905 Ping Pong Balls Turned Into an Interactive Video Screen

October 29th, 2009 by: Technabob

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This unique art installation uses a canvas of 905 individual ping pong balls as a projection surface for interactive video imagery.

For his work titled 905, artist maybites suspended 67 strings of ping pong balls in a cylindrical formation, with each ball acting as a sort of pixel for projecting digital images. As an individual enters the cylinder of balls, a webcam tracks the person’s movements which in turn impact the images displayed on the ping pong balls.

By setting up a special mirror in the ceiling, the projector beams are reflected onto the surfaces of the white balls, creating an ethereal glow that almost looks like the light is emanating from the balls themselves.

Here’s a short video clip showing off the ping pong ball light curtain in action:

From the looks of it, maybites created the installation in late 2007, but there’s no information on when or where you can see 905 in person. For now, I guess you’ll just have to settle for the pictures and video above. Or you could always try and make your own ping pong projection screen.