The startup TECBAK/Foosball Society has attracted considerable attention lately. Silicon Luxembourg discovered the young company’s connected foosball creation in Paris during this year’s VivaTech conference, and this after Foosball Society earned its place at CES 2018 in Las Vegas. Most recently, Luxembourg had the chance to see what all the commotion is about at the Startuppers Night organized by BIL in late September.
(Featured Image: players experiencing the Foosball Society foosball table / Image Credit © Anna Katina / Silicon Luxembourg)
Augmented Reality and Foosball
With Foosball’s entry onto the market in 1927, you must have had the chance to play in a café, a bar, at the university, your workplace’s cafeteria, or in the comfort of your home. And yet, given all the time passed, the wooden table has not at all evolved since its inception just under 100 years ago. TECBAK thus decided to get its feet wet by creating the popular game anew in collaboration with Foosball Society. Their digitalized foosball creation now boasts metrics and electronic sensors (accelerometer, infrared) placed in the table’s wall and its goals, as well as a camera and a screen. The aim? Calculating speed of shots, following the ball’s movement in real time, showing slow-speed reviews, and classifying scores and players. In other words, it’s a whole new experience.
“Classifications between players, statistics, doubles and singles numbers, videos, and goals are all available.”
New Metrics for Players and Teams
At 5400 euros, the Foosball Society foosball table is a unique model created by Bonzini (arguably the original producer of the game). In its Parisian workshop, Bonzini adds its special TECBAK technology, which consists of a layer of hardware and software across two PCs as well as a network of sensors, to the table. And it does so with proprietary technology specifically designed for each connected piece, the conglomeration of which allows for the collection and transmission of game-related data. In addition to these two pillars—the connected table and assisting platform—you have to add a third: a mobile application with which you can connect yourself to the table (via QR code) and get playing.
The mobile application is a real social network, designed specifically for the game and all its functions. For example, classifications between players, statistics, doubles and singles numbers, videos, and goals are all available. The application is entirely customizable with a company, incubator, organizer or personal colors, and Foosball Society appears on the central interface, which shows information such as number of games played, the total number of connected users, and more. The app also includes an anonymous reporting feature available each month to users.
“Will we soon see an inter-incubator and inter-company league?”
Making workspaces and events more dynamic
You can integrate one of these digitalized foosball tables and into your organization’s atmosphere. TECBAK places its Foosball Society tables in companies, incubators, major schools, and universities. Collaborators, entrepreneurs and students can also connect to the network whenever they want via the mobile application, which is in its own right a great networking tool. This is an ideal tool for companies that want to illustrate their digital transformation.
It should be noted that the tables are customizable for each company, event, or the like, with the creation of a private league that brings together several locations. During the Startuppers Night, more than thirty players got to live the experience, put up more that 300 goals, and play more than 200 minutes, with a record shooting speed at 30 km per hour. One player was even able to beat the runner of for the world championship in 2013, who came for the event
Will we soon see an inter-incubator and inter-company league? Time will tell.
