uncanny valley

[ uhn-kan-ee val-ee ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

1. a psychological concept that describes the feelings of unease or revulsion that people tend to have toward artificial representations of human beings, as robots or computer animations, that closely imitate many but not all the features and behaviors of actual human beings.
2. the dip in positive feelings toward such artificial representations.

1970; coined by Masahiro Mori, Japanese roboticist (born 1927), from Japanese bukimi no tani (genshō) “uncanny valley (phenomenon)”

It seems that games are beginning to reach the uncanny valley, because the dead eyes just made me feel uncomfortable.

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