Chinese robot developers hope for road out of ‘uncanny valley’

A disembodied woman’s head mugged and grimaced, aping the facial expressions of a user on a nearby laptop as visitors to the China Humanoid Robot Developer Conference watched in fascinated unease.

The wide, slightly frantic eyes left no doubt the technology was firmly in “uncanny valley” territory but the field is nonetheless attracting increasing attention in China, both from investors and the government.