pin(gpong)ball
A customizable projected pinball machine with physical and digital parts, allowing players to set up their own digital pinball machine with real physics.
Client: Parsons School of Design
Year: 2020
Roles: Designer & Creative Technologist
pin(gpong)ball, 2020
A customizable projected pinball machine with physical and digital parts. Players place physical objects on a play surface, and the system projects digital pinball gameplay around them — real physics, real bumpers, real time.
How It Works
Shaped plastic pieces are placed on the projected playfield. A camera uses contour detection (OpenCV in openFrameworks) to identify each piece by its unique area value, then turns those contours into Box2D colliders. Cartoon-style bumpers overlay the physical pieces, giving each object personality. The result: a pinball table you can reconfigure by moving physical things around.
Pieces are detected by unique area values, with range assignment to handle changing light conditions. Joe also experimented with simple Lego-based controllers.
Build Story
Built mostly in a hotel room during quarantine after a flight from NYC — the laser-cut shapes were actually leftovers from the Circular Rhythm Machine project, repurposed as pinball bumpers and targets.
Technical Stack
- OpenFrameworks (C++) with ofxBox2d for real-time physics
- ofxCV + ofKinect for contour detection and object tracking
- ofArduino (StandardFirmata) for hardware experiments
- Projected display over physical play surface
Links
Advisors
Kyle Li, Michael Wolf