Sometimes the Uncanny Valley is quietly creepy, rather than shriekingly nightmarish. For example, consider this dancing robot.
It's not an art piece, but a therapeutic artifact:
The robot, called MEDi (short for Medicine and Engineering Designing Intelligence), interacted with 57 children aged four to nine during their flu shots last fall. MEDi can walk, play, speak, dance, high-five and even perform Tai Chi as a way to distract a patient during such a procedure, and the robot also taught the children to breathe deeply and relax ahead of the shot.[emphases added]
No terror, apparently:
Researchers were surprised to see just how much impact the machine had on the children. Those who interacted with the robot recovered quickly from their shot and reported little to no pain compared to the kids who just had a wall to stare at.
...except for the cold grimness of that last image. Poor kids.
(thanks to Randy McCall)
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