SlashGear

Take one of the most iconic arcade games, mix it up with a classic real-world game, and you might be so lucky as to end up with Space Foosball.  The DIY handiwork of Young J. Kim’s team at the Korean Ewha Women’s University Computer Graphics Lab, Space Foosball uses the familiar handle controls from a foosball table but encodes their movement digitally, with the university’s own Everyware physics engine used to power gameplay.

Video demo after the cut

The movement of the handles is tracked via infra-red sensors, and then passed to a PC in the base of the table.  That controls a horizontal display on which the rows of men are drawn together with the physics of the ball mapped out.

Unfortunately there’s no production plan, it seems; this is all to demonstrate and develop the Everyware engine.  More explanation of how the system works in the videos below.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/3540864[/vimeo]

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/3541053[/vimeo]

[via technabob]