Project: Air Guitar lets you rock out sans axe
Sure, that whole Minority Report-style gesture-based input technology has a ton of potentially useful applications, but a partnership between groups in Finland and Italy know that what we all really want from this nascent tech is a way to play virtual air guitar. Started as part of the EU-funded ALMA project, Project: Air Guitar uses a video cam to capture Slashes-in-training as they rock out wearing brightly-colored gloves, and translates their movements into audible music using proprietary software. The air guitar app recognizes a user sliding his/her hand up and down the virtual guitar neck, performing "hammer-ons" and "blues bends," and is compatible with a floor pedal that adjusts chords. The team is currently working on a method of duplicating the experience for people at home, presumably using PC webcams along with the prototype software and neon gloves. If they are able to commercialize this product, along with the usual off-key crooning, we may soon witness people flailing their limbs like idiots at our favorite karaoke bars.
[Via New Scientist]
