Uncanny Valley of Androids and Its Lateral Inhibition Hypothesis

The "uncanny valley" must be avoided from the viewpoint of communication robot design, while this is an essential phenomenon for discovering the principles relevant to establishing social interaction between human and robot. Studying the uncanny valley allows us to explore the boundary of human-likeness. We have empirically and experimentally obtained evidence to show the uncanny valley. We have also obtained experimental evidence to suggest that the uncanny valley varies owing to the development of individuals. We refer to this variable uncanny valley as the age-dependent uncanny valley. We assume that the uncanny valley is induced by a lateral inhibition effect, and is referred to herein as the lateral inhibition hypothesis of the uncanny valley;. The present paper presents evidence concerning the uncanny valley and describes the likelihood of the present hypothesis.