The uncanny valley (UV) hypothesis, which predicts that almost but not fully humanlike artificial characters elicit negative evaluations, has become increasingly influential. At the same time, the hypothesis has become associated with many computer-animated films that have aimed at high realism. In the present investigation, we tested whether semirealistic animated film characters do in fact elicit negative evaluations. Fifty-four participants were asked to evaluate five matched film excerpts from each of cartoonish, semirealistic, and human-acted films. Mixed model analyses were conducted to reduce the effects of participant and stimulus related confounds. Explicit selections made after the experiment confirmed that participants associated semirealistic film characters correctly with the UV. Semirealistic animated characters also received higher eeriness ratings than the other film characters. In particular, two semirealistic films ‘Beowulf’ and ‘The Polar Express’ were selected the most often explicitly, and ‘Beowulf’ also received higher eeriness ratings than any other film. Somewhat unexpectedly, cartoonish characters received the highest strangeness ratings and (after confound correction) the lowest likability ratings. Taken together, the present findings demonstrate that semirealistic animated film characters are more eerie than cartoonish characters or real actors, and hence provide evidence for the existence of the UV in animated film characters.

We investigate consciously controlled pupil size as an input modality. Pupil size is affected by various processes, e.g., physical activation, strong emotional experiences and cognitive effort. Our hypothesis is that given continuous feedback, users can learn to control pupil size via physical and psychological self-regulation. We test it by measuring the magnitude of self evoked pupil size changes following seven different instructions, while providing real time graphical feedback on pupil size. Results show that some types of voluntary effort affect pupil size on a statistically significant level. A second controlled experiment confirms that subjects can produce pupil dilation and construction on demand during paced tasks. Applications and limitations to using voluntary pupil size manipulation as an input modality are discussed.