Title
The uncanny valley of embodied interaction design
Abstract
The \"Uncanny Valley\" theory explains the counter-intuitive phenomenon where people may get suddenly uncomfortable with an artificial entity when it becomes very similar to humans. We propose the existence of an \"uncanny valley\" for embodied interaction, when a user's body motions in the physical space (the locus of interaction) are incompletely mapped into effects in the virtual space (the focus of interaction). It is generally assumed that this mapping should be as veridical as possible to promote seamless embodied interaction. Many design factors (e.g., synchronicity, sensitivity, shared realism) contribute to veridical locus-focus mapping. We intentionally varied the level of veridicality of these different factors, affecting how the user's movements were mapped to virtual effects. Our results indicate that there is a dip (valley) in user preferences when the design contains mixed degrees of veridicality. Thus, when one veridical dimension is limited, designers should likewise reduce the veridicality of other dimensions.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1145/2598510.2598593
Conference on Designing Interactive Systems
Keywords
Field
DocType
design,user/machine systems,locus of interaction,user interfaces,realism,embodied interaction,focus of interaction.,uncanny valley
Interaction design,Uncanny valley,Cognitive science,Veridicality,Embodied cognition,Human–computer interaction,Synchronicity,Artificial intelligence,Engineering,Phenomenon,Physical space,Realism
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
4
0.45
8
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Francesco Cafaro1629.96
Leilah Lyons213919.89
Jessica Roberts3504.32
Josh Radinsky4508.96