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3 Responses to “Air guitar comes alive!”

1. Reader's Write Says:
   November 14th, 2006 at 1:50 am

   That is unreal – well done – enthusiasts all over the world will go for this – now this is good technology !!!!

2. Reader's Write Says:
   November 16th, 2006 at 12:57 pm

   My name is Dr Darren Kelly.

   I am a scientist (physicist/mathematician/computing expert) and inventor.
   I am also a musician and performer (singer/keyboardist/percussionist/electro/dancer) a.k.a. “PLAY”.

   I write in reference to your article featuring Dr Richard Helmer’s “air guitar”:

   “Air guitar T-shirt rocks for real”
   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6143118.stm

   I am the developer of a gestural music “air instrument” called Drancing:

   http://www.webel.com.au/project/drancing

   My system uses motion sensors from triaxial accelerometers in a sensor suit
   to synthesis light and sound in real-time, and to trigger and modulate samples.
   I have been developing it for about a decade,
   and there are any number of similar gestural instruments,
   all of which have long been able to act as “air guitars”,
   and nearly all of them superior in application
   of motions transducers and audio nsignal processing to Dr Helmer’s.

   Although the conductive fibre technology he employs
   is perhaps novel – or at least nifty – there is in my
   considered opinion not one single musical aspect of his
   “air guitar” that is novel or even vaguely innovative
   (let alone “world first” as some media outlets are claiming).

   Indeed, whereas much older instruments like my Drancing system
   (and many others before it) use real-time synthesis of sound (and light and visuals)
   from motion signals, Dr Helmer can only trigger pre-recorded samples, which is oh-so old hat.

   Everybody involved in gestural music can do that,
   the discipline is decades old, and so are “air guitars”.
   They are so old that every year somebody else invents one.

   To make it worse, in some presentations he is merely playing back triggered
   samples ALONG WITH NON TRIGGERED MUSIC PLAYBACK, which is close to cheating,
   and certainly not as convincing as instruments like Drancing which actually
   synthesis new sounds from motion signals (as well as triggering and modulating
   drum samples or – heaven forbid – pre-recorded guitar samples)

   As one online commentator already put it:

   “Of course, given that he’s playing along with a backing track,
   it’s quite hard to tell what noises are actually being made by the shirt,
   or how the relate to the good doctor’s extravagant arm movements…”

   Hear hear. Dr Helmer seems to admit elsewhere that
   he is not a musician, which does not surprise me much.

   I have personally phoned Dr Helmer to tell
   him these things, however he unfortunately
   does not seem to want to hear the truth of it
   (preferring presumably his 15 minutes of fame).

   Indeed he had not even heard of my own work,
   and I am clearly one of Australia’s pioneers
   of gestural music. And certainly I am one
   of the world’s leaders in applications of
   triaxial accelerometers for the task
   (even if not funded so comfortably by the CSIRO).

   Dr Helmer had likewise not ever heard of Wayne Siegel’s
   work at DIEM in Denmark, who already employed bending
   sensors and wireless data telemetry just like
   Dr Helmer very effectively over one decade ago
   for very convincing performances
   (which I witnessed on his kind invitation).

   And Dr Helmer seems to not know of the dozens of
   gestural instruments used by members of the
   online Dance-Tech community, many of which
   serve as “air guitars”.

   I congratulate the CSIRO for their innovations
   in matters of textiles, however I do wish that
   Dr Helmer would tone down his outrageous claims
   about being the world’s first “air guitar” inventor.

   In fact, lots of people were already the world’s
   first “air guitar” inventor last century, and
   nearly all of them used sensors in shirts,
   although maybe their wires were thicker than
   Dr Helmer’s fibres.

   The “air guitar” is merely a particular operation
   mode of any flexible gestural instrument, and
   I suggest that literally hundreds of media students
   and musicians have also done similar (without
   fancy conductive fibre T-shirts, just good old wire).

   What may be a “world first” is the persitent extent
   to which Dr Helmer is exploiting the CSIRO’s media
   leverage and the Australian taxpayers dollar for
   self-promotion without informing himself about
   prior art,

   Dr Helmer seems to have discovered virtual reality.
   Wow. Perhaps he should – as scientist – research
   non-virtual reality a bit before his next media
   release or taxpayer-funded webcast,

   Yours Gesturally and Accelerated,

   Dr Darren Kelly (developer of Drancing)

   PS: Since I cannot afford the media coverage
   Dr Helmer is enjoying, do please forward this
   to anybody you wish, publish it whereever you like,
   or even shout it from radio station rooftops
   (at least until Dr Helmer tones it down a bit).

   PPS: Maybe I am also a “Wizard in Oz” eh ?

3. Reader's Write Says:
   November 16th, 2006 at 12:59 pm

   Amendment:

   1. Am Dr Darren Kelly, not an anonymous coward, I just did not login.

   2. Referred to wrong article link (Dr Helmer has so many at the moment,
   a regular flurry of press and excitement about “his” air guitar paid for by
   Australian taxpayers presumably). The p2pnet story link should have been:

   http://www.p2pnet.net/story/10406?PHPSESSID=f1b68dc6b93c7ce2f31b109dfd94a186

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