If you are looking for the sturdiest ping pong table ever, check out the Click-Clack Table Tennis Table. It is unlike any ping pong table you have ever seen. It’s a luxury table for those who appreciate both trains and table tennis. The name obviously comes from the click-clack sound that trains make on the tracks.
In case you were wondering, yes, it is regulation size, including the “net.” Both the net and the table supports are sections of railroad tracks with oak and hickory railroad ties holding it all upright. Railroad enthusiasts love stuff like this.
It was created by Rail Yard Studios, who salvages wood and steel from railroads to make furniture. This table was recovered from the Tennessee Coal & Iron Company. The steel and wood were made in 1904 and 1921. You better wear your train conductor’s cap when you play on this table.
Let’s say that you want to have a ping pong table, but you just don’t have enough room in your home. What do you do? One option is to put half a ping pong table in your room and half outside of it with this awesome Ping Pong door.
Your doorbell will say ping pong instead of ding dong and you will be able to play despite not having much room. Tobias Fränzel, a product and furniture designer in Berlin, came up with the idea. It’s a functional interior door and then swivels into place to serve (pun intended) as a ping pong table.
Just flip it down, attach the net, and you are ready to play.
It’s not that we’re huge fans of Ping Pong or anything, but the thought of a bunch of us being able to play on the same table at the same time is kind of appealing. We’re guessing it’s the same train of thought that got Singapore artist Lee Wen to make the above Ping-Pong Go Round table… back in 1998. He’s been exhibiting it at various art galleries across Asia since, going so far as making a few models for some museums that were requesting them. It accommodates up to 15 players, although we imagine those in the middle might feel a little crowded. And it also apparently isn’t being manufactured so you can’t get a game on unless you travel to one of the few places where it is still being exhibited. Still, the concept is interesting.
This Ping Pong table makes your game go round and round. Forget rectangular Ping Pong games, which are far too straightforward and balanced. Play a game in the round. This fun take on table tennis was created by Singaporean artist Lee Wen. It’s called Ping-Pong Go Round. Obviously.
This interactive art installation is a modular ping pong table that lets several people play at the same time. It’s also portable. This table looks like it would crowded pretty quick on the inside area, but it looks like fun.
Lee Wen must be on a mission to make this the new way that the game is played, because he’s taken it across southeast Asia and Australia, where he invites people to play. It was also recently exhibited in Hong Kong. Pretty cool.
Let’s say you love table tennis aka ping pong, but you live in a tiny apartment. You can’t have a full-sized table otherwise you’ll be eating dinner and working on it too. This cardboard version of table tennis is the answer.
In just seconds it can be unfolded and assembled into a working ping pong table, complete with a cardboard net, cardboard paddles and a cardboard scoreboard. Sure it isn’t regulation, but you can get a quick game or two when the mood strikes you. Just don’t spill your beer on it.
The set is sold by German parlor game company Kickpack, who also offers a cardboard foosball table.
Earlier this year I featured a homemade ping pong playing robot… or so I thought. It turns out that it was merely a hoax made by two animators. But this robot made by automation expert Omron is the real deal. Its humongous body and brain show how hard it is for robots to perform what would be a simple task for a human. On the other hand, its forgiving nature shows just how smart robots can get.
Engadget took the image above at the 2014 Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies or CEATEC, where U.S. journalists gave the robot an award for innovation. The robot has two vision sensors, one to track the ball and one to analyze the motion and position of the puny human that it’s up against. Omron told Engadget that “the robot’s strikes would be too fast if running at full capacity”, but the company deliberately programmed it so that it would hit the ball to a spot that would be easy for its opponent to return. This seemingly lame decision was actually one hell of a challenge for Omron.
Omron said that because the robot has to take into account how best to return the ball so that the player can continue the rally, the robot’s calculations and movement had to have “a 1/1000 of a second accuracy”, or else it would fail to return the ball. Here’s a much longer video of the robot at CEATEC by YouTuber ARMdevices.net:
Despite its lightning-fast reflexes, the robot does have a legitimate handicap. As shown in the videos, its unified arms are too short to reach across its entire half. The way it was positioned at CEATEC it wouldn’t be able to reach the middle of the table. Then there’s the fact that its immobile. Still, Omron is proud to have made a robot that can adapt to a changing environment, and a human-loving one at that.
This trivet converts into a ping pong net. That makes no sense at all and all the sense in the world. Because why not? The CorkNet is made out of… cork, naturally. You can stack the two halves to make a level trivet to keep hot pots and pans off your counter. But while you’re waiting for your food to heat up, separate the parts and place them upright on your table to make a ping pong net. A round of table tennis while you wait? Bet you can’t do that with a macrame trivet your kid made in camp this summer (actually you probably sorta could…)
Smartly the CorkNet has a spherical cutout to hold a ping pong ball when you’re not playing games. Any table or kitchen island can become a ping pong table. Combined the parts make a “net” that’s 31.5″ wide. Take it with you. For maximum kitchen playtime you should probably use frying pans for racquets but if you want to be boooooring you can use regular ones. Fun kitchen gadget.
Back in 2011 we featured a couple of humanoid robots designed to play table tennis. Industrial mechanic Ulf Hoffman recently unveiled a similar robot that he and his friends have been working on for the past couple of years. He calls it the Ulf Hoffman Tischtennis Roboter (Ulf Hoffman Table Tennis Robot) or UHTTR-1 for short.
As you can see the robot’s arm is on a rail mounted at one of the ends of a ping pong table. It’s made of aluminum, making it light enough for its servos to rapidly ferry it across the length of the table. It may only have one arm, but the robot has two things we don’t have: a second pair of eyes. Four cameras mounted at the top corners of the room track the ball’s position and send that data to the UHTTR-1′s software.
Ulf hasn’t said much about the robot’s program, but as you can see it has a variety of settings that help define its play style, including speed and spin. It even seems to have difficulty levels. I’m a bit worried about that “Evolve” setting.
We didn’t see it put to the test in the video, but I think you can beat the robot with a well-placed drop shot. Then again when you’re dealing with a robot that can evolve, all bets are off. Grip your browser and head to Ulf’s blog for more on his robot.
How much do you like table tennis? Enough to pay $20,000 for a table? Well then you’re in luck because Stiga has just launched the Showcourt Table. What kind of luxury features do you get for the price of a car? The tournament level table comes with a 30mm thick blue top for a smooth true bounce, three levels of under-lit LED lighting, a specially made net and post, and stunning good looks. Take the table out of the basement and show it off! You probably don’t want to play beer pong on it, just saying. Or maybe you do.
Never underestimate the power of your average ping pong ball! Given the right conditions and with the right equipment, a small plastic ball can be strong enough to blast a hole into your paddle. You wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of this supersonic serve. Continue Reading on Walyou