As we’ve discussed at length in class, the struggle companies face between offering “services” that could be perceived as either creepy or cool, is an increasingly prevalent issue. For example, some might view the new iPhone’s facial recognition feature as innovative and convenient, while others may see it as a grave security issue. For instance, if there was ever a data breach (which, given the times and trends, seems likely), we can’t just all get new faces like we can get new email passwords. However, while this tension may be coming up more frequently, it is by no means a new issue. The iPhone has had a finger print passcode for years, and this feature was likely met with the same resistance, but now nearly everyone uses this with full awareness that they can’t get new fingers if the “finger-print database” is hacked.
Treading the line between creepy and cool is an issue more and more technology companies are grappling with as products and services adapt increasingly humanistic traits. But what we don’t usually think about is how this issue pertains to the art of animation. If you’ve seen The Polar Express, you have experienced the Uncanny Valley whether you are aware of it or not. It’s the chills you felt in your spine when you saw the human characters move; something just feels…not quite right. But you can’t put your finger on it.
The Uncanny Valley
The Uncanny Valley describes the line in animation where cool crosses over into creepy. As animation technology has advanced over the years, animators have been able to make human characters look more and more realistic. The problem is that almost realistic can be worse than not realistic at all. As animations approach a certain point of humanness, the elements that are not human become more apparent, which makes it fall off the precipice of “cool” and into the Uncanny Valley.
A psychologist at Dartmouth College, Thalia Wheatley, offers an interesting explanation for why almost-but-not-quite humanness creeps us out. She says, “Evolutionary history has tuned us to detect minor distortions that indicate disease, mental or physical problems. To go after a human-looking robot or avatar is to go up against millions of years of evolutionary history.”
The following graph illustrates how the Uncanny Valley works. An animation, robot, or other human substitute is acceptable when it is very clearly not real. As its human likeness increases, so does its familiarity or acceptability—but only up to a certain point. Once it reaches a point of human likeness with some key human elements missing or “off,” it falls victim to the Uncanny Valley. Only once full human likeness is achieved will it reach a point of full acceptability and “pleasantness” to the viewer.
- The Polar Express: This Christmas movie became infamous for managing to make kids cry (and not for sentimentality or love of Christmas). A CNN report claimed this this movie should be called “The Night of the Living Dead.” The resemblance of these animated humans to real humans is close, but something about the way they move and interact with the world makes ultra-realistic feel ultra-disturbing.
- Tin Toy: This 1988 Pixar short features the world’s creepiest robot-baby. Ironically, it won the award for Best Animated Short Film that year, likely not for it’s realism but more because this film was pushing and defining the boundaries of a newly emerging digital animation industry.
- Toy Story 3: Ok, this isn’t really a failure. Pixar was actually smart in using the Uncanny Valley to intentionally achieve the creepy effect they wanted.
Today’s Issues Facing the Uncanny Valley
Though the Uncanny Valley has been most prevalent in animation, it is now coming into play as robots become a new “segment” of modern society. If they are designed to appear human, designers will need to be careful to either make their features and movements indistinguishable from humans or very clearly not human. That fine line is the difference between a happy, smiling kid on Christmas day and the stuff that nightmares are made of.
A couple weeks ago I was walking through the Prudential Center when I came across the following robot.
It was interesting to watch people react and interact with this robot. My own experience closely mirrors that which is shown in the video: little kids tend to run up and give it a hug, whereas the man interviewed was very tentative and kept his distance. Comparing the reactions between people from different generations is very telling. Toddlers are growing up with this technology and a different status quo than the 30(ish) year old man did. This robot is a perfect case study to demonstrate how the line between creepy and cool has been pushed farther as technology becomes a more focal part of our lives. What we find creepy now might not be such a big deal in a generation. As companies experiment with where to draw the line, they will likely be met with some resistance by people who don’t know this as the status quo. But, I believe eventually, this new line will become the baseline. Creepy robots may just be…robots.