Watch out U2 and AC/DC: Here comes the wearable air-guitar shirt

Aussie researchers create musical clothing using wireless sensors.

Researchers in Australia have designed a wireless sensor-laden shirt that lets the wearer create music by simply playing air guitar.

The "wearable instrument shirt" enables the wearer to pick chords and strum imaginary strings.

“Freedom of movement is a great feature of these textile-based interfaces,” says Richard Helmer, who led a team of engineers on the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation's Textiles and Fibre Technology project in Geelong, Australia.

To continue reading, register here and become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

Researchers in Australia have designed a wireless sensor-laden shirt that lets the wearer create music by simply playing air guitar.

The "wearable instrument shirt" enables the wearer to pick chords and strum imaginary strings.

“Freedom of movement is a great feature of these textile-based interfaces,” says Richard Helmer, who led a team of engineers on the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation's Textiles and Fibre Technology project in Geelong, Australia.

The shirt relies on custom software that maps hand and arm gestures with audio samples. The sensors in the material wirelessly relay information to a computer to generate music.

An air tambourine has also been designed.

Read more about wireless & mobile in Network World's Wireless & Mobile section.