An Intelligent Instructional Tool for Puppeteering in Virtual Shadow Puppet Play

Shadow puppet play has been a popular storytelling tradition for many centuries in many parts of Asia. In this paper, we present an initial idea and architecture of a software tool that allows people to experience shadow puppet play in the virtual world. Normally, a virtual puppet show is controlled automatically by the application. However, our tool allows the user to create storyline and control the puppets directly in real-time with a special device that can improve the skill of a puppeteer. This paper focuses in detail on the design and issues of a component of the software tool which is the intelligent instructional tool for puppeteering of virtual shadow puppet play. The result of the preliminary evaluation has shown that the tool is able to help users more beneficially and a higher degree of satisfaction among the respondents which include professional puppeteers and potential users.