ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the phenomenon known as the "Uncanny Valley" in virtual reality. It refers to a sense of unease and discomfort experienced when people see increasingly realistic virtual humans. Over a century ago, psychologists identified "the Uncanny" as an experience or feeling that seems familiar and yet foreign at the same time, causing confusion in the mind and a feeling of fear or repulsion. As a robotics engineer, Mori approached the uncanny from the perspective of industrial design rather than any psychological interest, but in recent years the concept has been taken up and investigated by researchers in computer science, animation, and psychology, among others. It should be remembered that Mori presented no empirical data for his Uncanny Valley, and until recently there has been little in the way of hard data on the phenomena. Although the concept of Uncanny Valley originated in field of robotics, it has recently generated a lot more interest in computer graphics industry.
