Waterpong (1st Place People’s Choice Award by UIST) : Microsoft PumpSpark Kit for Fluid User Interfaces

Microsoft PumpSpark is a kit which includes 8 miniature water pumps and the prototype PumpSpark controller that allows you to programmatically shoot streams of water up to ~1 meter into the air. The system is both fast (~100ms response time) and precise (~8 bit resolution). This will allow you to quickly prototype highly interactive, Fluidic User Interfaces (FUIs).

WaterPong is our entry for the UIST 2013 Student Innovation Contest. Waterpong was conceived to showcase and demo for Microsoft PumpSpark Kit, which was a kit built for helping in prototyping water based interactions, and specially fountains. Waterpong was sponsored by RWTH Aachen Undergrad fund. The system went through different survies and test trails to adjust user satisfaction and hedonic. While also measuring the flow for user emersion

In honor of PONG, it’s a two-player mashup of ping pong and air hockey – just with water pumps! You play at an interactive, rear-projected, computer-vision-enhanced, water-flooded table (of course!). Shoot water from 4 pumps by hitting humongous arcade buttons! Score goals by propelling the ball into your opponent’s end zone! Pick up power-ups for special boosts!