• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.277-285
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to quantitatively and empirically investigate whether cartoon-realism, which is referred to as a guideline for avoiding the uncanny valley phenomenon, is actually effective. An experiment was carried out to investigate whether or not methods that try to realistically express the texture of human skin while making 3D models whose outward appearance abstract like a cartoon actually reduce the negative sentiments associated with the uncanny valley phenomenon. The results found that when human skin textures were applied to cartoon-type 3D models, the degree of eeriness significantly increased (p<0.05), while there was no change in the degree of human likeness. When cartoon-style skin textures were applied to human-type 3D models, there was no significant difference in the degree of eeriness, but the degree of human likeness significantly decreased (p<0.05). These results show that, cartoon realism is not actually effective, and rather creates a perceptual conflict and induces the uncanny valley phenomenon. The results of this study are expected to be used as quantitative and empirical data for developing design guidelines that will overcome the uncanny valley phenomenon in the future.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2007

The uncanny valley is a hypothesis about robotics concerning the emotional response of humans to robots and other non-human entities. Although it stands today as one of the robots and synthetic characters, the uncanny valley was speculative and few studies have been performed to test the theory. In two experiments, a total of 183 participants were employed to explore this hypothesis. The results of experiment 1 indicate that the perceived human likeness of a robot is not a key factor causing uncanny valley. And the results of experiments 2 suggest that even if the appearance and motion of a robot become fully human, the emotional response of humans could not reach human-human empathy levels.