The Surface of Acceptability in Virtual Faces

This paper explores the surface properties of skin and eyes and their importance in the acceptance and success of a digital human face, specifically in relation to the uncanny valley. The uncanny valley hypothesis states that as a human representation approaches photo-realism, subtle differences from reality become unsettling. Recent studies suggest that the uncanny valley could exist over a far greater range, affecting abstract human representations as well. These competing findings are explored by analyzing how changes to the surface of a digital character affect its level of acceptance. A female facial model is used as a base to compare a spectrum of different simulated real-world materials. The variations range from materials that are nearly identical to human skin, to those that are completely divergent from it, thus unnatural. After studying this catalogue of materials, it is concluded that given the right conditions, the uncanny valley can occur when facial representations are very near realism, as well as when human-likeness is quite distant from reality.