(YouTube Link)
The Obscura CueLight Pool Table, currently set up in Esquire magazine's ultimate bachelor pad, creates stunning visual effects as pool balls move around the table. Motion sensors detect anything on or near the surface of the table and reveal a shimmering image through an overhead projector. It was created by the San Francisco-based light effects company Obscura Digital and will probably cost about $125,000 per unit when and if it is marketed.
Company Website via Gizmodo
Strange choice of image. There are so many things they /could/ have done with it - but no, they descend to scantily clad women.
You could have balls of fire with explosions when they collide.
You could have tendrils of beautiful plants unfurling behind the ball with showers of seeds on impact.
A comet flying through space with planetary creation for the impact.
But no - revealing glimpses of a woman trumps the lot. How very predictable.
Yup, gotta have a picture of a scantily-clad woman to distract investors from the fact that it's a really dumb idea.
As for an LCD, I wouldn't want to masse on that. The whole point of doing it this way is to preserve the feel and play of the table.
And and yes it is an overpriced pointless luxury item... the 125,000 probably doesn't even include the table to play on.
Could probably do this for way less with some sort of open source software, a laptop, a video camera, and a much cheaper projector.