The implication of realistic levels of the computer based animation character: A conceptual framework

Abstract

The talking-head animation is an instructional approach that helps students in linguistic learning, especially in the pronunciation aspect. However, the use of talking-head animation has caused some emotional uneasiness among students when the design and realistic level of the animated characters were too human-like. This phenomenon is known as Uncanny Valley and was corroborated through a research by a Japanese robotics expert named Masahiro Mori in the year 1970, who also produced a graph explaining this phenomenon. Hence, this paper proposed a conceptual framework for talking-head computer animation, specifically for pronunciation learning and discussing the significance of choosing an appropriate animation character to avoid the emotionally unsettling effects of the Uncanny Valley phenomenon. The framework was developed based on theories, principles and literature review. This paper also suggests further studies to affirm the framework proposed.