Tuesday, November 07, 2006

ROBOT THAT ARE ALL THE SERVE


To improve at racket sports, steady practice with a skilled partner helps, but it’s not always easy to arrange. But if Ping-Pong is your game, there’s a partner you can count on who is tireless, always shows up promptly and has absolutely no ego.
That perfect partner is a robot, specifically any one of several dozen robots now on the market that “play” Ping-Pong — or table tennis, the generic term. These robots don’t have the physiques of human champs — they look more like R2-D2 from “Star Wars.” And out of their robot mouths come not charming beeps and whistles, but fast-moving table tennis balls.
When friends or family are too busy to join you in the basement, you can roll one of these robots over, plug it in and set it to hurl one ball after another in successive shots across the net, providing not only intense practice, but an aerobics workout.
Source: NYtimes

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