Google reinvents art of shadow puppetry

MANILA, Philippines — Technology company Google has reinvented the traditional art of shadow puppetry with the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

Google on Tuesday launched Shadow Art, an experimental web browser-based game that lets users experience shadow puppetry using their devices.

The game was released in time with the Chinese New Year, which Google also marked with a special doodle featuring the shadows of a dog and a pig, symbolizing the transition between the two zodiacs in the Chinese tradition.

Elaine Zhu, producer of Shadow Art, said the project started as an interactive installation at the World AI Conference in Shanghai last year.

It used AI to recognize a person’s hand gestures and then transform the shadow figure into digital animations representing the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.

“After the conference, we decided to bring it online so that everyone could play,” said Zhu. “How does Shadow Art work? You use your hands to form one of 12 zodiac animals from the lunar cycle in front of your laptop or phone camera, trying to match your hand to the diagram on the screen. The ‘shadow’ of your hands on the screen then transforms into a shadow puppet animal.”

Zhu said they turned it into an interactive game where players have 20 seconds to form each animal. 

“The goal is to go through the full lunar cycle as fast as possible,” she said. 

The game is available in 11 languages, including English, Chinese, Thai, Bahasa Indonesia, Malay, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Portuguese.

“With technology, I’m hoping to help connect people to this ancient art form,” said the project’s developer.