Finnish Researchers Develop Air Guitar
The Virtual Air Guitar project isn't entirely virtual -- it requires a pair of orange gloves, a video camera, a computer, software, and some speakers -- but given that gear, would-be headbangers have all they need to turn gestures into musical riffs. The project was developed at the Telecommunications Software and Multimedia Laboratory and the Acoustics Laboratory of the Helsinki University of Technology, and was completed in March 2005. Aspiring air guitarists current have to travel to the Heureka Science Centre in Finland to test their chops, but demonstration videos are available for those in other countries. New Scientist reports that the Finnish researchers running the project are working on a version that will work with consumer webcams and computers. (Talent not included.)
