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Do you know Lullaby, by the Cure?
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. -
Call For Participants!
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/FaceExperimentI can't promise it'll be the ( Read more... ) -
A novel route to distorted faces
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 ( Read more... ) -
A year of make-up
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 ( Read more... ) -
The world needs more creepy doll morphs. *nods*
Christine E. Looser and Thalia Wheatley (2010) The Tipping Point of Animacy
How, When, and Where We Perceive Life in a Face Psychological Science November 2010 , first published on November 19, 2010 doi:10.1177/0956797610388044 ( Read more... ) -
Uncanny Speech
This is an interesting new angle - investigating in congruencies of speech rather than mismatches in face realism: well worth a read.
Tinwell, A., Grimshaw, M., and Williams, A. Uncanny speech. In M. Grimshaw (Ed.), Game sound technology and player interaction: Concepts and developments. IGI Global, 2011, pp. 213-234. Link to pdf -
Research on emotion scale for the uncanny valley
Here's a different slant on the same question that I've been working on this summer - what emotions characterise people's reactions to the uncanny valley?
Kowal, Christopher. "Exploring the Uncanny Valley: Developing a Scale for the Uncanny Valley."
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the NCA 95th Annual Convention, Chicago Hilton & Towers, ( Read more... ) -
Adobe Museum of Digital Media
This site doesn't open until October 6th (and I must admit, I'm slightly dubious about the concept of an uncanny valley for the internet) but it still looks well worth a visit.
Valley - AMDM’s Inaugural Exhibition
Valley, the latest work by the renowned American artist Tony Oursler and the AMDM’s inaugural exhibition, explores our relationship to the ( Read more... )
Click to view