Overview

At present, a user's control of his/her persona in a 3D virtual environment such as "World of Warcraft" or "Second Life" is constrained to text input through a keyboard, excluding most forms of nonverbal and paraverbal communication. The "Puppet UI" is an ongoing exploration of alternative input methods, inspired by hand puppets, designed to enhance inter-personal communication and user agency in virtual environments.

We developed the puppet UI as an iterative process, with multiple prototypes and rapid changes in the design concept. The current iteration of the prototype uses a colour-coded glove in conjunction with a web camera, which allow users to manipulate a 2D avatar by freely moving a gloved hand.

Our process, research and results are documented in the paper "The Puppet UI: Tools for nonverbal communication in virtual environments", which was published in Media Lab Working Papers 2008.

Download Design Paper [pdf]
Download Final Presentation [pdf]

Context

The project was a result of a collaboration between Eirik Fatland and myself. It was produced during our study in Media Lab Helsink, in 3D user interface design course, tought by Markku Reunannen.

Process

We utilized three different methods to develop the concept:

• Background research - investigating similar projects, and applicable theory
• User studies - asking potential users to demonstrate their use of a real hand puppet, and translating the results to design ideas and requirements.
• Expert consultation with a professional puppeteer.

We developed the puppet UI as an iterative process, with multiple prototypes and rapid changes in the design concept.