This LJ is all about my research into the uncanny valley at the Open University. I began this journal during my MSc in 2003, and plan to complete my PhD thesis in 2012 - I'm studying part-time while I work full time, also with the Open University.

As well as writing about my own studies, I've written extensively about where the uncanny valley has been mentioned by other bloggers, writers and academics. Therefore, while this journal serves as a record for me of how my plans and thoughts have developed, it is also an ever-changing 'state of the art' resource for interested readers.

I am putting togather a gallery of images which I feel particularly trigger the uncanny valley effect, and it can be found here.

I am always keen to talk to people who are interested in this area, and have enjoyed opportunities to contribute to books, academic papers and art installations. If you'd like to talk about my research or commission an opinion piece, please do get in touch by email.

I'm always looking for more images to use as part of my research. If you'd like to contribute an image of an almost-human face or figure that you've found particularly unsettling, please leave a comment on this entry or contact me at the email address above.

This is a side project that I've been working on for a while: it was a private resource for my benefit, but I've received a few queries by email about the uncanny valley, and when I saw this question on Yahoo answers, I decided that it would be a good thing to have 'out there' as a general resource... it will build into a collection of links to journal articles, videos, conference proceedings and (eventually) books about the effect. I'm hoping that one day it will be a definitive web portal into everything that's available online about the uncanny valley.

I'll be adding to it gradually during May and June 2010.

Papers / Journal Articles (NB: Would this be better off replaced by a link to my shared Refworks database?)
Dave Bryant A nice introduction to the uncanny valley effect.
Eric Guizzo - Who's Afaid of the Uncanny Valley? A clear 2010 roundup of current issues.
Karl MacDorman - a wealth of key papers on of terror management theory and the uncanny valley, how subjective ratings of robots vary with changing humanlikeness and detailed explorations of how manipulations of features affect how people react to computer generated and real faces.
Shawn A. Steckenfinger and Asif A. Ghazanfar - New research exploring whether the uncanny valley is an effect restricted just to humans.

Videos
An ode to the uncanny valley
Charting the Uncanny Valley
Video games and the uncanny valley

Conference Proceedings
SAND

Books
TBA

Versions
Version 1.0 - First draft of resource list, links from Yahoo answers question added.

I said the other day that I'd booked today off to get some work done… and here I am!

I'm currently analysing the results of my last study: I decided that I wanted to have at least one traditional experiment as part of the thesis, and a study looking at whether there was a difference in recognition speed for different types of human and almost-human faces seemed to be ideally suited to this aim. I designed the study last year, created all of the source images, and spent November, December and January recruiting participants across the OU and meeting them in my lunch breaks to run the study. I was testing the theory that almost-human faces are processed in a different way to natural human or artificial faces, and while I'm working on the data at the moment, I have some interesting preliminary results!

Once I've drawn my conclusions there, I can decide how to structure my final data collection exercise: I loved the face-to-face data collection, but I'm going back to a web-based format just to get results in a timely fashion. I want to look at the impact of feature swapping: one of my theories about the uncanny valley is that part of the disquiet comes from mismatched features: for example, where the eyes are too 'dead' for a realistic face, or they don't show the same expression as the rest of the face. (I won't go into detail about the study as I'll be recruiting via this blog :) and don't want to bias anyone's participation.)

So, by the end of the day I want to have a full set of analysis output, with notes on the interpretation and a diagram showing the plan for the next study. I've also been working on an outline for the sections I want to include in my thesis, but that's making me confused and tetchy, so I think I might leave that for a bit, and come back to it after my meeting tomorrow.

Right. Time for a coffee, then time to fire up SPSS…

I'm nearing the end of my research now, and it seems like a good time to start writing this blog again, to keep track of how I'm getting on with the last phase of the project seeing as it has been so important and instrumental in keeping me on track long enough to get to this stage!

I expect I'm going to be blogging quite a lot over the next few weeks and months - if just to give me 'someone' to talk to about the process of completing my research and writing my thesis. As the subject suggests, I've got just under a year until the end of my PhD, so I'm really feeling the time pressure now. I'm hoping that by writing out some of the concerns and worries that I have, I'll free up some space in my head just to get on and do the work. That's the plan, anyway.

( I've spent the day doing some space clearing in the real world too… )

On each of the twin pillars at the gates to the uncanny valley, one of these robotic singing heads should perch and sing to the unwary traveller...



A lovely example of an absolutely brilliant technical accomplishment that leaves me shiveringly cold.

Full story and links to research here.

I've been working away for some time now, planning my next study and I'm now ready to ask for your help... I have a gallery of 60 faces and I need people to rate them for human likeness, strangeness and eeriness.

Would you be willing to help me with this?

If so, just follow this link: http://bit.ly/FaceExperiment

I can't promise it'll be the most exciting 20 minutes of your life, but I need as many people to take part as possible so you would be really, really helping me out if you could!

If you feel like sending the link on to colleagues, family and friends, that would be very much appreciated too.

If you're interested in the findings from my last study, I've written a short summary here.

(Apologies to those of you who have already seen this posted elsewhere!)

I've spent a considerable amount of time over the last few weeks working with images of faces: cropping them out of pictures, morphing them into each other and using them to set up experiments. I was particularly interested to read this recent item (thanks Mike!) on the disturbing effect you can get when aligning several images by their eyes, and then presenting them in sequence. The video shows this beautifully:

Tangen J M, Murphy S C, Thompson M B, 2011, "Flashed face distortion effect: Grotesque faces from relative spaces" Perception 40(5) 628 – 630 (Link)

This is a fascinating little video - an experiment to apply 365 days worth of make-up to a model, all in one session. (It apparently took 9 hours, poor woman!)

There's a point about a moment in where the layers of foundation have smoothed Ellie's skin to the point where her face becomes mask-like, an effect heightened by the way she is framed against a plain background. For me, that moment is eerie as her skin looks artificially smoothed but here eyes still move and blink. After that, the layers become crinkled and the effect is unsettling due to being grotesque rather than an disruption of humanlikeness.

I'm left with a strong desire to go and wash my face, and feeling quite happy that I only wear make-up on special occasions! :)

Exceptionally disturbing video - disembodied singing robot mouth.

She did...



The whole of that site is well worth exploring, by the way. Some amazing examples of what people can do with Photoshop. Be warned - some images involve nudity so may not be safe for work.

(Hello, anyone still reading! I am still active and researching. I know it doesn't look like it, but I'm still around! )