Guitar Hero Goes Academic

We don’t often get to talk about hair metal bands on Word of Mouth but one remarkable think about the 80’s band Def Leppard – which is still going strong, by the way – is that their drummer, Rick Allen, only has one arm. After losing his left arm in a road accident, he worked with a drum manufacturer to develop an electronic kit. But now, in a sign of the times, the latest fusion of rock and electronics to help amputees, comes from the computer game Guitar Hero. In fact, the game is being used for all sorts of research purposes, as BBC Digital Planet’s Flora Graham reports. Listen to Flora's piece at the BBC Digital Planet website.

(Photo courtesy fiskfisk via Flickr/Creative Commons)