Uncanny valley of androids and the lateral inhibition hypothesis

Abstract

From the viewpoint of designing a robot for communication, it is important to avoid the 'uncanny valley,' although this is an essential phenomenon for discovering the principles relevant to establishing and supporting social interaction between humans and robots. Studying the uncanny valley allows us to explore the boundary of humanlike-ness. We have empirically and experimentally obtained evidence for the uncanny valley effect, which has thus far only been hypothesized through the development of androids that closely resemble human beings. We have also obtained experimental evidence to suggest that the uncanny valley varies owing to the development of individuals. We refer to this variable uncanny valley as the age-dependent uncanny valley. We assume that the uncanny valley is induced by a lateral inhibition effect, which is the same mechanism observed in sensory cells, and is referred to herein as the lateral inhibition hypothesis of the uncanny valley. The present paper presents evidence concerning the uncanny valley and describes the likelihood of the present hypothesis.