Air Guitar Made More/Less Dorky?

According to a piece in NewScientist, a group of compscis at Helsinki University have developed a system to add a fitting soundtrack to your next air guitar solo. The system uses computer vision to monitor hand placement/movements and to play fitting guitar riffs to go with them (one would assume making adjustments for utter lack of talent — which would be why you’re playing air guitar in the first place). The piece has a link to a video demo. Oh, the humanity!

Thanks, Jay!

And you thought ringtones were obnoxious…

Had your fill of celebrity ringtones, “moantones” (ringtones from pornstars), and music clips from already overplayed pop songs? This same sorta noise pollution is coming soon to a car navigation system near you. NavTones, a California company, has hired the likes of Mr. T, Burt Reynolds, and Dennis Hopper to record navigation commands (wow, talk about your celebrity A-list). And you thought the voice of that disembodied Stepford Wife that can currently be heard in a lot of car nav systems was creepy and quickly annoying.

A little more to our liking is TomTom, another personal nav company, that has hired John Cleese to do various characters, including a New York cabbie and a Freudian analyst. That’d definitely be entertaining… for what? A day? One trip across town?

“I pitty the fool who pays actual money for infotainment this lame.”

[Via CNNMoney]

Thanks, Jay!