Video: Obscura Digital shows off CueLight 'interactive' pool table
By Donald Melanson 
posted Sep 24th 2009 2:45AM
posted Sep 24th 2009 2:45AM
The folks at Obscura Digital sure aren't strangers to massive, interactive displays, but they may just have delivered their most impressive but actually (somewhat) attainable rig to date with their new CueLight 'interactive' pool table. Now featured at both the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and Esquire's SoHo "Ultimate Bachelor Pad," the deceptively simple setup uses a projection system and a few sensors to track the balls and display some suitably jaw-dropping effects on any pool table you supply -- 'cause, you know, an actual screen would be a bit tricky. Of course, the "you" in this case is more likely to be a swanky establishment of some sort, but there's nothing stopping you from chiming in and asking for a quote for that games room you're building. Need a little more incentive? Check out the video after the break.
[Via Core77]
[Via Core77]
At first i thought it was an even bigger surface....
That's pretty amazing. Worth spending some coin on.
Seems kind of distracting. The gimmick wore off on me halfway through the video. I could only imagine having to play a full game with that on. On the bright side, this is one step closer to the holographic pool table shown in an episode of Firefly.
So I'm not the only one who immediately thought of that. Nice to know.
I thought the exact same thing. But it does look pretty awesome :)
Sorry I was too distracted by the semi-naked female background.
It is distracting, but that's the whole point, instead of the boring green carpet. Imagine a 2.0 version trackin speed or even giving some shot ideas...
Yeh, they seem to have missed a big opportunity here.
This system could easily record the paths of all the balls and display them on the surface after the shot had been played, allowing you to analyse your shot. It could also show the suggested paths of balls before the shot was played. And, as another commenter suggested, how about shot statistics, game statistics, scores, average ball speeds etc etc.
It's a great platform, but the demo video doesn't show it off well at all.
Of course, perhaps they just decided not to show these features in the video.
@j_g_puff: i think that if they made tracking of all the balls work properly, doing what you suggested wouldn't be hard at all. If you were a paying customer with a lot of cash i'm sure they could make the system do whatever you wanted.
Nice visuals, but a great way to spoil the game.
Same sort of approach that has resulted in bowling alleys being jammed up with screens full of moving images, cartoons on the score board and rock music; anything to distract players from their game and the simple pleasures it can provide.
Snooze. How many times do we have to see some company exploit readily available code and projects and present them as innovative?
Tux: it will never end. I agree, give the touchlib library credit for the "wow" here. Just because somebody bought a projector and loaded a program into a computer doesn't constitute a technological feat.
I'm not impressed either. This tech has been available for a long time now. WonderWorks Orlando and TN have had this type of interactive display for years, as well as Ripley's attractions. I'm sure there are many many more that I am not aware of, those are just the ones that come to mind.
While it looks cool I couldn't play a serious game on that... Way too distracting. They should have somehow made the table give you tips. Like, let it calculate different routes. With bounces and everything. It obviously knows where the balls stand, just inform it where the holes are and with some clever programming you're off! THAT would be cool. And helpful.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/11/digitally-assisted-billiards-makes-everyone-a-pool-shark/
Man I'm already bad enough at pool!! wait this could work in my advantage it would take some of the attention of my bad shots!! i love it!
They should track the cue and then draw lines on where the white one will go and then draw secondary lines from the impact, tertiary lines from more collisions.
thus being able to see what will happen before you shoot, great for learning.
then if something other than predicted happened you know you should practice on being more steady in your shot
I already have an interactive pool table. The balls move around according to how use a kind of stick, or "cue".
(That's what she said.)
schweet!!
Looks like someone ported Compiz Fusion to a pool table, just shows the power of Linux, it can even run on pool tables !! :)
Meh, prefer the green felt. Now, if the could do a geometry/physics overly showing you the path of the ball based on where your holding your cue, where the cue ball will hit the other ball & other useful things (the water effect was quite annoying/distracting) then you could have something worthwhile.
For everyone wondering where you saw the pool table that had the shot/ bounce lines on it. Check out the pool playing robot video, jump to second half.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AENJxqR0g48&feature=player_embedded#t=153
I like it, obviously it's just for a bit of show, not for serious playing.
Look where they have been installed.
A few weeks ago I took my kid to a commercial aquarium.
They had a projector very similar to this.
It projected on the floor and when you walked over it, the water ripples followed your footsteps, very similar to the effect on the pool table.
There were animated fish and the like too.
It wouldn't surprise me if this was the exact same system as the video quality and even the actual images looked very similar.
I have a pool table and a projector but virtually no programming skills, wonder if theyll sell me the software only :(