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| CSIRO | SOLVE | Issue 9 | NOV 06 | |
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ARTICLE
TEXTILES:
Shirts Fashioned for Rockin’ Science By Rebecca Thyer
CSIRO has developed an air guitar – a wearable instrument shirt. It embodies some of the technology mix that textile researchers hope will eventually become the basis for new textile industries.Some day soon CSIRO research engineer Dr Richard Helmer hopes to walk into a meeting in a new business shirt and as eyes turn his way, jump and gyrate with a virtuoso 'air guitar' performance. But he won't be ripping off his shirt – he will be playing it. Dr Helmer and his team at CSIRO Textile and Fibre Technology (CTFT) at Geelong have developed an air guitar shirt. It is what they have dubbed an invisible wearable instrument shirt (WISH) that allows the user to play air instruments and make real sounds. The WISH works by recognising and interpreting arm movements and relaying the information wirelessly to a computer for audio generation. Textile motion sensors embedded in the sleeves detect motion when the arms bend – in most cases, the left arm chooses a sample and the right arm plays it. Using very fine conductive fibres in the body of the shirt, sensor signals are bused to a common wireless connection and from there to a computer for gesture analysis and audio generation, using CSIRO-developed software. The software can be customised for different instruments and skill levels…including drummers.
Because the shirt responds in milliseconds, the user knows instantly when they have struck the right chord, so to speak. "It has to be faster than 20 milliseconds because the ear is very fast at recognising sound," Dr Helmer says. "And people playing it [the shirt] need to know that the moves they make will indeed make music." This said, the WISH is not intended to be played as a conventional instrument; in other words, it is not necessary to play note by note. Instead the device uses everyday audio samples to make authentic sounds based on simple movements. "We realised people don't want to play it as a real instrument; they want to make some moves that correspond to a hero and a song," Dr Helmer says. The all-singing, all-dancing shirt is the latest piece of textile wizardry to emerge from CTFT and encompasses textiles, music and computing know-how. Dr Helmer says CSIRO's textile work is about embracing knowledge from many disciplines to create textiles of the future. "It took a merger of skills in computing, chemistry, electronics, music composition and textiles to get the air guitar right. In the same way, the next generation of textile development will demand cross-discipline research and development." The range of products that could be based on this development is limited only by imagination. Dr Helmer says the technology takes clothing beyond its traditional role of protection and fashion into computer gaming (requiring children playing games to aerobically exercise as part of the playing) and areas such as occupational therapy. The clothing can act as a remote nurse, making sure exercises are being done correctly. "With our intelligent textiles work, we are trying to demonstrate our ability to do exciting things with sensors, batteries, antennas and indicators, among other things." Dr Helmer set himself the task of creating an air guitar a few years ago, when he became aware of the new directions and technologies at CTFT. "The first thing I thought of was an air guitar," he says. "Developing it was a technical challenge for precision textile-based sensing." The project not only combines his expertise in fibre technology, chemistry and electronics, but also his love for and aptitude in music (Dr Helmer plays in six bands). The team that has taken rocket science to rockin' science has developed a prototype air guitar, air tambourine and air guiro (a percussion instrument). CSIRO is discussing the concept with the gaming and sports industries, which will help determine how the technology might be taken to the next stage. Dr Helmer says there is also potential for the technology to encourage exercise. "Imagine a computer game where instead of sitting back and twiddling controls to jump over obstacles or whatever the game demands, you physically have to perform that task?" However, he sees computer gaming as just the beginning; a starting point that allows people to become comfortable with the technology. "The system could ultimately be used in sports training and rehabilitation. For example, it could work as a remote physiotherapist. You would know you were getting your exercises right because the sensors would feed into a system to coach you." For further information contact: |
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