1. Automated Beverage Pong Table Tom Enzweiler Adam Mahood Christina Powers Paul Scanlon Team Name: “House Rules” EE Senior Design Fall 2010

2. Overarching Goal Improve the user experience of traditional beverage pong in a variety of ways using embedded technology – Introduce automatic game set-up and preparation – Embed intelligence to manage precision cup movement and removal – Allow rich user-driven technologically enhanced game play Computer based user options selection via software with attractive GUI On-screen graphics and visual aids to increase game situational awareness Create a modular intelligent beverage pong unit that integrates technology with the traditional social gathering

3. Desired Capabilities Beverage distribution during game initialization Initial cup placement In-game functions – Appropriately react to scoring – Move eliminated cups off of field of play – Reconfigure cups based on user input at various points throughout the game Log historical game play data Enable a hands-off game experience from initialization to completion using hardware and software solutions

4. Necessary Subsystems Beverage distribution subsystem – Flow meter – Liquid distribution hardware – Beverage reservoir Cup movement subsystem – Stepper motors – Stepper motor controller – Lead-screw based two-axis movement system – Solenoid for cup latching – Embedded intelligence with cup movement algorithms User-interface subsystem – Companion PC to enable software-based game management – Game management software

5. Projected Development Phases 1.Design, build, and test two-axis cup movement subsystem 2.Initial development of game management software 3.Design and integrate beverage distribution subsystem 4.Refine game-management algorithms and user- interface 5.Perform final system integration and testing

6. Specific Challenges Precision control of cup movement – Stepper motor resolution – Solenoid efficiency and tuning Finding affordable beverage distribution options Finding the best components and subsystem parts for our needs – Meet budget requirements and user experience goals

7. Reach Goals “Reach” sensor – Notify players when a shooter performs a shot and reaches too far across the table Cellular/web initialization – Add a GSM module to enable reception of text messages to initialize the game – Alternatively could have a web server that accepts HTTP game initializations