Exploring the Uncanny Valley

探索恐怖谷1970年，著名的日本机器人专家森正弘（Masahiro Mori）提出了“恐怖谷”曲线，用来描述人类对非人类代理人的情绪反应。他的假设是，当一个代理变得更像人类时，观察者的熟悉度不会像人们直觉的那样增加，而是会陷入一个“怪异的山谷”，当代理接近但不完美地模仿人类时。随着计算机图形技术的进步，形式和动作的渲染越来越逼真，恐怖谷已经成为娱乐行业的一个高风险问题。恐怖谷假说还提出了一个基本的科学问题：当人们看到人体运动时，他们会感知到什么？这些感知是如何受到真实的、近乎真实的或漫画化的人体运动的影响的？随着功能磁共振成像（fMRI）测量和分析技术的准确性不断提高，有一种新的工具可以用来回答这些问题。pi正在使用功能磁共振成像、眼动追踪和传统的感知指标来探索恐怖谷的存在及其原因。动作捕捉数据（包括皮肤和肌肉变形）、关键帧动画、高速视频和故事片剪辑用于构建一组刺激来回答这些问题。这项研究的结果是对动画人体运动的感知有了更深入的了解，这将为计算机图形学的从业者和研究人员提供信息，并使他们能够专注于将产生最大影响的人类动画方面。这项研究对科学和社会产生了广泛的影响。例如，这里进行的工作适用于对自闭症的科学理解，自闭症是一种破坏性的神经发育障碍，影响多个领域的社会功能，包括对他人行为和意图的感知。

Exploring the Uncanny ValleyIn 1970, an eminent Japanese roboticist, Masahiro Mori, proposed the "uncanny valley" curve to describe the emotional response of humans to nonhuman agents. His hypothesis was that as an agent is made more humanlike, the observer's familiarity does not increase as one would intuit, but falls into a ``valley of eeriness,'' when the agent closely yet imperfectly impersonates a human being. With progress in computer graphics allowing increasingly realistic rendering of forms and motion, the uncanny valley has become a high-stakes concern of the entertainment industry. The uncanny valley hypothesis also poses a fundamental scientific question: What do people perceive when they view human motion and how are those perceptions affected by realistic, nearly realistic, or caricatured human motion? With the growing accuracy of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measurement and analysis techniques, there is a new tool with which to answer these questions. The PIs are using fMRI, eye tracking, and traditional perceptual metrics to explore the existence of and causes of the uncanny valley. Motion capture data (including skin and muscle deformation), keyframed animations, high speed video, and clips from feature films are used to construct a set of stimuli with which to answer these questions.The outcomes of this research is a greater understanding of the perception of animated human motion which will inform practitioners and researchers in computer graphics and allow them to focus on the aspects of human animation that will have the greatest impact. The research has broad impacts on science and society. For example, the work conducted here has applicability to the scientific understanding of autism, a devastating neurodevelopmental disorder that effects social functioning in multiple domains including the perception of other people's actions and intentions.