‘Waldner’ – the next generation ping
pong table, is made with advanced
computer system integration. The
table has a multi-touch surface,
which responds to human touch and
real world objects, like ping-pong
balls. The table is also equipped with
Siri voice recognition that monitors
the game along with a Mac Pro 12-
core computer. That means the table
is very intelligent; it sees, feels and
hears the game. You can even discuss
a ball with it to improve your ping
pong skills or argue about a point.
Under the surface we find two
2.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5620
“Westmere” processors and an ATI
Radeon HD 5870 graphic cards, a
Wi-Fi connection and 12 Bose micro
speakers. The table is 2.74 m long,
1.52 m wide, 76 cm high and 5 cm
thick. The surface, which is a huge
screen, is made of soft acrylic that
gives the correct smooth, low-friction
coating. The screen is supported
Apple’s new HiDPI, which gives a
resolution of 2880×1800 pixels.
The “net” is a touch-sensitive
screen from Samsung. With
embedded touch sensors it shows
information from balls taken in net.
After and during the game, all kind of
statistics can be found on the table.
Players can for example compare
the balls hit areas (where each hit
have been visualized by a circle and
contains information like speed and
trajectory. All data is stored and
can be visualized as real time 3D on
devices as iPad and iPhones
The tables’ interface activates
with a simple two-finger scroll.
During game the scores are showed
on the surface and changes
automatically via a collaboration
of the tables sensors, Siri and the
players voice. Yes, you can even argue
with Siri about a ball and if you not
are coming along with the referee;
change the score with a swipe.
About Robert Lindström: A creator
who has always been interested of
product design and new technology,
and especially the combination of
the two. He finds it very inspiring
to think about how today’s everaccelerating
technology will impact
simple products we have today, such
as a ping pong table
