Rim or Pocket? Engineering Spikeball’s Biggest Problem
Aug 8, 2024
Do you play Spikeball?
If you've played this trendy game that's taken the world by storm in college campuses, beaches, parks, and more, you've definitely encountered the pesky and instigative dilemma—rim or pocket?
For those of you who don't know, let me give you some Spikeball context: if you hit the ball and it strikes the rim of the net in Spikeball, the opposing team is awarded a point; however, if the ball lands extremely close to the rim, the higher tension of the net can cause it to deflect in unexpected directions, often making it impossible for the other team to return, thus giving you the point.
The hard part (and the cause of many arguments or point replays) is discerning which one did it hit.
For today’s PluggedIn TechFuture blog we interviewed Evan Talley, a recent high school grad and prefrosh at Northern Kentucky University, who solved exactly that.
Despite having limited materials provided by his school and little to no budget for the project, Evan Talley and his friend took on this problem for their senior capstone project. “We both played a lot of Spikeball… and then one day we’re like ‘it’d be so fun if we did our whole senior project on Spikeball,’” Evan remarked.
They had to go through some hefty trial and error to pull it off!
Evan and his team initially tried using four sensors attached to the bottom of the Spikeball net to detect hits. However, they struggled to find affordable sensors that were sensitive enough to accurately track the fast-moving ball. After hitting a wall with those early designs, they took inspiration from Spikeball's existing "Spike Buoy" product and designed a slide-on mechanism that could attach to the net more easily.
Realizing the limitations of their resources, Evan and his team shifted their approach to focus on sensing the distance and movement of the net rather than direct ball detection. They developed designs with springs inside to measure how far the net was displaced on each hit.
Throughout this process, Evan's team went through multiple iterations, prototypes, and dead ends before arriving at their current design—a testament to their persistence and willingness to adapt their approach based on the constraints they faced. Their journey show’s the true real-world engineering process of bringing a concept to life, especially with limited resources.
Evan and his friend even earned recognition from Spikeball’s CEO who sent them a gift and posted a viral video on Instagram where he supported their project and offered to help with anything they needed.
While the device currently works for basic gameplay, due to the small budget and constraints, their device doesn’t work perfectly for high speed and hard hitting gameplay yet, but Evan hopes to be able to further develop the device in college with the resources at NKU.
Their long-term goal is to make an affordable product that people can purchase for their friendly games, and also have a product that could be used at the competitive level with higher level technology through cameras and tracking.
Readers, if you’ve made it this far—thank you. I guess this is your sign to pursue whatever crazy idea you are thinking about. You can do it! Reach out to us at PluggedIn/DevNotes if you need any help/support.
About Evan
Evan is a rising mechanical engineering technology freshman at Northern Kentucky University, where he also competes in Division 1 track. In his free time, he is actively involved in the college ministry group at NKU, blending his passion for community and his faith.
You can connect with Evan on LinkedIn (linked below) or email him if you’d like to support him or his project.