The idea for Teqball started with two friends, computer scientist Viktor Huszár and former professional soccer player Gábor Borsányi. The pair lived in the same apartment complex, and they wanted to find a way to play soccer more often. “Most people don’t have a soccer field at home,” says Huszár. “And getting enough people together for a game is challenging.”
Borsányi came up with the idea to play soccer on a Ping-Pong table. That way, you’d need less space and just two people for a game. “The scientific challenge was that a Ping-Pong table is designed for Ping-Pong balls,” says Huszár. “A soccer ball is more than 150 times heavier.” Borsányi and Huszár needed a table with a sturdier design. Also, after a soccer ball bounced off the flat surface, the rebound tended to land on or near the table, making it hard for players to return the ball. The pair realized that if they curved the table’s surface, they could change the ball’s trajectory—the curved path of a flying object (see Teqball Physics). The ball would rebound toward opposing players, so they could easily keep back-and-forth rallies going.
The friends created prototypes, or early models, of tables made with different materials and curvatures. They tested the tables using a machine that dropped soccer balls onto the surfaces. With a high-speed camera, they recorded the movements of the balls as they bounced off each table.