An Engineer is Making Table Tennis Accessible for Blind Players – Here’s How

There’s nothing quite like a good old game of table tennis (or ping pong, depending on who you ask). It’s a cool change of pace to tennis and attracts players from all walks of life. But unfortunately, those with certain disabilities, including those who are blind or have poor vision, have struggled to fully experience the joys of this game. Until now – that is.

An engineering student has invented a really savvy piece of tech that will finally give the visually impaired the tools to play table tennis as well. Phoebe Peng, from the University of Sydney, realized that sound can be used to help blind people play ping-pong, and has developed the technology to make this possible.

How Does it Work?

In short, players would use a variety of loudspeakers and neuromorphic cameras to keep track of the ball through sound. Peng even presented her findings at an event in Sydney to a loud round of applause.

She believes that table tennis is the perfect case study for implementing this kind of tech. “The small size of the ball and table, along with the movement of the ball in 3D space, are things that make table tennis difficult to play for those with low vision and complete blindness,” she told the University of Sydney.

Peng also explained that her two biggest goals are to help make table tennis accessible to all people and to explore how these cameras can be used in other sports too.

When Will it Be Available?

Although the system has shown signs of success, Peng admits it’s still a work in progress, which requires more tweaks before it can be rolled out to those who need it.

Why? Because she thinks there are limits to how accurately people can locate sounds. One thing is for sure though – the potential this technology has seems to be limitless and could assist visually impaired people in many other ways in the future.