Uncanny Bots

In last night’s seminar, we spoke a bit about the uncanny valley. How’s this for an example: a robot covered in “skinlike silicone,” was presented at the 2005 World Expo in Japan:

Internal sensors allow the android to react “naturally.” It can block an attempted slap, for example. But it’s the little, “unconscious” movements that give the robot its eerie verisimilitude: the slight flutter of the eyelids, the subtle rising and falling of the chest, the constant, nearly imperceptible shifting so familiar to humans.

Well, that ruins my plans for robot slapping. I guess I can always go after kitchen appliances.