A pong traffic light in Germany
September 10, 2012 5:20 PM   Subscribe

 
You win this round, Germany, but wait until my traffic light version of Diablo hits the streets.
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:26 PM on September 10, 2012 [1 favorite]


That's a wonderful idea, although I'm curious how durable it is. And I get enough finger crud showing up on my personal touch devices. A public one would be...interesting.
posted by figurant at 5:26 PM on September 10, 2012 [1 favorite]


Recent comment:
Das Video ist leider ein Fake! Komme aus Hildesheim und das Teil existiert dort leider nicht, es handelt sich wohl um ein projekt der fachhochschule....
Or:
The video is unfortunately a fake! I'm from Hildesheim and the part exists there, unfortunately, it is probably a project of applied sciences ....
Not that it wasn't obvious.
posted by pbump at 5:28 PM on September 10, 2012


I love the high five at the end.

Tangentially, the High Five wikipedia entry has some hilarious photo illustrations. "Too Slow" is a classic.
posted by roger ackroyd at 5:28 PM on September 10, 2012 [6 favorites]


No dammit! This should be Frogger!
posted by hal9k at 5:29 PM on September 10, 2012 [5 favorites]


You win this round, Germany, but wait until my traffic light version of Diablo hits the streets.

What does this even m *THROWS MONEY AT SCREEN*
posted by Foci for Analysis at 5:29 PM on September 10, 2012 [4 favorites]


scheiße!... best 2 out of 3?
posted by twist my arm at 5:37 PM on September 10, 2012


No dammit! This should be Frogger!

Yes, but put a camera up above and let the player navigate the frog through actual real-time traffic.
posted by Gary at 5:42 PM on September 10, 2012 [5 favorites]


Das Video ist leider ein Fake!

Not really so much "fake" as "not the full context." It would seem to be an actual, fully-functioning system, just not one that has yet been installed by any actual municipality.
posted by yoink at 5:48 PM on September 10, 2012


Oh my god that gave me a headache. I wish software "deshaking" had never been invented, it's the tilt shift of image stabilization :(
posted by Yowser at 6:55 PM on September 10, 2012


Awesome.

Was it an artifact of the camera or did I see pushback? Can you dominate your opponent so well that you win the right to cross the street sooner?
posted by chemoboy at 8:10 PM on September 10, 2012


There are some intersections here on the west-coast where I swear you'd have enough time to play through Skyrim just waiting for a pedestrian crosswalk light to turn green.
posted by rh at 8:43 PM on September 10, 2012


What's fake about it? Is there not a Pong game tuned to a traffic signal in Germany somewhere?
posted by Brocktoon at 10:49 PM on September 10, 2012


Now that's civilization!
posted by a humble nudibranch at 11:06 PM on September 10, 2012 [1 favorite]


I don't quite know why, but there's something endlesslly adorable about the expression "ziemlich cool".
posted by LMGM at 1:39 AM on September 11, 2012 [3 favorites]


Can you dominate your opponent so well that you win the right to cross the street sooner?

Given that they're both waiting to cross the same street, I'm gonna go with no.
posted by ook at 5:58 AM on September 11, 2012


At 0:56 the narrator says "Scheisse!", which gets subtitled as "Damn!". That made me smile. (Doesn't everyone know what "Scheisse" is?) Of course, it's a pretty reasonable translation in terms of perceived vulgarity level if not literal meaning .... Germans (in my experience) seem much more likely to say "Scheisse!" than "Verdammt noch mal!"
posted by crazy_yeti at 7:30 AM on September 11, 2012 [1 favorite]


I don't quite know why, but there's something endlesslly adorable about the expression "ziemlich cool".
Then you'll like this website!
posted by crazy_yeti at 7:33 AM on September 11, 2012


I can sort of understand if it was not provided by the municipality; how many "wasting our tax dollars on video games" op-eds would you have to put up with?

In my city, I'm not sure whether they would even allow you to install those at your own expense, just because they'd distrust non-standard equipment being attached to their traffic lights.
posted by RobotHero at 9:51 AM on September 11, 2012


I'm not sure whether they would even allow you to install those at your own expense

Yeah, understandably there are a lot of rules and regulations about traffic control systems.

Interestingly, the rules require that lights have an electronic interlock that 100% prevents a green light showing in both directions, regardless of what the traffic control software says. It's pretty paranoid but it works.
posted by miyabo at 12:50 PM on September 11, 2012


I can sort of understand if it was not provided by the municipality; how many "wasting our tax dollars on video games" op-eds would you have to put up with?

Heh yeah, I watched before reading that it was not really real and wondered, where is this, obviously a much wealthier German municipality than the capital...

It'd be money well spent though. Less people getting impatient, less risk of pedestrians walking into traffic, more goodwill for the municipality... you could totally sell this to the Bürgermeister. Or it could be entirely sponsored by a private business so no issue of spending tax money. Yay. Well maybe not but it's better than tv screens with the news in train stations and on trains isn't it?
posted by bitteschoen at 1:34 PM on September 11, 2012


On a grey, cold winter's day at -20°F with nobody on the streets, such a game might help you feel less depressed. But you'd need to take off your glove, yah? Und then freeze your fingertip. Scheise!

On the other hand, this being thorough Germany, the screen might be warmed. In which case, bravo!
posted by Twang at 4:20 PM on September 11, 2012




Bus stop swing set makes commuting a bit more fun

*jumps of swing into traffic*
posted by Sys Rq at 9:44 AM on September 12, 2012


off
posted by Sys Rq at 9:44 AM on September 12, 2012




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