Google enters the uncanny valley

When dealing with computer-animated characters, there’s an interesting psychological effect in the viewer. Poorly drawn or rendered characters end up looking like cartoons, even if they are still recognizable as “people.” Really photorealistic characters look, well, almost real.

But somewhere in the middle lies the uncanny valley. When something looks almost real, but not quite, it creeps people out. If it looks less real, they breathe a sigh of relief and think “cartoon.” If it looks more real, they think “well, this is real.”

But if something’s off, and they can’t quite put their finger on it, people just get the heebie-jeebies.

I’m going to theorize that the same thing holds true in other realms, and to prove it, I will present to you, via Gizmodo,  the latest incarnation of Google Earth, featuring New York City in near-perfect 3-D rendering:

I haven’t exactly been able to figure out why, but it creeps me out. I love Google maps and even Street View — even zooming in close on my own home. But this is almost too much.

And yet, I’ve also seen much better zooms in television shows and movies, where they actually zoom in and show things perfectly, so there aren’t flat cars on the streets, for example.

In between, in the uncanny valley, is this new Google Earth.

But perhaps I’m just in an uber-creeped-out frame of mind already, because I just learned that IBM wants to make Minority Report come to life, with its advanced “crime prediction” software.