ping-pong

Bazooka shoots ping-pong balls at Mach speed

The magic of physics can turn the mundane into something marvelous. Mark French, a mechanical engineering professor at Purdue University, designed a supersonic air-powered ping-pong ball cannon that shoots the lightweight object at speeds so fast I would consider the device a lethal weapon of science.

A ping-pong ball reportedly blasts out of the special cannon at speeds equivalent to Mach 1.23 -- nearly as fast as an F-16 fighter jet. As evidenced in the video below, the high-speed ball can put a clean hole through a plywood paddle, a VHS tape, and other objects. The amount of energy delivered by the Mach-speed ping-pong ball equals the force of a baseball thrown at 125 mph or a brick falling from several stories up.… Read more

65,000 ping-pong balls turn pool party into cool party

Pools aren't just for swimming, you know. Brooklyn art studio Red Paper Heart made some pretty nifty art with a swimming hole and 65,000 ping-pong balls. Before you dismiss that as an exercise in lunacy, take a look at a clever interactive pool party experience for yourself in the video below.

Red Paper Heart created the mesmerizing show in conjunction with city guide Web site UrbanDaddy, all for a tequila promotional event in Hamptons, N.Y.. The art studio programmed some software (using C++) to control the projector-driven light show that reacts to music. To enhance the visuals, the group enlisted a team of synchronized swimmers and some tuxedo-clad scuba divers to class up the joint.… Read more

China's ping-pong robots got game

Pong, you've come a long way, baby.

Students at China's Zhejiang University have been demonstrating a pair of humanoid robots that can play a pretty mean game of table tennis, by machine standards.

Wu and Kong stand 5.2 feet tall and weigh 120 pounds. They have camera eyes that feed real-time images of the ball to their processors at a rate of 120 frames per second.

Incorporating a high-speed industrial-automation Ethernet technology, the droids take some 50 to 100 milliseconds to respond to the ball's speed and trajectory, knocking it back to the other side of the table.

Their margin of error is less than an inch, according to Xiong Rong, head designer at the university's robot lab. … Read more

Gadgettes 96: The Childhood Bliss Episode

In the spirit of Kelly Baby Watch, we explore the many reasons why now is a really good time to be a child. Us grown-ups can still have a little fun too. Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 96

Sega Dream Dog DX http://dvice.com/archives/2008/06/sega_dream_dog.php

Edible legos: Yay or nay? http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/5775

Ultimate Star Wars Lego Death Star http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/the_ultimate_star_wars_lego_death_star_10257.asp

Go ahead kids: Draw on the fridge http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13553_1-9976657-32.html

Swim-Ring amphibious PC pool toy http://www.popgadget.net/2008/06/amphibious_pc_p.php … Read more

LED turns tables into game machines

While companies are making use of LED technology in such products as lamps and watches, it's good to see that some people are applying it to something that really counts: games.

Techie Diva reports that designer/inventor/technologist Moritz Waldemeyer has used LED lights and touchpads to transform ordinary tables into interactive game platforms that are on display at London's Rabih Hage Gallery: "The white table transforms itself into a ping-pong machine at the flick of a switch, while the roulette table (pictured) shows an illuminated map." We hope he'll turn his attention next to … Read more