Ananova:

Finnish computer science students have devised a system which enables air guitarists to hear themselves 'play'.

The Virtual Air Guitar project, developed at the Helsinki University of Technology, adds genuine electric guitar sounds to the air guitar.

Using a computer to monitor the hand movements of the 'player', it adds riffs and licks to match frantic mid-air finger work, reports New Scientist.

Aki Kanerva, Juha Laitinen and Teemu Mäki-Patola came up with the idea after being invited to develop a virtual instrument as part of their coursework.

"The first thing that came to mind was an air guitar," Kanerva told New Scientist.

The resulting system consists of a video camera and a computer hooked up to an appropriately loud set of speakers.

The player wears a pair of brightly coloured gloves, enabling computer vision software to keep track of their hands and detect different gestures.

Kanerva said: "No two playing experiences are quite the same.

"When you're playing really hard you get a really nasty distortion sound which is great - but you have to work for it."