Crossing the Uncanny Valley... Already done?

[yummy]

It seems Japanese tech teams have nearly done it.


The next step, mechanical waifus ?

[Voight-Kampff]

Uh. Well, that video still has me pretty creeped out. All I see when I look at it are visions of Jim Henson.

I wanna see if this thing can eat cookies. If all it does is crumble them up and go NOMNOMNOM as the pieces fall out of its mouth, then they'll need to go back to the drawing board.

[Funnyguts]

The two big problems are her mouth flaps (but then the Japanese have always had problems animating those), and her constantly twitching head.

[OtomeWeekend]

but seriously, she is a nurse(i saw her on tv months ago).

[pkt]

Wonder how much one of these costs...

[Samu-kun]

On a related note, everyone was pretty excited about AKB48's entry into the virtual idol realm...

However, in practice, they might have solved one part of the uncanny alley, but they've wandered into another problem...

[LateWhiteRabbit]

It seems Japanese tech teams have nearly done it.
The next step, mechanical waifus ?

No. They have just now reached the deepest part of it. It is even worse when visually they are so close and you still have things like stiff movement, the gaping mouth that flaps for no apparent reason, and robots should never look at you and smirk. That little half smile she does isn't endearing. It's creepy and wrong. Plus her job is to sit and stare at elderly and dying patients. How creepy is that?

[Arcanum]

This is the creepiest thing I've ever seen. Gawd *shivers*. It looks like a real person until you come closer and see it's not blinking a lot. And it twitches all the time. And stares DEEP INTO YOUR SOUL WITH ITS UNBLINKING EYES.
I can see humanity being destroyed by those things.

[J. Datie]

Plus her job is to sit and stare at elderly and dying patients. How creepy is that?

It's also programmed to answer the question "Are you Death?" with a "Yes.", a smile, and a blank stare.

[Crusher]

This is really creepy, especially in the few seconds where you almost can't tell she is a machine.
Reminds me of a short story I read back in school: "The sandman" by E.T.A. Hoffmann. In that story a guy gets in love with a girl, even dances with her and can't stop thinking about her, but finds out later that she is actually a machine which makes him totally insane. That's from 1817, it's totally creepy to see this vision starting to get real.

[Cinerious]

Wow, I can't bring myself to click the play button. The preview image reminds me of those Japanese horror movie ghosts. If I'm a patient, I would be highly uncomfortable in the company of a robot nurse like that.

[yummy]

Update: Now dental specialists can train on a robot patient that simulates actual behaviours, like speaking, feeling pain and discomfort... And even reacts if you "touch" her breast by accident!

[Omnificent]

You have just touched on one of my Points of Interest, my friend. I will probably edit this post as I remember more stuff.

CGI:

-Here is the demo reel of a guy named Max Wahyudi. You may know him from such amazing Uncanny Valley-crossing images as the one below.



-This is a video demonstrating the amazing power of subsurface scattering in simulating realistic flesh-like textures.

Robotics:

-Pretty good expressions on this here robot head.

[Pugfarts]

On a related note, everyone was pretty excited about AKB48's entry into the virtual idol realm...

However, in practice, they might have solved one part of the uncanny alley, but they've wandered into another problem...

OH MY GOD. I laughed so hard. It looks like something by Fatal Farm.