Finns give music back to air guitarists

Posted on 29 Nov 2005 at 11:26

Students in Finland have written a computer program that can translate the hand and finger movements of an air guitarist into real music.

The Virtual Air Guitar Project at the Helsinki University of Technology uses a video camera to track the movements of special gloves worn by the player. The three students, Aki Kanerva, Juha Laitinen and Teemu M?-Patola, created a library of guitar sounds based on the pentatonic minor scale commonly used for rock guitar solos.

The software can differentiate between numerous techniques, whether the air guitarist is running their fingers up the virtual neck to play scales, strumming rapidly to produce 'hammer-ons' or creating blues bends. According to Kanerva, a skilled user of the system can soon create their own style.

'No two playing experiences are quite the same,' he said. 'When you're playing really hard you get a really nasty distortion sound which is great - but you have to work for it.'

New Scientist has more details plus a link to a video of the system in action.

Author: Simon Aughton

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