he “uncanny valley phenomenon” is a strange phenomenon in which the closer the robot is to the human appearance, the more familiar it becomes, but when it reaches a certain degree, it suddenly feels “strong disgust”. That’s right.
In the past, robot media has covered the “uncanny valley phenomenon” …
The mysterious phenomenon “uncanny valley” that makes you feel disgusted as you get closer to humans
https://robot.mirai-media.net/human-robo-creepy/
This month, the areas of the brain that cause the “uncanny valley phenomenon” were revealed.
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Uncanny Valley’: Brain network evaluates robot likeability
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-07-brain-network-robot-likeability.html
Brain region linked to “uncanny valley phenomenon”
The University of Cambridge and RWTH Aachen University in Germany have been studying the uncanny valley phenomenon for some time, and discovered a brain region that shows that the brain wave pattern using MRI is linked to the uncanny valley phenomenon.
About the experiment
In the experiment, about 20 subjects were shown photographs of multiple patterns such as “human”, “robot”, and “hybrid”, and the brain waves were measured by MRI to evaluate the brain wave patterns of disgust and familiarity.
Then, the EEG pattern of the part of the brain involved in the processing of social evaluation called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex matched the “uncanny valley”.
The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is also an organ that judges the subjective value (comfort), and the result is that it is suitable as a proof of this experiment.
It is also known from this experiment that the strength of the “uncanny valley phenomenon” varies from person to person.
It shows that the concept of likes and dislikes applies to robots as well as we humans.
Like humans, there may not be a robot that all humans like.
Impact on humanoid robot development
The results show that it can have a significant impact on the design of “human-looking robots.”
And this “uncanny valley phenomenon” can change with social experience, the research team said.