Technical details

There are 3 key elements to this project that let hardware and software work in unison to create ping pong utopia:

1. Keeping score

For the effortless scoring we used a capacitive touch sensor at each end of the table that the player can lightly tap to register a point. These are connected to a tiny Spark Core microcontroller that is connected to our Wifi and sends out events to the Spark cloud when points are registered. This part of the system is attached to the underside of the table and powered by a 2500mAh battery that lasts us about a week before charging. We used a tiny un-interruptable power supply that allows us to charge the battery and play at the same time so a dead battery doesn’t stop the fun! We also ping an alert to the scoreboard in real time when the battery is low so there are no surprises mid game!