Design de animação no fundo do abismo: fotorrealismo e o uncanny valley

Certas abordagens do design de animação 3d procuram aproximar suas estéticas ao fotorrealismo. Essas tentativas correm o risco de causarem ao público alguns desconfortos ao revelarem a origem artificial dos personagens, fenômeno classificado como Uncanny Valley. Nesse contexto, o presente texto, configurado como pesquisa exploratória, tem o objetivo de analisar as possíveis causas de tais consequências a partir das obras do estúdio Image Movers Digital, que dedicou suas animações em longa-metragem predominantemente às imagens com semelhança visual fotográfica

Mapping Beyond the Uncanny Valley: A Delphi Study on Aiding Adoption of Realistic Digital Faces

Developers and HCI researchers have long strived to create digital agents that are more realistic. Voice-only versions are now common, but there has been a lack of visually realistic agents. A key barrier is the “Uncanny Valley”, referring to aversion being triggered if agents are not quite realistic. To gain understanding of the challenges of the Uncanny Valley in creating realistic agents, we conducted a Delphi study. For the Delphi panel, we recruited 13 leading international experts in the area of digital humans. They participated in three rounds of qualitative interviews. We aimed to transfer their knowledge from the entertainment industry to HCI researchers. Our findings include the unexpected conclusion that the panel considered the challenges of final rendering was not a key problem. Instead, modeling and rigging were highlighted, and a new dimension of interactivity was revealed as important. Our results provide a set of research directions for those engaged in HCI-oriented information systems using realistic digital humans

Mapping Beyond the Uncanny Valley: A Delphi Study on Aiding Adoption of Realistic Digital Faces

Developers and HCI researchers have long strived to create digital agents that are more realistic. Voice-only versions are now common, but there has been a lack of visually realistic agents. A key barrier is the “Uncanny Valley”, referring to aversion being triggered if agents are not quite realistic. To gain understanding of the challenges of the Uncanny Valley in creating realistic agents, we conducted a Delphi study. For the Delphi panel, we recruited 13 leading international experts in the area of digital humans. They participated in three rounds of qualitative interviews. We aimed to transfer their knowledge from the entertainment industry to HCI researchers. Our findings include the unexpected conclusion that the panel considered the challenges of final rendering was not a key problem. Instead, modeling and rigging were highlighted, and a new dimension of interactivity was revealed as important. Our results provide a set of research directions for those engaged in HCI-oriented information systems using realistic digital humans

Uncanny valley effect: A qualitative synthesis of empirical research to assess the suitability of using virtual faces in psychological research

Recently, virtual faces are often used as stimuli to replace traditional photographs in human face perception studies. However, despite being increasingly human-like and realistic, they still present flaws in their aspects that might elicit eerie feelings in the observers, known as the Uncanny Valley (UV) effect. The current systematic review offers a qualitative synthesis of empirical studies investigating observers' subjective experience with virtual compared to real faces to discuss the possible challenges that the UV effect poses when virtual faces are used as stimuli to study face perception. Results: revealed that virtual faces are judged eerier than real faces. Perception of uncanniness represents a challenge in face perception research as it has been associated with negative emotions and avoidance behaviors that might influence observers' responses to these stimuli. Also, observers perceive virtual faces as more deviating from familiar patterns than real faces. Lower perceptual familiarity might have several implications in face perception research, as virtual faces might be considered as a category of stimuli distinct from real faces and therefore processed less efficiently. In conclusion, our findings suggest that researchers should be cautious in using these stimuli to study face perception

Actors, Avatars and Agents: Potentials and Implications of Natural Face Technology for the Creation of Realistic Visual Presence

