Facial Recognition Study?

[hooplala]

I am looking for some help here, and I'm not totally sure how to go about it... I am hoping someone here will know what I am talking about and can point me in the right direction.


I believe there was a study done sometime in the last ten years (may have been longer) where it was determined that humans respond positively toward things which have indications of a human face, things as basic as "smiley faces" or coloured lights forming smiles, etc.  However, the flip side of this study was that there was a line... crossing this line and making things look "too human" tended to creep people out.  Think marionettes, robotic presidents at Disney World, etc...

Here's the thing, I was positive that I had read about this study in a column by Roger Ebert of all people, I could have sworn he sited this study in his review for the Wayan's Brothers movie 'White Chicks', but having just re-read that review I can find absolutely no reference to it, as if I dreamed it.  I really hope this is not the case. 

Does this study sound familiar to anyone here?

[Elder Iptuous]

search 'uncanny valley'

[hooplala]

search 'uncanny valley'

THANK YOU!

[Chairman Risus]

There's also this

http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/19-brain-seeing-person-behind-the-face

[Elder Iptuous]

two percent have prosopagnosia?!
that would imply that you see one of these people every time you are in a crowd...
my dubiosity is engorged.

also. i read it as proSPAGnosia.  which i would assume means the innability to recognize half the spags on the board because they change their goddamn name and avatar every gundamned week....
i suffer that.

[Jasper]

@ Iptuous

Yeah, uncanny valley.  Big problem for video games.

[Dean]

Apparently Oliver Sacks, who write books on his more interesting clinical psychology cases, has prosopagnosia.