CoPuppet: Collaborative Interaction in Virtual Puppetry

CoPuppet is a framework for the development of performances of virtual puppetry. In particular, it defines a class of interactive systems in which to realize collaborative performances involving several puppeteers. Users are able to control puppets’ body parts and interact with the puppets by producing gestures which are captured by video devices and translated into control parameters for the puppet movements. Moreover, a storyteller realizes another form of control, as the sounds captured by a microphone are used to steer in real time mouth movements and facial expressions of the virtual puppet on the screen. The result of such interactions will see the emergence of a cooperative management of the puppets’ movements.