I love to play table tennis, but my backhand topspin is average at best. I’ll play for an hour and tire of chasing capricious balls, knowing that I’ll never have a smash quite like Peco’s. Ping pong. Never mind – now I can relax with a game of “Ping Pong FM” instead. The modified bats, which have contact microphones inside, record when you’ve hit the ball and remix the music accordingly. Swap the slices too slowly and the song will drop to a lower tempo; likewise, driving the ball with a vicious top spin will make it accelerate. You can try to match the beat or purposefully remix the music in weird and wonderful ways – it’s all up to you.
The brilliantly bizarre project was created by designers Mark Wheeler, Christopher Arzt, Alaa Mendili, Camille Durand, Kevin Bleich, Demetre Arges, Paul Williamson, Graham Bullis, Catherine Schultz, Brandon Hilliard, Les Hilliard and Tyler Coray. You can choose different music depending on your skill level (the faster tracks are usually harder to beat) and to keep the ping pong party going. It’s not a mainstream product, but the team says they’re looking for “a partner to help us bring Ping Pong FM to fun events or a more permanent venue.” So if you’re running a startup and want your office to cool off the competition, here’s your answer.
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