Saturday, June 2, 2007

Air Guitar

"My T-Shirt Rocks"

"AUSTRALIA -- Government scientists have announced that they have developed a high-tech t-shirt that turns the strumming of an air guitar into music. Motion sensors built into the elbows of the 'wearable instrument shirt' pick up arm motions and relay them to a computer, which reproduces them as guitar riffs. One arm strums, while the other produces chords. 'It's an easy-to-use virtual instrument that allows real-time musicmaking--even by players without significant musical skills,' says Richard Helmer, the lead engineer of the project."

-Rolling Stone Magazine, Dec. 2006

Personally, I am a huge fan of the air guitar. I have been known to rock out, occasionally, as if I am Slash, John Frusciante, or Tom Morello. Alyssa Helme and I even had a crazy jam session during a previous Superbowl. I even taught Lindsay Nelli how to rock in the dirty basement of a house on Lincoln.

As much as I love air guitar, is this the best way to spend government funding? Or is it really something special and incredible?

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