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Intermediaries: reflections on virtual humans, gender, and the Uncanny Valley

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Abstract

Embodied interface agents are designed to ease the use of technology. Furthermore, they present one possible solution for future interaction scenarios beyond the desktop metaphor. Trust and believability play an important role in the relationship between user and the virtual counterpart. In order to reach this goal, a high degree of anthropomorphism in appearance and behavior of the artifact is pursued. According to the notion of the Uncanny Valley, however, this actually may have quite the opposite effect. This article provides an analysis of the Uncanny Valley effect from a cultural and gender studies perspective. It invites readers to take a closer look at the narratives that influence the production of anthropomorphic artifacts. The article starts with a short introduction of the idea of the Uncanny Valley and gives a brief overview of current artifacts. Following this, a semiotic view on computer science is proposed, which in a further step serves as an epistemological grounding for a gender-critical rereading of the Turing test. This perspective will be supported by analyzing a classic story of user and artifact—E.T.A. Hoffmann’s narration of Olimpia. Finally, the special character of anthropomorphic artifacts is discussed by taking Freud’s concept of “Das Unheimliche”, as well as theories of identity formation into consideration, closing with a plea for a more diverse artifact production.

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Notes

  1. Cf. discussions on: 'The Polar Express' (Robert Zemecki, USA, 2004). http://wardomatic.blogspot.com/2004/12/polar-express-virtual-train-wreck_18.html. Accessed 1 May 2010.

  2. For example 'Shrek' (Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson, USA, 2001).

  3. http://www.ed.ams.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp/index.en.html. http://www.ed.ams.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp/research/0007/. Accessed 1 May 2010.

  4. http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/humanoid-robotics-group. Accessed 30 Jan 2010.

  5. http://www.honda-robots.com/english/html/p3/frameset2.html. Accessed 13 Jan 2010.

  6. Cf. MIT Humanoid Robotics Group. FAQs http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/humanoid-robotics-group. Accessed 13 Jan 2010.

  7. I use Virtual Human as a collective term for embodied conversational agents, personal service assistants, digital substitutes etc. I find the term Virtual Human especially challenging and interesting because it links the virtual and the human sphere rather than separating it.

  8. Cf. The "Universal Fan Fest" project, which is part of Japan's bid submitted to football's world governing body FIFA. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gNVZsxBSbgXx268O16flQfqXOs_w. Accessed 26 May 2010.

  9. Translation: "Beings of light".

  10. Even though this experience, too, might change. Cf. the tangible hologram projector, which was presented at SIGGRAPH 2009. http://www.nextnature.net/2009/08/tangible-hologram-projector/. Accessed 26 May 2010.

  11. Avatar is taken from Hinduism; in its religious context ‘avatar’ is used for describing the human or animal form of embodiment of a god—or a godly quality—after descending from heaven to earth. She or he may emerge on different places at the same time. Therefore, the avatar describes a form of representation that is not bound to the rules of physical reality. Instead the avatar belongs to a meta-reality, where death and pain have no meaning.

  12. Cf. for example Creating bonds with humanoids. AAMAS 2005 Workshop. http://www.iut.univ-paris8.fr/~pelachaud/AAMAS05. Accessed 13 Jan 2010.

  13. The term heteronormativity questions heterosexuality as a dominant normative setting, which excludes other sexual orientations, lifestyles and identity concepts.

  14. Translation CD.

  15. This does not mean that ones gendered existence is a simple performative act. The concept describes the rather complex productive power of discursive reality.

  16. I cannot exemplify this point of the female embodiment here. For a thorough analysis see (Kormann 2006).

  17. This is even more interesting against the background of Turing's life, his sexual orientation and the sufferings he had to endure because of it. Cf. (Hodges 1992).

  18. She is referring to the problem of human–computer interaction.

  19. Cf. the cyberpunk novel 'Idoru', in which the virtual being Rei Toei is an "aggregate of subjective desire" (Gibson 1996).

  20. Hoffmann 1994/1817, p. 37. Here: English translation by John Oxenford. http://www.fln.vcu.edu/hoffmann/sand_e.html. Accessed 15 Feb 2010.

  21. Ibid., p. 40.

  22. For example, "A.I.—Artificial Intelligence"(Steven Spielberg, USA, 2001).

  23. Translation by CD.

  24. Translation by CD.

  25. Translation: http://www.rae.com.pt/Freud1.pdf. Accessed 13 Jan 2010.

  26. Freud characterizes the formation of the ego as melancholic structure. The child has to give up the desire for its parents because of the incest taboo. Butler, however, argues, that the taboo against homosexuality precedes the incest taboo (Butler 1990, p. 64).

  27. In reference to Jaques Derrida he introduces the doppelgänger as the revenant, as something which comes back.

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Acknowledgments

This research is based upon work supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), postgraduate school number GRK 1014.

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  1. Socio-technical system design & gender, Department of Computer Science, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Claude Draude

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Draude, C. Intermediaries: reflections on virtual humans, gender, and the Uncanny Valley. AI & Soc 26, 319–327 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-010-0312-4

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