A Literature Review of the Research on the Uncanny Valley

Abstract

Depend on the development of science and technology, the demands for robots are not only limited to the use of functions but also pay more attention to the emotional experience brought by the products. However, as the robot’s appearance approach human-likeness, it makes people uncomfortable, which is called the Uncanny Valley (UV). In this paper, we systematically review the hypothesis and internal mechanisms of UV. Then we focus on the methodological limitations of previous studies, including terms, assessment, and materials. At last, we summarize the applications in interaction design to avoid the uncanny valley and propose future directions.