tis a good word.

nope, the grind

T-shirt releases your inner rock star
Stephen Pincock
ABC Science Online
Tuesday, 14 November 2006

It could make an ideal Christmas present in years to come. Australian scientists have built a t-shirt that lets you play 'air guitar' for real.

Dr Richard Helmer and his CSIRO colleagues stitched wearable sensors into an ordinary long sleeved t-shirt to create a prototype of what they're calling a 'wearable instrument shirt'.

Simply by moving one arm to choose chords and the other to strum some imaginary strings, home rockers wearing the shirt could make actual music.

The tunes come courtesy of a pair of small but resilient sensors placed in the elbows of the t-shirt.

The sensors bend when you move your arm, sending wireless signals to custom software that turns them into audio samples.

"When you move your arm it bends a filament in the sensor, which changes its resistance," says Helmer. "It's a bit like a volume control."

One of the smart things about the technology is the sturdiness of the interface, Helmer says.

The materials can all stand up to ultraviolet light, moisture and movement, so working up a sweat is less likely to cause problems.

"It allows you to jump around and the sound generated is just like an original mp3," he says.

The shirt is part of a wider CSIRO program on intelligent fabrics that aims to tackle more serious applications like health monitoring or 3D computer interfaces.

So why design an air guitar?

"I thought we needed to do something that was a little less serious that people could have fun with," Helmer says.

In the meantime, the researchers aren't deaf to the possibility that their experiment could have commercial potential.

"It depends on how much people want it," Helmer says.

The price might start out relatively high, but over a year or two could drop down to "Christmas present level", the researcher says.

At this stage, no-one knows exactly how much it might retail for, but it would probably be in the hundreds of dollars, Helmer suggests.

A small price to pay, perhaps, for turning rock star fantasies into reality.

HUGE props to Dan & Paves for sharing this.

Great video.

amazing.

when he's all alone on the trampoline and everyone is snickering/laughing while he just lies there screaming in pain, it just kills me. his name is Holden and he can fly.

amazing.

when he's all alone on the trampoline and everyone is snickering/laughing while he just lies there screaming in pain, it just kills me. his name is Holden and he can fly.

chapstick test.

Cruel but funny.

and kind of gross sometimes. some of those girls were really getting into it, eh?

Oh, yeah. Based on what they thought they were getting, they went at it with otherwise. Their reactions at the end were funny, though.

sdsdf

3 Jesus Lizard albums and Houdini, you are a real man, despite what your myspace pictures tell me.

Those were my introduction to everything. I'm gonna go see David Yow at T&G 25 and die happy.

PS: four Jesus Lizard albums, fuck the last two.

whoa, yeah, i was just skimming.

That's awesome. Hey me too! I am going to that touch and go thing mainly to see scratch acid and other things.Scratch Acid is pretty great, i wonder if I can vote for that compilation of everything they did that was released in like 1990 or something.

Yeah I'm going mostly for Scratch Acid and Big Black. If they announce the JL I'll never need to see another show again.

For real.

Yeah, I can't believe Big Black will be there. You should see Shellac too. You me and Paves can have a little kids party or something.

I approve of this.

someone buy this for me, plz. ok, thank you.

Srsly tho, I've not once been asked to produce my actual diploma. Employers generally contact your university for degree verification and/or a grade transcript if they bother to fact check at all.

Sorry Red, I'm married and I'm not allowed to buy beautiful musical instruments for strange women. Or vice versa.

Srsly tho, I've not once been asked to produce my actual diploma. Employers generally contact your university for degree verification and/or a grade transcript if they bother to fact check at all.

Red's not so strange, Freddie. What makes you say that?

I meant strange as in "not my wife or daughter," not strange as in "bites the heads off of live chickens at the State Fair."

Is that really Brandon Boyd's dad?

Sorry Red, I'm married and I'm not allowed to buy beautiful musical instruments for strange women. Or vice versa.

Maybe I'll get to work before noon and MAYBE I WON'T.

Is that Mike Watt?

Is that Mike Watt?