Every rocker's dream of turning their air guitar solos into real music may come true, thanks to a 'smart shirt' developed by a team of Australian researchers.

Credit: Alex Lipsitz

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SYDNEY: Air guitar enthusiasts can now make real music thanks to a 'smart' shirt developed in Australia.

The prototype shirt senses the elbow movements of people rocking out to their favourite riffs and transmits the information wirelessly to a computer.

"It allows you to jump around and the sound produced is just like an original MP3," said Richard Helmer, a research engineer at CSIRO Textiles and Fibres Technology and lead developer of the shirt.

The garment, otherwise known as a 'wearable instrument shirt', or WIS, allows people with no musical training to play a rudimentary version of the guitar. "It's an easy-to-use virtual instrument that allows real-time music making - even for players without significant musical talent," said Helmer.

Textile motion sensors embedded in the sleeves of the shirt sense elbow movement. One arm selects the chord by moving along a virtual fret-board, and the other strums the virtual strings.

As the wearer moves their elbows, the shirt relays the information to a computer via a wireless connection. Custom software on the computer interprets the movement data into sounds.

In addition to an air guitar, different versions of the software allow users to play air tambourine and air guiro (a type of percussion instrument).

The high-tech shirt uses a conductive textile to send information from sensors to the wireless transmitter. Currently, the shirt is powered by conventional rechargeable batteries which give it about two hours of air-time.

According to Helmer, textile batteries - fabrics that provide power - are one avenue of research being pursued at Australia’s science agency, the CSIRO, but he doesn't expect to see them in products any time soon.

Helmer experimented with using sensor-laden gloves to gain more fine control (like plucking individual stings) over his air guitar, but he doesn't expect to see such refinements in commercial versions. "That's not what people want to do; people just want to hear the sound of a distorted guitar," he said.

Previous air guitar projects used computer video capture to track the movements of brightly-coloured gloves. But these systems are expensive, and according to Helmer, the WIS has the potential to be much less costly.

The shirt was developed as a showcase of the CSIRO's expertise in smart textiles, which, explained Helmer, have wide-ranging applications. "The technology … takes clothing beyond its traditional role of protection and fashion into the world of entertainment and … the development of clothes which will be able to monitor physiological changes."

Helmer believes such clothes could find use in physiotherapy, or in remote consultations with doctors.

Helmer and his colleagues have previously integrated sensors into the elbows and knees of clothing, with the eventual goal of creating a '3D suit' that would "represent the human form in the virtual world."

To see a video of the shirt in action, check out the air guitar video at the CSIRO website.