Japanese roboticist Mashiro Mori once charted a concept about the appearance of robots.  An article in popular mechanics by Erik Sofge explains this uncanny valley as a point on Mori’s chart where robots are nearly human in appearance and action but not quite there.  These machines are so life like that the dissimilarities become unbelievably obvious. An article on Gizmodo by Loyd goes further in depth on how the this relates to characters in video games because it’s an issue beyond just appearance.  The overtly lifeless “appearance” of these creations is reflected in actions such as movement and behavior as well.

But really, we see what we want to see.  Games have bordered on “realistic” for a long time.  Ryu from Ninja Gaiden looks so human like.  Now that we have 64-bit graphics technology he’s relegated to cheesy 8-bit art.  Thsi moves forward until we’re using high tech game engines and graphic presentations that border on “realism.”  In reality I think it’s nothing more than a logarithmic curve.  We constantly approach this “uncanny valley” this level of human-like setting without ever really reaching it.  It’s not just games either.  If you look at characters in film and literature we read or watch their actions and say “he sold that line so well!  Such great acting!”  When in reality we see it for what it is: forced emotion keyed to play off empathic sentiment.  “Human-like” is an unattainable state because we don’t even really know what it is.  We can approach this asymptotic ideal without ever truly reaching it.

Take for example animals in games and stories.  We can almost perfectly replicate the way they act and “feel” through writing or even computer graphics.  They are easy to create even though they appear just as distorted as humans.  But we’re not animals, if we were then the species we see on screen would probably be just as lifeless as any of the humans we see in a CG film or game cinematic.  In my opinion, the uncanny valley is not a valley at all but an abyss.  An infinite drop as x approaches y but never reaching x.

Sofge, Erik. “The Truth About Robots and the Uncanny Valley: Analysis.” Popular Mechanics. N.p., 20 Jan. 2010. Web. 6 Nov. 2010.

“The History of the Uncanny Valley.” Gizmodo. N.p., 3 Nov. 2010. Web. 6 Nov. 2010.