today

CSIRO Belmont (nr Rockhampton, Q., Australia) have invented just that. A T-shirt that enables wearers to generate guitar sounds simply by moving their arms. All the wearer needs to do is choose chords with one arm, and strum imaginary strings with the other. The arm movements are mapped and beamed by radio onto a computer, which interprets them, and transforms them into musical notes in real time.

According to Dr Helmer, the WIS is an easy to use, virtual instrument that allows making music in real time, even by players who have no musical or computing skills. Helmer says wearers are free to jump around, and yet, the sound generated would be the same - like that emanating from an original MP3 player. Dr Helmer truly believes in the commercial potential of the WIS, but he adds that the real intent behind developing it is to offer a sneak-peek into the future of "intelligent clothing".

IMO: Sounds like a good idea, and easy to implement.. Some clever entrepreneur should make a lot of money, and as usual I indicate the source of full details. My wife just bought a T shirt at exhorbitant cost in Kings Road but that one just shows words, currently I think she has programmed it to show "Om Ganesh" which seems reasonable.