We are on the cusp of creating realistic, interactive, fully rendered human faces on computers that transcend the “uncanny valley,” widely known for capturing the phenomenon of “eeriness” in faces that are almost, but not fully realistic. Because humans are hardwired to respond to faces in uniquely positive ways, artificial realistic faces hold great promise for advancing human interaction with machines. For example, realistic avatars will enable presentation of human actors in virtual collaboration settings with new levels of realism; artificial natural faces will allow the embodiment of cognitive agents, such as Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, putting us on a path to create “artificial human” entities in the near future. In this conceptual paper, we introduce natural face technology (NFT) and its potential for creating realistic visual presence (RVP), a sensation of presence in interaction with a digital actor, as if present with another human. We contribute a forward-looking research agenda to information systems (IS) research, comprising terminology, early conceptual work, concrete ideas for research projects, and a broad range of research questions for engaging with this emerging, transformative technology as it becomes available for application. By doing so, we respond to calls for “blue ocean research” that explores unchartered territory and makes a novel technology accessible to IS early in its application. We outline promising areas of application and foreshadow philosophical, ethical, and conceptual questions for IS research pertaining to the more speculative phenomena of “living with artificial humans.

A meta-analysis of the uncanny valley's independent and dependent variables

The uncanny valley (UV) effect is a negative affective reaction to human-looking artificial entities. It hinders comfortable, trust-based interactions with android robots and virtual characters. Despite extensive research, a consensus has not formed on its theoretical basis or methodologies. We conducted a meta-analysis to assess operationalizations of human likeness (independent variable) and the UV effect (dependent variable). Of 468 studies, 72 met the inclusion criteria. These studies employed 10 different stimulus creation techniques, 39 affect measures, and 14 indirect measures. Based on 247 effect sizes, a three-level meta-analysis model revealed the UV effect had a large effect size, Hedges’ g = 1.01 [0.80, 1.22]. A mixed-effects meta-regression model with creation technique as the moderator variable revealed face distortion produced the largest effect size, g = 1.46 [0.69, 2.24], followed by distinct entities, g = 1.20 [1.02, 1.38], realism render, g = 0.99 [0.62, 1.36], and morphing, g = 0.94 [0.64, 1.24]. Affective indices producing the largest effects were threatening, likable, aesthetics, familiarity, and eeriness, and indirect measures were dislike frequency, categorization reaction time, like frequency, avoidance, and viewing duration. This meta-analysis—the first on the UV effect—provides a methodological foundation and design principles for future research

A Meta-analysis of the Uncanny Valley's Independent and Dependent Variables

The uncanny valley (UV) effect is a negative affective reaction to human-looking artificial entities. It hinders comfortable, trust-based interactions with android robots and virtual characters. Despite extensive research, a consensus has not formed on its theoretical basis or methodologies. We conducted a meta-analysis to assess operationalizations of human likeness (independent variable) and the UV effect (dependent variable). Of 468 studies, 72 met the inclusion criteria. These studies employed 10 different stimulus creation techniques, 39 affect measures, and 14 indirect measures. Based on 247 effect sizes, a three-level meta-analysis model revealed the UV effect had a large effect size, Hedges’ g = 1.01 [0.80, 1.22]. A mixed-effects meta-regression model with creation technique as the moderator variable revealed face distortion produced the largest effect size, g = 1.46 [0.69, 2.24], followed by distinct entities, g = 1.20 [1.02, 1.38], realism render, g = 0.99 [0.62, 1.36], and morphing, g = 0.94 [0.64, 1.24]. Affective indices producing the largest effects were threatening, likable, aesthetics, familiarity, and eeriness, and indirect measures were dislike frequency, categorization reaction time, like frequency, avoidance, and viewing duration. This meta-analysis—the first on the UV effect—provides a methodological foundation and design principles for future research

To Affinity and Beyond: Interactive Digital Humans as a Human Computer Interface

The field of human computer interaction is increasingly exploring the use of more natural, human-like user interfaces to build intelligent agents to aid in everyday life. This is coupled with a move to people using ever more realistic avatars to represent themselves in their digital lives. As the ability to produce emotionally engaging digital human representations is only just now becoming technically possible, there is little research into how to approach such tasks. This is due to both technical complexity and operational implementation cost. This is now changing as we are at a nexus point with new approaches, faster graphics processing and enabling new technologies in machine learning and computer vision becoming available. I articulate the issues required for such digital humans to be considered successfully located on the other side of the phenomenon known as the Uncanny Valley. My results show that a complex mix of perceived and contextual aspects affect the sense making on digital humans and highlights previously undocumented effects of interactivity on the affinity. Users are willing to accept digital humans as a new form of user interface and they react to them emotionally in previously unanticipated ways. My research shows that it is possible to build an effective interactive digital human that crosses the Uncanny Valley. I directly explore what is required to build a visually realistic digital human as a primary research question and I explore if such a realistic face provides sufficient benefit to justify the challenges involved in building it. I conducted a Delphi study to inform the research approaches and then produced a complex digital human character based on these insights. This interactive and realistic digital human avatar represents a major technical undertaking involving multiple teams around the world. Finally, I explored a framework for examining the ethical implications and signpost future research areas

