A hypothesized dip in human emotional response to artificial entities. As a robot becomes more human-like, empathy and acceptance increase until a point where subtle imperfections in movement, skin texture, or eye contact trigger a feeling of revulsion. Designers often intentionally avoid this zone by making robots look distinctly mechanical or highly stylized rather than striving for perfect photorealism.
The new receptionist android is sitting right at the bottom of the uncanny valley, and the staff hates looking at it.
This concept was first proposed by Masahiro Mori in a Japanese journal article, and it heavily influences whether social robots are designed with screens for faces or silicone skin.
Related terms
Anthropomimetic
Designed to copy the physical structure and movement mechanics of the human body.
Moravec's paradox
The observation that high-level reasoning requires little computation, while basic sensorimotor skills demand enormous processing power.
Cobot
A collaborative robot designed to work safely alongside humans in a shared space.