Developers to Cross ‘Uncanny Valley’ Within Two Years

Obsidian Entertainment producer, David Kunkler, claims that super-realistic facial expressions in games that don’t suffer from the ‘uncanny valley’^† problem will be with us in less than two years.

"Give us another year or two, and we'll be able to completely get across that uncanny valley," Kunkler told BBC World Service's Digital Planet programme.

"People are doing motion capture very well, getting the 'exactly right' facial expressions - eyes moving correctly, every little crease, wrinkle and nod - really coming across," Kunkler added.

The ‘uncanny valley’ effect refers to in-game facial animations that, as Kunkler describes it, “are too close to real, but not quite real.”

Opinion is divided on the issue within the development community. For example, in our recent interview with Bethesda’s VP of marketing, Pete Hines, SPOnG was told that, ”We've gotten that uncanny valley question before and I don't think it applies, only because we're not even remotely close to something being so realistic that by one aspect being slightly off it's disturbing. I still think we have a long way to go in terms of lip-synching, facial animations, expressions and all that stuff, but you know…. they're definitely getting better, but there's light-years to go where we are going to be approaching realism, where you have to worry about it being just that little bit off to be disturbing.”

Let us know what you think? Is ‘the end of the uncanny valley’ mere developer/PR hype or genuine near-future possibility?

^{† A phrase coined by Japanese roboticist Doctor Masahiro Mori. Stated simply, the idea is that if one were to plot emotional response against similarity to human appearance and movement, the curve is not a sure, steady upward trend. Instead, there is a peak shortly before one reaches a completely human “look” . . . but then a deep chasm (the ‘uncanny valley’) plunges below neutrality into a strongly negative response before rebounding to a second peak where resemblance to humanity is complete.
A more detailed explanation can be found at Arclight}