The Uncanny Valley and Nonverbal Communication in Virtual Characters

This chapter provides a case study of a research project investigating aspects of facial expression and viewer response to the „Uncanny Valley‟ (Mori, 1970) in realistic, human-like, virtual characters. In humans, there exists a rich variety of information that can be obtained through nonverbal communication (NVC) (Ekman, 1965). However, empirical evidence collected as part of this research project, suggests that this information is lacking in animated realistic, humanlike, virtual characters (Tinwell, Grimshaw, & Williams, 2010; Tinwell, Grimshaw, Abdel-Nabi, & Williams, 2011). Specifically, a perceived lack of emotional expressivity generated in the upper face region during speech was found to strongly influence perception of the Uncanny Valley in realistic, human-like, virtual characters (Tinwell, Grimshaw, Abdel-Nabi, et al., 2011). Building on empirical evidence provided so far in this research project, the consequences of a lack of NVC in the upper face region with regards to perception of the uncanny in characters is considered. New theories as to the cause of the uncanny phenomenon are put forward that go beyond Mori's original theory based on a perception of spontaneous versus deliberate facial expression, the detection of transient microexpressions with suggestion of possible deceit, and a recognition of psychopathic behavior. This chapter also considers the limitations of the stimuli and methodology used in previous experiments, with suggestions made for future experiments. The implications of a lack of NVC in virtual worlds are discussed with possible caveats against the use of characters in virtual simulations used for assessment purposes in the real world.