{"id":290,"date":"2009-04-06T02:11:56","date_gmt":"2009-04-06T07:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vgable.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/06\/a-teddy-bear-in-the-uncanny-valley\/"},"modified":"2009-04-09T04:22:01","modified_gmt":"2009-04-09T09:22:01","slug":"a-teddy-bear-in-the-uncanny-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vgable.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/06\/a-teddy-bear-in-the-uncanny-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"A Teddy Bear in the Uncanny Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

I came across this creepy robot<\/a> on Sentient Developments<\/a>,<\/p>\n

\n
\"battlebot.jpg\"<\/div>\n

… Its head is designed to look like that of a teddy bear, to provide reassurance to the wounded soldier it is transporting.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t think I’m alone in finding that cold metal visage<\/em> discomforting. I wouldn’t want to come-to, bleeding on a battlefield, staring into those lifeless inhuman eyes.<\/p>\n

Personally I think a red cross symbol on a plywood board would make a better head. It’s not unsettling, and it’s what medics<\/a> wear, so it means “help” to the wounded.<\/p>\n

What I find so interesting about the BEAR’s “face” is that it’s clearly nonhuman<\/em>, yet feels off<\/em> in the same way as an android from the Uncanny Valley<\/a>. My understanding of the Uncanny Valley phenomenon was that people didn’t reject creations that didn’t mimic some real creature. But I can’t accept the BEAR, even though it’s mimics a fuzzy-doll, not any kind of living creature.<\/p>\n

I think the BEAR is an important advance in life-saving technology. I’m sure that robots will have an important roll in dangerous rescues, on and off the battlefield. But I have a feeling that a more purly-mechanical looking machine would have a more pleasing bedside manner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I came across this creepy robot on Sentient Developments, … Its head is designed to look like that of a teddy bear, to provide reassurance to the wounded soldier it is transporting. I don’t think I’m alone in finding that cold metal visage discomforting. I wouldn’t want to come-to, bleeding on a battlefield, staring into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[381,40,379,380],"class_list":["post-290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design","tag-health","tag-psychology","tag-robots","tag-uncanny-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgable.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgable.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgable.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgable.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgable.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vgable.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgable.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgable.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgable.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}