Sportpong and the future of sports

Sportpong "is an interactive physical computer game. The field is projected on the floor, two or more players can fight in teams against each other. With a paddle on each foot you hit the ball to the goal or to defend your goal. Not only smartnes and reactivity let you win, also geometric appreciation and teamplay is required...a reflector on each foot is the only physical tool to interact with Sportpong. The interface is integrated in the field which is projected on the floor. The players control the game with their feet, nothing else."

It bears all the hallmarks of a genuine sport - engaging mind and body, requring speed, agility, focus. But it's played in a darkened room, with computer-controlled light. There's no physical ball or racquet. To get a better feel for the depth of the game, take a look at these videos or images.

Sportpong is an intimation of the future of sports. We may not see Sportpong in the coming Olympics, but it is clearly inevitable that, sooner or later, advances in technology will become so profoundly incorporated into the very definition of sports that we will be meeting on computer-enhanced playing fields, interfacing with technology and each other to test our extended virtual, intellectual, social and physical skills.

via Junkyard Sports

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith