Design Student Creates Augmented Reality Ping-Pong Table

When Thomas Mayer from the University of Design Schwäbisch Gmünd in Germany set out to work on his Bachelor thesis project, he decided to put a high-tech spin on traditional table tennis.

Mayer wanted to track a ping pong ball in real-time in order to create data visualizations for trainers and players. To begin, he developed a projected mapped interface for the ping pong table to display the collected data.

How he did it

First Mayer set up a standard ping pong table. He then installed two Playstation CL-eye cameras and a full HD projector that would track the ping ping ball and process the data. The development and testing on the ping pong table was very important. In his first prototype he included real players to ensure the table was user orientated.

Watch the video to see the entire thing in action. A table like this could be used to teach new players how to hit the ball and maximize results.

Story via Thomas Mayer.