uncanny valley

Calque of Japanese 不気味の谷 (ぶきみのたに, bukimi no tani), from Middle Chinese 不 (pjuw, “not”) + 氣味 (kì-mjɨ̀j, “sense, sentiment”, literally “taste and smell”) + Japanese の (no, noun modifier particle) + 谷 (たに, tani, “valley”). First used in 1970 by roboticist Masahiro Mori.

uncanny valley

1. (psychology) A range of appearances, mannerisms, and/or behaviors of a humanoid figure that are subtly different from human and thereby cause feelings of discomfort, such as fear or revulsion.
   • 1970, Masahiro Mori, “The Uncanny Valley”, in Energy, volume 7, number 4, pages 33–35:

     So in this case, the appearance is quite human like, but the familiarity is negative. This is the uncanny valley.

   • 2006, Sebastiano Bagnara, Gillian Crampton Smith, Theories and Practice in Interaction Design:

     However, when the robot is so similar that it may be momentarily mistaken for real, the transition has a local minimum characterized by a sudden decrease of familiarity, the "uncanny valley"—a dip of frustration due to unmet expectations.

   • 2007, Jonathon Keats, Control + Alt + Delete: A Dictionary of Cyberslang:

     Almost human in appearance, yet not quite, the characters in 3-D computer animations are more disturbing than overt caricatures. The realm these creatures occupy is called the uncanny valley […] .

   • 2015, Kathleen Richardson, An Anthropology of Robots and AI‎, Routledge, →ISBN:

     More unusual is perhaps the appropriation of a psychoanalytical theory to robotics–which is, in effect, what the uncanny valley aims to do. Mori's own descriptions of the uncanny follow a similar pattern to Freud's, where he indicates the kinds of events, states, processes or objects that might provoke the uncanny valley, particularly the theme of the dead.

   • 2016 September 22, Kyle Chayka, “Instagram's Creepy New Ads Look Like Posts From Your Friends”, in The Atlantic‎:

     There’s an uncanny valley effect occurring: Your friends look more like brands, and brands look more like your friends, so it’s increasingly hard to tell which is which. And that’s exactly what businesses want.

• uncanny valley on Wikipedia.Wikipedia