This project is an interactive puppet created by Theo Watson and Emily Gobeille. The application tracks the user's arm joints and uses the information to control an animation of a bird that is projected onto a wall. I selected the project for this assignment because it reminds me of the shadow puppets that many of us made as kids. Thus, it really captures the idea of play because it is reminiscent of something we played with as children.
One thing that this project could do better would be to include more animations. One of the fun things about real shadow puppets is the ability to create different shapes that resembled animals. This work could incorporate such a diversity of creations by allowing users to use different arm positions to represent different animations that would then be projected onto the wall. Of course, the video above is labeled as a prototype, so it's possible that the creators already have more planned than a single bird animation.
One technology that this project uses is the Kinect. Thus, the technology behind the interactive puppet is already well-established.
Although I haven't come up with an idea for my own project yet, I think it would be fun to make something interactive like this work. Specifically, I like how the interactive puppet makes it easy for a user to understand what to do. This is something I would keep in mind if I made an interactive work for this assignment.
Sources:
http://www.creativeapplications.net/openframeworks/interactive-puppet-prototype-w-kinect-openframeworks/