Within the realm of art and technology, there exists a theory proposing the existence of the Uncanny Valley. This phenomenon occurs in nearly all artistic disciplines and is becoming a more significant problem for designers as technology advances. While the term originated in the field of robotics to describe near-lifelike renderings of the human form, but is perhaps most commonly recognized now as a means of describing human representations in the field of digital animation. Though the Uncanny Valley has been widely accepted as something that exists and that is negatively impacting the field of digital media, it is still uncertain what exactly produces the effect, but many theories have been proposed detailing possible reasons behind why effect is triggered.
The theory of the Uncanny Valley was originally proposed by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970 \cite{Valley1970}. Mori’s theory aims to describe the negative emotional response humans experience when presented with a near-lifelike rendering of the human face. Mori proposed a graph explaining this phenomenon, stating that as renderings approach true realism they receive a more positive response from humans until a certain point where the response becomes negative, eliciting reactions of disgust or uncanniness. This sharp dip in this graph (seen below) just before an image approaches true realism has been deemed the “Uncanny Valley,” and remains the ultimate challenge for digital animators.