[atlantaprog] Re: Air guitar for real

It's a step up from the guitar-shaped children's toys, with the buttons on the 
neck that play different sampled licks.  It's probably a lot of fun too, 
especially for someone who has no instrumental experience.  Making a virtual 
instrument that's more than a SciTrek exhibit, though... even if you could get 
your measuring equipment (gloves in this case) and your computer modeling 
detailed enough and accurate enough to mimic a real instrument, you would still 
need the user to control their movements with high skill to produce anything 
listenable.  I.e. the closer you bring the virtual instrument's capabilities to 
a real one's, the more skill is required to play it.  
   
  It's hard to see a future in this other than as a toy or learning tool.  But, 
if you could eliminate the 'instrument' entirely and do some kind of 
'Foxfire'-ish direct mind-control to computer model, then whatever you think 
could be translated to music directly, just like Beethoven hearing arrangements 
in his head while deaf.  That would be a trick!
   
  Brian
  

Allen Welty-Green <agmedia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
  You guys have been quite lately - here's something to talk about:

Begin forwarded message:

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/info-tech/dn8383.html

Air guitarists rock dreams come true
18:02 28 November 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Will Knight

The Virtual Air Guitar project gives wannabe guitarists the chance to 
rock out (Image: Helsinki University of Technology)
Aspiring rock gods can at last create their own guitar solos - without 
ever having to pick up a real instrument, thanks to a group of Finnish 
computer science students.
The Virtual Air Guitar project, developed at the Helsinki University of 
Technology, adds genuine electric guitar sounds to the passionately 
played air guitar.
Using a computer to monitor the hand movements of a "player", the 
system adds riffs and licks to match frantic mid-air finger work. By 
responding instantly to a wide variety of gestures it promises to turn 
even the least musically gifted air guitarist to a virtual fret board 
virtuoso.
Aki Kanerva, Juha Laitinen and Teemu Mäki-Patola came up with the idea 
after being invited to develop a virtual instrument as part of their 
coursework. "The first thing that came to mind was an air guitar," 
Kanerva told New Scientist.
The resulting system consists of a video camera and a computer hooked 
up to an appropriately loud set of speakers.
A player then needs only to don a pair of brightly coloured gloves in 
order to rock out. Computer vision software automatically keeps track 
of their hands and detects different gestures, as a video of the system 
in action demonstrates (22MB, requires Windows Media Player and DivX 
codec for the visual aspect of the footage).
Frenetic strumming
The Finnish team created a library of guitar sounds based around the 
pentatonic minor scale â?? a progression commonly used for rock guitar 
solos â?? in order to create the right sound for their virtual 
instrument.
As a player moves their left hand along the neck of their virtual 
guitar, the computer will run through the scale. Holding it one place 
while strumming frenetically produces fret board tricks such as 
hammer-ons â?? where slapping a finger onto an already vibrating string 
produces a higher note â?? and blues bends, which give a distinctive 
rock twang. And a floor pedal can also be used to switch the system 
into mode that plays several different chords.
Kanerva says players can easily create unique air guitar style. "No two 
playing experiences are quite the same," he says. "When you're playing 
really hard you get a really nasty distortion sound which is great â?? 
but you have to work for it."
The project is currently being demonstrated at the Heureka Science 
Centre in Finland where it has been played more than 5000 times over 
the last month, Kanerva says. As a follow-up, the researchers are 
working on a version that will be compatible with a normal webcam and 
computer, thus giving wannabe rock stars the opportunity to practise 
their art in the privacy of their bedroom.
For Kanerva, who had to research different guitar playing tricks, the 
project has had another benefit. "I wasn't a guitarist before I started 
the project," he says. "But I am now."


------------------------------------
"A mended sock is better than a torn sock; not so with 
self-consciousness".
Hegel



________________________________________________________________________ 
_


  


                
---------------------------------
 Yahoo! Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs. Try it free.

Other related posts: