Table tennis is one of those sports that most people might think is simply inaccessible to blind people. However, an Australian student is now using a camera and speakers to make table tennis accessible to blind people. First, there are already two games for the blind (Swish and Showdown), which are similar to table tennis, except that a jingling ball is bounced back and forth across the table. In that sense, they're more like air hockey.


Another possibility is to play regular table tennis with a special ball that makes a beeping (or other sound) sound, though such a ball filled with electronics wouldn't perform as well as a much lighter traditional ball.

It was with these limitations in mind that Phoebe Peng, a top engineering student at the University of Sydney, collaborated with University of Sydney spin-out company ARIA Research to create her experimental new system.

"The small size of the ball and table, combined with the movement of the ball in three-dimensional space, makes table tennis difficult for people with low vision and complete blindness. Making the sport more accessible and exploring the potential of neuromorphic cameras are my two biggest motivations."

The neuromorphic camera used by Peng is ideal for tracking small objects such as ping pong balls. Unlike ordinary cameras that capture a complete image of a scene, neuromorphic cameras track changes in the image over time. Using two perfectly positioned cameras, a ball can be identified and tracked in three dimensions in real time. She then fed the data into an algorithm that controlled arrays of speakers on either side of the table, creating a sound field that matched the position of the ball.

While the system works well, Peng said more experiments are needed before actual competitions.

"Human perception of sound is an ongoing technical challenge." Humans' accurate perception of sound localization has limitations. What type of sounds should be used? Should the sound be continuous? This is a technical problem that we will solve in the next stage of research and development. "

Peng presented her research results at the Acoustics 2023 conference in Sydney on Wednesday (December 6).