Ever heard of a T-shirt that makes music?

Well, scientists from the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) have invented just that a T-shirt that enables wearers generate guitar sounds simply by moving their arms.

Dubbed the "WIS or Wearable Instrument Shirt," the T-shirt has electronic censors woven into its elbows and sleeves, so that it can be played like a guitar. This was confirmed by CSIRO's Dr Richard Helmer, who led the project.

All the wearer needs to do is choose chords with one arm, and strum imaginary strings with the other. The arm movements are mapped and beamed by radio onto a computer, which interprets them, and transforms them into musical notes in real time.

According to Dr Helmer, the WIS is an easy to use, virtual instrument that allows making music in real time, even by players who have no musical or computing skills. Helmer says wearers are free to jump around, and yet, the sound generated would be the same - like that emanating from an original MP3 player.

Plans are in the pipeline to commercialise the air-guitar T-shirt, however when it is likely to hit the market is not known.

Of course, Dr Helmer truly believes in the commercial potential of the WIS, but he adds that the real intent behind developing it is to offer a sneak-peek into the future of "intelligent clothing".