Angela Tinwell

This study investigates the relationship between the perceived eeriness of a virtual character with the perception of human-likeness for some attributes of motion and sound. 100 participants were asked to rate 13 video clips of 12 different virtual characters and one human. The results indicate that attributes of motion and sound do exaggerate the uncanny phenomenon and how frightening that character is perceived to be. Strong correlations were identified for the perceived eeriness for a character with how human-like a character's voice sounded, how human-like facial expression appeared and the synchronization of the character's sound with lip movement; characters rated as the least synchronized were perceived to be the most frightening. Based on the results of this study, this paper seeks to define an initial set of hypotheses for the fear-evoking aspects of character facial rendering and vocalization in survival horror games that can be used by game designers seeking to increase the fear factor in the genre and that will form the basis of further experiments which, it is hoped, will lead to a conceptual framework for the uncanny.

This paper proposes that increasing technological sophistication in the creation of realism for human-like virtual characters is matched by increasing technological discernment on the part of the viewer. One of the goals for achieving a realism that is believable for virtual characters is to overcome the Uncanny Valley where perceived eeriness or familiarity are rated against perceived human-likeness. Empirical evidence shows the uncanny can be applied to virtual characters, yet implies a more complex picture than the shape of a deep valley with a sharp gradient as depicted in Mori's original plot of the Uncanny Valley. Our results imply that: (1) perceived familiarity is dependent upon a wider range of variables other than appearance and behaviour; and (2) for realistic, human-like characters, the Uncanny Valley is better replaced with the notion of an Uncanny Wall because the Uncanny Valley, as a concept, is not fully supported by the empirical evidence but, more importantly as a standard for creating human-like realism, is an impossible traverse.