Uncanny Valley
I think this graph could probably have more of a heartbeat shape to it, as the “small animals” portion should be at least as high as “people”.
Otherwise, it is an excellent observation. You would feel bad if you saw a puppy fall down a flight of stairs. But a clown? COMEDY GOLD! Then there’s the ventriloquist dummy. Yeah, there’s a line to throw that thing down the stairs.
April 9th, 2008 at 5:19 am
Things that are close enough to human-looking for it to be clear that that’s the intention, but that are just different enough for our brain to notice, they trigger all kinds of “that’s creepy” instincts.
Badly done realism in video games can cause the same effect… where it’s almost right, but the faces don’t move quite right or the movements are a little too jerky.
Mario or Link or Crash Bandicoot on the other hand, aren’t even trying to be real, so we’re able to ignore the part where they don’t look at all human and just relate to their story.
btw, I made this
July 8th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
I think quoting a reference would have been in order:
http://www.androidscience.com/theuncannyvalley/proceedings2005/uncannyvalley.html