BB King had his Lucille, old slowhand his well-worn Strat, and who could forget Jimmy Page with his Gibson SG twin-neck? You too could join the greats and learn how to play guitar, thanks to new technology from Australia’s science research centre – CSIRO. And, all you have to do is put on their new designer shirt and start strumming…the air.
Engineer Richard Helmer in the Textiles and Fibre Technology section in Geelong has created a ‘wearable instrument shirt’ (WIS) which enables users to play ‘air guitar’ and make real sounds simply by moving one arm to pick chords and the other to strum the imaginary instrument’s strings.
“Our air guitar consists of a wearable sensor interface embedded in a conventional ‘shirt’ which uses custom software to map gestures with audio samples. ‘It’s an easy-to-use, virtual instrument that allows real-time music making — even by players without significant musical or computing skills. It allows you to jump around and the sound generated.”
The WIS works by recognising and interpreting arm movements and relaying this wirelessly to a computer for audio generation. There are no trailing cables to get in the way and no risk of electrocution when you’re getting all hot and sweaty thrashing away in front of your bedroom mirror.
The real advantage of the wear-guitar is that when you reach the climax of the gig you can smash your guitar against the imaginary stack of Marshall 4x12s without wrecking thousands of dollars of equipment. Just remember, once you’re done, to ask your mom not to add it to the regular laundry.