Some CS majors in Europe have created an air guitar that really plays (http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8383)
Basically you wear these gloves and a webcam reads their position and movements and translates that into genuine guitar sounds. Man would that have made a sweet senior project.
How long until this is just like DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) and people have contests to see who has the most wicked solo?
Yahoo I can make my big return to 80's big hair rock now!!! 3 minute guitar solo here I come. :punk:
Wow, they tackle some really tough problems here. Simply detecting someone's hand placement on a virtual guitar neck is one thing, but actually trying to match some of the motions to a pentatonic scale (or any scale for that matter) is a whole other story in itself! Hammer-on's, pull-off's and slides are huge challenges, in that you don't necessarily have a picking motion that is associated with fret-hand movements. That is, of course, assuming that they use the picking-hand for anything other than just the "rock out" factor! Ehh, anyways, a very cool project indeed!
... now I can play air guitar in my air band... :-P