Design and Assessment of an Interactive Role-Play System for Learning and Sustaining Traditional Glove Puppetry by Digital Technology

Abstract

As an ancient performing art, the puppet show was popular entertainment for early civilians. However, with the advance of media technology, traditional puppetry declined gradually, and old puppets became relics displayed in museums. In this study, an interactive role-play system for learning and sustaining traditional glove puppetry is proposed. Constructed with RFID and multimedia techniques to replace the traditional static displays of puppetry, the proposed system allows in-person experiencing of operating real puppets of famous roles. Statistical analyses of the comments collected from expert interviews and the users’ answers to a questionnaire survey lead to the following findings: (1) it is easy to understand and operate the puppets as physical interfacing with the system; (2) the interactive system design conforms to the 3E indicators of easiness, effectiveness, and enjoyableness; (3) the users’ experiences of role-plays emulating experts’ puppet shows help learn the knowledge and skills of the traditional puppetry; (4) in-person operations of real puppets and experiences of RFID-based interactive interfacing bring the users feelings of pleasure and senses of achievement as puppet performers; and (5) the content designs and operations of the puppet characters can turn into a fine material for learning the traditional puppetry.