Air Guitar - Innovations

Innovations

There are multiple technological innovations that try to allow air guitar to be played as real instrument, producing sounds that depend on air guitarist's actions.

In 2005, students from the Helsinki University of Technology developed a system that translates hand movements into electric guitar sounds, resulting in a functional air guitar. The system, consisting of a pair of brightly coloured gloves and an infrared camera, is one of the most popular exhibits at the Helsinki Science Center. The camera recognizes the distance between the two gloves as well as strumming movements made by the wearer to synthesize an electric guitar tune, working using only six notes. No musical knowledge is necessary.

In November 2006, researchers at the Australian government's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation announced they had developed a t-shirt that senses human movement to "showcase its expertise in designing and manufacturing electronic and intelligent textiles with which people effortlessly control computers", publicising it as an air guitar shirt.

In 2007, toy company Silverlit introduced V-Beat Air Guitar, an air guitar gadget. The three part device consists of a motion sensing guitar pick, a neck part with four buttons and a guitar body. By changing the distance between body and neck and pressing a combination of the four buttons on the neck part, up to 48 tones and chords can be played. The V-Beat Air Guitar was won 'Best Music Gadget' on the television program The Gadget Show. The V-Beat Air Guitar was created by Dutch startup 1upToys.

In 2007, a Japanese company Takara Tomy introduced Air Guitar Pro (Guitar Rockstar), a functional guitar simulator. Fitting in one hand, the device uses heat and motion sensors to detect the other hand motions and produce the guitar sounds. This guitar simulator was made popular in the UK motoring show Top Gear by presenter Jeremy Clarkson. He was seen playing the Tomy Guitar Rockstar in one of Top Gear's famous challenges.

In March 2008, Jada Toys of California introduced the Air Guitar Rocker toy which featured patented technology in a belt buckle. When the user strums a magnetic pick in front of the belt buckle, guitar music plays through a portable amp attached to the users pant or belt. The Air Guitar Rocker is marketed with the popular Guitar Hero license and was created by toy inventor David Führer and his team.

In June 2011, San Francisco, CA startup Yobble announced the Air Guitar Move, an appcessory for iPhone and iPod Touch. Users holds the iPhone in one hand and a motion sensing guitar pick in the other. Based on the motions of both hands, the Air Guitar Move software is able to recognize air guitar movements. The bundled game is a mix of Guitar Hero and Dance Central. Red Bull donated $20,000 to the project and is organizing events around Air Guitar Move.