If you thought grown men looked pretty stupid when seen playing air guitar you ain’t seen nothing yet.

A bunch of students at the Helsinki University of Technology must of felt sorry for air guitarists with their lack of sound so have invented the first virtual air guitar.

The way the air guitar works is the guitarist (if you can call him (or her) that) dons a pair of highly fashionable orange gloves and then strums the air as if they are the next Ry Cooder or Slash. Normally when you’re doing this activity you probably wouldn’t want to be filmed, but that isn’t an option for the virtual air guitarist.

This is all done in front of a web cam and is the reason for having to wear orange marigolds. With the aid of some software magic the movement of the air guitar’s hands is detected and translated to normal guitar strumming chords resulting in some cat like screeches.

It certainly doesn’t look like a skillful instrument but effort and wacky rock musician movements will result in the best sounds (just like a real air guitar) and it even comes with it’s own wa-wa for the air guitarist that demands a little bit more.

You can guarantee a version for the PC and PS2 will be just round the corner and it may even be better than the Eye-toy for making a fool out of grownups at the next family knees up. There is also talk of a virtual drum kit so if you fancy being the next Tommy Lee with your own virtual Pammy you’d better start saving.

[New Scientist via Stuff Magazine]