Notes on the psychological effects of human robot interaction. Part of Project Lirec
A theory of Masahiro Mori from 1970: http://www.androidscience.com/theuncannyvalley/proceedings2005/uncannyvalley.html
We hope to design robots or prosthetic hands that will not fall into the uncanny valley. So I recommend designers take the first peak as the goal in building robots rather than the second. Although the second peak is higher, there is a far greater risk of falling into the uncanny valley. We predict that it is possible to produce a safe familiarity by a nonhumanlike design. So designers please consider this point. A good example is glasses. Glasses do not resemble the real eyeball, but this design is adequate and can make the eyes more charming. So we should follow this principle when we design prosthetic eyes. We can create an elegant prosthetic hand ? one that must be fashionable. Artist who makes statues of Buddhas created a model of a human hand that is made from wood. The fingers bend at their joints. The hand has no finger print, and it assumes the natural color of wood. But we feel it is beautiful and there is no sense of the uncanny. Maybe wooden hand can serve as a reference for future design.