Cruise ships these days have everything that human holidaymaker could possibly want...
Bars, pools, gymnasiums, casinos, nightclubs, sunlounges.
Scantily clad members of the opposite sex getting refreshed in a way that stirs thoughts of the possibility of copious quantities of sexual intercourse.
One
thing they invariably do not have, however, is pool or billiards tables. This is a result of the motion of the cruise ship: a pool game on a boat is the only pool game that plays itself. (Thus divesting the Cruising Pool Shark of the opportunity to impress said members of the opposite sex with said Shark's smooth wrist action.)
Enter Cruise Ship Pool.
CSP's table surface is much like the top of an air hockey table, with small holes pouring forth a constant stream.
The balls are just more than hemispherical, that is: with one flat surface; and hollow, with a largish hole in the top of the hemisphere.
That flat surface is perforated to allow the air from the table to pass unhindered into the hollow centre of the 'ball' (and out its top) when the game is at rest.
However, behind the first set of perforations is a rotating disc; a disk with matching holes. When the second disk is rotated off-alignment, the 'ball' impedes the flow of air, and thus is lifted from the playing surface.
Each ball contains an actuator for the second disc, a small battery, and an uniquely identified transmitter/bluetooth/electronic communications thingamabobby.
The tip of the pool cue also contains a t/b/e-c-t.
The table contains three transmitter/receivers, and a computer which triangulates the position and velocity of the balls and the cue-tip at all times.
When the cue-ball is *just* about to be struck by the cue-tip, the cue ball is instructed to shut its 'vents', and it rises from the table.
And so on and so forth. When a ball is *just* about to be struck by the cue-ball, or any other ball, it shuts its vents, says its prayers, and prepares to be hammered down to the mysterious inner workings of the table.
To the appreciative drunken squeals/respectful shouts of the Pool Shark's erstwhile prey...