Solar Pink Pong

Solar Pink Pong

Solar Pink Pong is a street video game, in which a moving sunlight reflection becomes the target and the street’s surface the screen. The device that makes this game possible is solar powered and carries an optical system with a moving mirror that condenses and reflects direct sunlight as a sharp fluorescent pink spot on the street. Through motion sensing technology, pedestrians can interact with the pink spot. They can “kick” it with their feet. They can play it like a ball back and forth (similar to the early arcade video game “Pong”) or they can bounce it against an obstacle such as a wall.

Solar Pink Pong pushes the boundaries of current home video game culture and technology out of the living room aiming to re-invent the street as a public interface for playful interaction. In other words, it counters the “indoor culture” of the video game industry or what the documentary “The Video Game Revolution” called “the battle of the living room”. Solar Pink Pong is a new generation of game seeking to reconnect people to physical outdoor activities and the built environment – a game whose very existence depends on the elements and cycles of the sun and the nature.

“Solar Pink Pong is Kick-the-Can for our age, and for all ages. It passes the ancient torch of joyful physical exploration by making video gaming delight visible in our built world.”   Eric S. Rabkin

Project Website: www.solarpinkpong.com. Partly funded by the University of Michigan, Office of the Vice President for Research and the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design. Project Collaboration / Lead Engineer: Surat Kwanmuang

See more information: http://assocreation.com/project/solar-pink-pong/