 performing actions like waving, nodding, taking a drink of water and picking up a piece of paper from a table. Then, the same actions were performed by the Japanese woman whom Q2 is based on. Finally, the researchers stripped the robot of its synthetic skin and hair to reveal a [URL="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-01/27/terminator-robot-hand-video"][I]Terminator[/I]-style metal robot[/URL] with dangling wires and visible circuits.
The subjects were shown each of the videos and were informed about which was a robot and which human. Then, the subjects' brains were scanned in an fMRI machine.
When viewing the real human and the metallic robot, the brains showed very typical reactions. But when presented with the uncanny android, the [URL="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-04/28/flavourcollider"]brain[/URL] "lit up" like a Christmas tree.
[IMG]http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/human-android-brains-ucsd.jpg[/IMG]
When viewing the android, the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parietal_lobe"]parietal cortex[/URL] - and specifically in the areas that connect the part of the brain's visual cortex that processes bodily movements with the section of the motor cortex thought to contain mirror (or empathy) neurons - saw high levels of activity.
It suggests that the brain couldn't compute the incongruity between the android's human-like appearance and its robotic motion. In the other experiments - when the onscreen perfomer looks human and moves likes a human, or looks like a robot and moves like a robot - our brains are fine. But when the two states are in conflict, trouble arises.
"The brain doesn't seem tuned to care about either biological appearance or [URL="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/28/boston-dynamics-atlas-and-cheetah"]biological motion[/URL]per se," said Saygin, assistant professor of cognitive science at UC San Diego. "What it seems to be doing is looking for its expectations to be met - for appearance and motion to be congruent."
In the paper, published in the journal [I]Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience[/I], the team writes, "as human-like artificial agents become more commonplace, perhaps our perceptual systems will be re-tuned to accommodate these new social partners."
"Or perhaps, we will decide it is [URL="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-03/30/humanoid-robots"]not a good idea[/URL] to make them so closely in our image after all."
[/QUOTE]
Source - Gizmodo, Wired
I don't really understand why we would want to make robots in our image, we don't really have the best design for some of the things we'd have robots be doing. Rather than make humanoid robots, make robots with body styles suited to their purpose.
Was all this research really necessary?
Androids are a little creepy, but they're ok
[QUOTE=Biotoxsin;31210980]I don't really understand why we would want to make robots in our image, we don't really have the best design for some of the things we'd have robots be doing. Rather than make humanoid robots, make robots with body styles suited to their purpose.[/QUOTE]
So we can fuck them.
[QUOTE=leontodd;31210987]Was all this research really necessary?[/QUOTE]
They researched it to make Androids more human :v:
[QUOTE=Biotoxsin;31210980]I don't really understand why we would want to make robots in our image, we don't really have the best design for some of the things we'd have robots be doing. Rather than make humanoid robots, make robots with body styles suited to their purpose.[/QUOTE]
Hyper-efficient assassins :tinfoil:
[QUOTE=Biotoxsin;31210980]I don't really understand why we would want to make robots in our image, we don't really have the best design for some of the things we'd have robots be doing. Rather than make humanoid robots, make robots with body styles suited to their purpose.[/QUOTE]
6 tits and 3 vaginas GO!
Since when do I creep brains out?
[QUOTE=booster;31211557]6 tits and 3 vaginas GO![/QUOTE]
We can do much better. Only 6 tits? Try replacing ALL space on the torso with tits!
[QUOTE=eatdembeanz;31211850]We can do much better. Only 6 tits? Try replacing ALL space on the torso with tits![/QUOTE]
Then it would look like a pregnant dog. Do you want to be squeezing pregnant dog tits? I think not.
Unless, you know, you like watching beastiality.
Am i resistant to the uncanny valley effect? Those robots just make me stare at them for ages because of how ugley they look :|
[QUOTE=valkery;31211963]Then it would look like a pregnant dog. Do you want to be squeezing pregnant dog tits? I think not.
Unless, you know, you like watching beastiality.[/QUOTE]
then we fill the entire body with tits. Even the face.
Or maybe people evolved to fear some sort of creature that could mimic humans. :tinfoil:
Wait, would this video be uncanny valley, or just plain disturbing?
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLy-AwdCOmI[/media]
[QUOTE=Rebi;31212515]Wait, would this video be uncanny valley, or just plain disturbing?
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLy-AwdCOmI[/media][/QUOTE]
You missed the uncanny valley by few miles. This is "jesus christ where's my shotgun" valley.
[QUOTE=Rebi;31212515]Wait, would this video be uncanny valley, or just plain disturbing?
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLy-AwdCOmI[/media][/QUOTE]
horrifying
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKTAJBQSm10[/media]
Unfortunately video games are ending up in uncanny valley
It creeps me out only because of the plasticy skin and dead stare.
The only thing that bothers me is the eyes. Soulless and un-emotional look they have
[QUOTE=Rebi;31212515]Wait, would this video be uncanny valley, or just plain disturbing?
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLy-AwdCOmI[/media][/QUOTE]
NO
NO
NO OH FUCK
NONO
it knows
Robots that look like robots and move like humans are pretty creepy too.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/Boxbot219/05aed35d-7c68-4889-b828-9d47bb8b3b83.gif[/IMG]
[QUOTE=ChilColdCoolaid;31218660]Robots that look like robots and move like humans are pretty creepy too.[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/Boxbot219/05aed35d-7c68-4889-b828-9d47bb8b3b83.gif[/IMG][/QUOTE]Oh my fuck that thing is nightmare fuel.
[QUOTE=ChilColdCoolaid;31218660]Robots that look like robots and move like humans are pretty creepy too.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/Boxbot219/05aed35d-7c68-4889-b828-9d47bb8b3b83.gif[/IMG][/QUOTE]
That's actually kind of grossing me out.
Now you know how robots feel when they look at human babies.
[QUOTE=ChilColdCoolaid;31218660]Robots that look like robots and move like humans are pretty creepy too.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/Boxbot219/05aed35d-7c68-4889-b828-9d47bb8b3b83.gif[/IMG][/QUOTE]
oh my god I will have to cut every baby I see open to make sure this isn't inside
Stylized robots have a wider range of artistic expression and would be preferable to look at.
[QUOTE=Biotoxsin;31210980]I don't really understand why we would want to make robots in our image, we don't really have the best design for some of the things we'd have robots be doing. Rather than make humanoid robots, make robots with body styles suited to their purpose.[/QUOTE]
Well i think we just make robots in our images for all those nerds who will never get laid.
let's make assassin robots, but then force them to live like normal humans.
I see no issues with this plan.
[QUOTE=BCell;31213730][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKTAJBQSm10[/media]
Unfortunately video games are ending up in uncanny valley[/QUOTE]
Yeah, well Extra Credits thinks microtransactions are a good idea.
[editline]20th July 2011[/editline]
That's the guy who does Extra Credits in case you were wondering what my point was.
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