Playing air guitar is an enjoyable way to feel the music; however, it takes some skills to be capable of. We propose “EMS Air Guitar,” an air guitar assistant using electrical muscle stimulation (EMS), which impulses the user’s arm to generate the strumming motion on the right time. We found that EMS can be an effective tool to make the air guitar easier to learn and play.

Overview

Demo at UIST’16 Student Innovation Competition

System

System Diagram

EMS Controller

Smartphone

I proposed the main idea and implemented the Android app, also made the guitar case using a laser cutter.

Team Shan-Yuan Teng (National Taiwan University)
Yung-Ta Lin (National Taiwan University)
Yi-Chi Liao (National Taiwan University)
Demo Team Robin Hood: EMS Air Guitar. ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST’16) Student Innovation Competition (SIC).
Award 🏆 UIST’16 Best SIC Award: Best Implementation Award [PDF (93KB)]