Survival horror games - an uncanny modality

This study investigates the relationship between the perceived eeriness of a virtual character with the perception of human-likeness for some attributes of motion and sound. 100 participants were asked to rate 13 video clips of 12 different virtual characters and one human. The results indicate that attributes of motion and sound do exaggerate the uncanny phenomenon and how frightening that character is perceived to be. Strong correlations were identified for the perceived eeriness for a character with how human-like a character's voice sounded, how human-like facial expression appeared and the synchronization of the character's sound with lip movement; characters rated as the least synchronized were perceived to be the most frightening. Based on the results of this study, this paper seeks to define an initial set of hypotheses for the fear-evoking aspects of character facial rendering and vocalization in survival horror games that can be used by game designers seeking to increase the fear factor in the genre and that will form the basis of further experiments which, it is hoped, will lead to a conceptual framework for the uncanny

Effect of emotion and articulation of speech on the Uncanny Valley in virtual characters

This paper presents a study of how exaggerated facial expression in the lower face region affects perception of emotion and the Uncanny Valley phenomenon in realistic, human-like, virtual characters. Characters communicated the six basic emotions, anger, disgust, fear, sadness and surprise with normal and exaggerated mouth movements. Measures were taken for perceived familiarity and human-likeness. The results showed that: an increased intensity of articulation significantly reduced the uncanny for anger; yet increased perception of the uncanny for characters expressing happiness with an exaggeration of mouth movement. The practical implications of these findings are considered when controlling the uncanny in virtual characters

Uncanny as usability obstacle

The eerie feeling attributed to photo-realistic human-like video game characters may serve as a usability obstacle leaving viewers dissatisfied with a particular character for a video game. This study investigates the relationships between user satisfaction and perceived strangeness and between user satisfaction and human-like appearance for virtual characters. 65 participants were asked to rate 13 video clips of 12 different virtual characters and one real human. The results indicate that the Uncanny Valley does serve as a usability obstacle with a strong correlation between a user?s satisfaction rating and the perceived strangeness for a character, with the characters rated the strangest being the least satisfactory. Whilst there was still a positive correlation between human-like appearance for a character with user satisfaction, this was not as significant, with stylised and anthropomorphic characters perceived to be as satisfactory or more so than those of a photo-realistic human-like appearanc

The uncanny valley in games and animation

Advances in technology have enabled animators and video game designers to design increasingly realistic, human-like characters in animation and games. Although it was intended that this increased realism would allow viewers to appreciate the emotional state of characters, research has shown that audiences often have a negative reaction as the human likeness of a character increases. This phenomenon, known as the Uncanny Valley, has become a benchmark for measuring if a character is believably realistic and authentically human like. This book is an essential guide on how to overcome the Uncann

Survival horror games - an uncanny modality

This study investigates the relationship between the perceived eeriness of a virtual character with the perception of human-likeness for some attributes of motion and sound. 100 participants were asked to rate 13 video clips of 12 different virtual characters and one human. The results indicate that attributes of motion and sound do exaggerate the uncanny phenomenon and how frightening that character is perceived to be. Strong correlations were identified for the perceived eeriness for a character with how human-like a character's voice sounded, how human-like facial expression appeared and the synchronization of the character's sound with lip movement; characters rated as the least synchronized were perceived to be the most frightening. Based on the results of this study, this paper seeks to define an initial set of hypotheses for the fear-evoking aspects of character facial rendering and vocalization in survival horror games that can be used by game designers seeking to increase the fear factor in the genre and that will form the basis of further experiments which, it is hoped, will lead to a conceptual framework for the uncanny

Bridging the Uncanny: An impossible traverse?

This paper proposes that increasing technological sophistication in the creation of realism for human-like virtual characters is matched by increasing technological discernment on the part of the viewer. One of the goals for achieving a realism that is believable for virtual characters is to overcome the Uncanny Valley where perceived eeriness or familiarity are rated against perceived human-likeness. Empirical evidence shows the uncanny can be applied to virtual characters, yet implies a more complex picture than the shape of a deep valley with a sharp gradient as depicted in Mori's original plot of the Uncanny Valley. Our results imply that: (1) perceived familiarity is dependent upon a wider range of variables other than appearance and behaviour; and (2) for realistic, human-like characters, the Uncanny Valley is better replaced with the notion of an Uncanny Wall because the Uncanny Valley, as a concept, is not fully supported by the empirical evidence but, more importantly as a standard for creating human-like realism, is an impossible traverse

The uncanny wall

This paper proposes that increasing technological sophistication in the creation of realism for human-like, virtual characters is matched by increasing technological discernment on the part of the viewer. One of the goals for achieving a realism that is believable for virtual characters is to overcome the Uncanny Valley where perceived strangeness or familiarity is rated against perceived human-likeness. Empirical evidence shows the uncanny can be applied to virtual characters, yet implies a more complex picture than the shape of a deep valley with a sharp gradient as depicted in Mori's original plot of the Uncanny Valley. Our results imply that: (1) perceived familiarity is dependent upon a wider range of variables other than appearance and behaviour; and (2) for realistic, human-like characters the Uncanny Valley is an impossible traverse, is not supported fully by empirical evidence and the concept is better replaced with the notion of an Uncanny Wall

Uncanny speech

With increasing sophistication of realism for human-like characters within computer games, this chapter investigates player perception of audio-visual speech for virtual characters in relation to the Uncanny Valley. Building on the findings from both empirical studies and a literature survey, a conceptual framework for the uncanny and speech is put forward which includes qualities of speech sound, lip-sync, human-likeness of voice, and facial expression. A cross-modal mismatch for the fidelity of speech with image can increase uncanniness and as much attention should be given to speech sound qualities as aesthetic visual qualities by game developers to control how uncanny a character is perceived to be

The effect of onset asynchrony in audio-visual speech and the Uncanny Valley in virtual characters

This study investigates if the Uncanny Valley phenomenon is increased for realistic, human-like characters with an asynchrony of lip movement during speech. An experiment was conducted in which 113 participants rated, a human and a realistic, talking-head, human-like, virtual character over a range of onset asynchronies for both perceived familiarity and human-likeness. The results show that virtual characters were regarded as more uncanny (less familiar and human-like) than humans and that increasing levels of asynchrony increased perception of uncanniness. Interestingly, participants were more sensitive to the uncanny in characters when the audio stream preceded the visual stream than with asynchronous footage where the video stream preceded the audio stream. This paper considers possible psychological explanations as to why the magnitude and direction of an asynchrony of speech dictates magnitude of perceived uncanniness and the implications of this in character design