Using computers to mimic, enhance and even create musical instruments is really nothing new. Until now! Enter the age of the virtual virtual. The new toy is the The Virtual Air Guitar. Its “simple” augumented reality – a pair of gloves (to recognise what your hands are doing), press the start pedal, and swing your right hand as if you were strumming a big chord and that’s exactly what happens – you hear a power chord with punchy distortion. Now move your left hand along the imaginary neck and strum again – it’s a different chord.
All of a sudden the act of mimicing a real instrument (playing air guitar), now becomes the act of playing a virtual guitar. What will the effect of this technology be to such cultural events such as the Official US Air Guitar Championships? You dont think this will have an effect? Just think of the changes which shook the film industry when sound came to the movies…At the time Warner (of Warner Brothers fame) uttered the famous question “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”
So I leave you with a paraphrase: Who wants to hear the air guitar? 🙂