Using heat sensitive glass, or cutting-edge global-hyper-colour technology, a squash court could be made to imprint the marks the ball makes when it collides with the wall and hold them for a time. Presumably, using a hot/cold temperature flush behind the wall would make the marks disappear.
Allows the squash player the following:
1.) Accurately call an "out" if the ball has hit the line. 2.) Coaching staff can teach players where to hit the ball, or where they're going wrong, by pointing out where the ball is hitting the wall. 3.) Tired players can finish up by trying to draw a big smiley face on the wall in one rally.
A button or voice command activates the cold flush.-- theleopard, Sep 22 2009 Martina Navratilova's tennis art http://www.guardian...t?picture=334412673Not entirely dissimilar to this [hippo, Sep 23 2009] nifty [+] I want each player to have their own colour though.-- FlyingToaster, Sep 22 2009 + for voice activated cold flush. Always a bonus.
Could be done virtually using Hawk-Eye and a projector.-- tatterdemalion, Sep 22 2009 Very good. (+)
Tennis needs this.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 22 2009 funny how you can skim an idea and pick out 5 words and vote +-- po, Sep 22 2009 I was hoping this would be a Halloween pumpkin that you can shake to erase it. But this is nice too. [+]-- jutta, Sep 22 2009 velocity-dependend coloring and rule changes to accomodate some sharp-shooting bonuses [+]-- loonquawl, Sep 23 2009 [2fries] see link-- hippo, Sep 23 2009 [FT], I thought the same thing, but had absolutely no idea how it could be done.-- theleopard, Sep 23 2009 Oh yeah. +-- blissmiss, Sep 23 2009 I had a thought this weekend about how to make the ball leave different colours when hit by each player's racket. What if the technology was based on static electricity? One racket would be charged with negative polarity, the other with positive. When the ball hits the racket it picks up a charge and deposits it on to the wall, leaving one colour, then hits the other racket, picking up the opposite charge, and deposits that on the wall, leaving the other colour.
Is there any feasibility in that, or am I clutching at straws?-- theleopard, Sep 28 2009 ...or the wall could be a giant touchscreen and colour alternate hits with different colours. This would have the advantage that the hit patterns could be easily downloaded for later analysis, and the screen could be easily cleared for the next people who've booked the court.-- hippo, Sep 28 2009 Couldn't you just have it go different colours alternately?-- calum, Sep 28 2009 mmm... rfid'ish thingy inside the ball changes according to whatever racket (which also has some doodads in it) hit it last and the wall picks it up ?-- FlyingToaster, Sep 28 2009 The touch screen is a good idea, but I was trying to think of something relatively lo-tech, something chemical or physical, rather than playing inside an enormous iPhone, which although would work, would be outlandishly expensive, and is a bit too easy for the HB.-- theleopard, Sep 28 2009 got it:
each racket sends a signal to whatever's controlling the wall when the strings are pulled from hitting the ball.
sure you *could* mess it up by smacking yourself in the head or punching it, but that seems to be the easiest method.-- FlyingToaster, Sep 28 2009 OK then ... the paint colour of the ball remains constant, but between each hit the end wall of the squash court spins round so that your hits are on the other side of the wall from your opponent's hits and can be easily differentiated.-- hippo, Sep 28 2009 That's tough when you're right up the front playing a soft drop shot, only for the wall to smack you in the face and deposit you in the darkness behind.
Unless of course the wall span round in panels...-- theleopard, Sep 28 2009 Panels, yes - 500,000 1cm^2 panels.-- hippo, Sep 28 2009 What could be more lo-tech than that?-- theleopard, Sep 28 2009 Absolutely - it's a mature technology too, as used in those old-fashioned mechanical dot-matrix train indicator displays. In fact, as these move to LED displays, there must be a lot of these mechanical displays going cheap...-- hippo, Sep 28 2009 Nice. I've also been thinking about all those trains on the underground with the "Open >>" buttons that don't do anything but make old people look like worried technophobes as they furiously bash the button at the station until the doors open automatically. Can they be put to use elsewhere?-- theleopard, Sep 28 2009 I like this. I'm now thinking of how I can etch a skull & crossbones into the wall to further pressurize my beleaguered opponent.
(+)-- Jinbish, Sep 28 2009 If the entire wall is a mechanical dot-matrix display, it can be used to flash subliminal messages at your opponent.-- hippo, Sep 28 2009 As a colleague says: there are no opponents - only enemies.-- Jinbish, Sep 28 2009 I think what's needed is a ball that is slightly magnetic.
Or use polarized light behind a plastic translucent wall that can show stress lines.
There's also paint impregnated with color-filled microbeads that pop under the right amount of pressure. The marks would be permanent until a fresh coat were applied, however.-- RayfordSteele, Sep 28 2009 easy, put one color on one side and another on the other side.-- neo_, Sep 29 2009 Black marks are very baked already, however [+]-- simonj, Sep 29 2009 What's needed here is a ball -n- wall sport where the racket is manipulated along guy wires in 2 dimensions, a la the etch-a-sketch.-- RayfordSteele, Dec 08 2009 random, halfbakery