The mentalizing triangle: how interactions among self, other and object prompt mentalizing

To smoothly interact with other people requires individuals to generate appropriate responses based on other’s mental states. The ability we rely on is termed mentalizing. As humans it seems that we are endowed with the abilities to rapidly process other’s mental states, either by taking their perspectives or using mindreading skills. These abilities allow us to go beyond our direct experience of reality and to see or infer some of the contents of another’s mental world. Due to the complexity of social contexts, our mentalizing system needs to address a variety of challenges which put different requirements on either time or flexibility. During years of research, investigators have come up with various theories to explain how we cope with these challenges. Among them, the two-system account raised up by Apperly and colleagues (2010) has been favoured by many studies. Concisely, the two-system account claims that we have a fast-initiated mentalizing system which guarantees us to make quick judgments with limited cognitive resource; and a flexible system which allows deliberate thinking and enables mentalizing to generalize to multiple targets. Such a framework provides good explanations to debates such as whether preverbal young children can process mentalizing or not. But it is still largely unknown how healthy adults engage in mentalizing in everyday life. Specifically, why it seems easier for some targets to activate our mentalizing system, but with some others, we frequently fail to consider their perspectives or beliefs? To give an explanation to this question, I adopted a different research orientation in my PhD from the two-system account, which considers the dynamic interactions among three key elements in mentalizing: the self, agent(s), and object(s). I put forward a mentalizing triangle model and assume the interactions in these triadic relationships act as gateways triggering mentalizing. Thus, with some agents, we feel more intimate with them, which makes it easier for us to think about their minds. Similarly, in certain context, the agent may have frequent interactions with the object, thus we become more motivated to engage in mentalizing. In the following chapters, I first reviewed current literatures and illustrate evidence that could support or oppose the triangle model, then examined these triangle hypotheses both from behavioural and neuroimaging levels. In Study 1, I first measured mentalizing in the baseline condition where no interaction in the triangle relationships was provided. By adapting the false belief paradigm used by Kovacs, Teglas, & Endress (2010), I imported the Signal Detection theory to obtain more indices which could reflect participants mentalizing processes. Results of this study showed that people have a weak tendency to ascribe other’s beliefs when there is no interaction. Then, in Study 2, we added another condition which included the ‘agent-object’ interaction factor while using a similar paradigm in Study 1. Results in the noninteractiond condition replicated our findings of Study 1, but adding ‘agent-object’ interactions didn’t boost mentalizing. Study 3 and 4 tested the ‘self-agent’ interaction hypothesis in visual perspective taking (VPT), another basic mentalizing ability. In Study 3, I adopted virtual reality approach and for the first time investigated how people select which perspective to take when exposed to multiple conflicting perspectives. Importantly, I examined whether the propensity to engage in VPT is correlated with how we perceive other people as humans, i.e. the humanization process. Congruent with our hypotheses, participant exhibited stronger propensity to take a more humanised agent’s perspective. Then in Study 4, I used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and investigated the neural mechanism underlying this finding. In general, the ‘selfagent’ hypothesis in the mentalizing triangle model was supported but not for the ‘agentobject’ hypothesis, which we consider may due to several approach limitations. The findings in this thesis are derived from applying novel approaches to classic experimental paradigms, and have shown the potentials of using new techniques, such as VR and fNIRS, in investigating the philosophical question of mentalizing. It also enlights social cognitive studies by considering classic psychological methods such as the Signal Detection Theory in future research