Crosswalk Pong Will Get You Killed

By Evan Ackerman

Kids, pay attention: even if some crazy Germans decide that it would be fun to put a giant interactive Pong game in a crosswalk, it is never, ever okay to play in the middle of the street. Unless it really looks like a lot of fun, then it’s fine. And Ampel Pong (which means something like light pong, I think) really looks like a lot of fun. A game of pong is projected onto a crosswalk while you’re waiting for a light to change, and otherwise bored and unfriendly pedestrians use their bodies to control paddles. The game automatically adapts to multiple players, and cars work as obstacles.

The above video is computer generated, but you can see a vid of a working version (using a projector, mirrors, and infrared tracking, after the jump.

[ Ampel-Pong ]