Revisiting Japan’s ‘Uncanny Valley’
Last week we reported on Japan’s creepshow, the”fashion model robot without clothes,” the HRP-4C fembot shown on the left. That creepy feeling many folks expressed last week about the preview of the fembot, is a topic of much concern called the “uncanny valley” –the repulsive response aroused by a robot with appearance and motion between a “barely-human” and “fully human” entity.
Between last week and yesterday, the HRP-4C fembot’s creators, the he Humanoid Research Group Intelligent Systems Research Department of Industrial Technology Research Institute made hurried modifications (see right) to their robot’s appearance to make her less like last week’s claim that it was model upon a, “young Japanese woman to achieve a look that is very close to a human.” 
The government funded research institute now claims their robot is, “based on Japanese anime cartoon characters.”
Basically, they just stuck a silver bicycle helmet on the HRP-4C fembot’s head to make it look more hard/robotic and less “uncanny.” Also notice that Reuter’s unedited video shown below of the fembot’s fashion debut shows a much less natural looking robot than the staged/edited video that the research institute released last week.
Robot model no challenge yet to human rivals
Reuters – Tue Mar 24, 2009
The HRP-4C humanoid robot showed off her stormtrooper-like silver and black frame and bowed to a fashion-savvy audience at the start of the annual Japan Fashion Week in Tokyo — but even her creators admit the mechanical model needs more work…more…
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