Concept

There has been many researches that are done on using a CG avatar of self to interact with people in remote locations, to go inside a visually expressed virtual worlds to experience a world that can’t be experienced in reality. However, there was a problem with the sense of separation of the self’s avatar and the body, which is actually in the real existing space. Because of this problem, we we think that we can only see the avatar as the target to be controlled, and can’t feel the atmosphere of the virtual space through avatars, and with the body. In this study, we aim to solve these problems with a whole new design of avatars like the Shadow Avatar System.

System

Shadow Avatar System shows the Shadow Avatar on top of the real human shadow. This avatar moves correspondingly with the person’s hands and the torso, and has elbows with redundant degree of freedom. From this redundant degree of freedom, there is always a gap between the movement of a person’s body and the avatar.

Models

Wayang Kulit

Wayang Kulit is a traditional puppet from a shadow play that are done in Java, Indonesia. Wayang Kulit is made from leather of the water buffaloes that are openwork sculptured, so that when a lantern is lit against it, the shadows are projected to the white screen to show the story. Audiences watches the play from the other side of the screen to see the shadows.

Pinocchio

Pinocchio is designed from Pinocchio, the main character of “Le Avventure di Pinocchio”, a children’s literature written by Carlo Collodi and published in 1883.

Ningyo Joruri

Ningyo Joruri is a japanese traditional performing arts which has Samisen as the instrumental accompaniment, and the puppet moves with the narration of the story. This one is based on the puppet of the Ningyo Joruri.

業績・展示

• ワークショップ「表現で出会う・表現でつながる：影で出会う・つながる」（国立民族学博物館，2010/3/21～22）
• 予感研究所３（日本科学未来館，2010/5/1～5）
• ジェノバ・サイエンスフェスティバル（ボルサ宮殿，2010/11/4～7）
• ワークショップ「表現で出会う・表現でつながる〜ワヤン・クリ〜」（石川県立ろう学校，2011/11/21，22）