 I love playing ping pong but I don't have enough friends. Thankfully someone has made a robot to play ping pong with me. It's called TrainerBot. It's kind of like a pitching machine. It's got some motors in here to fire ping pong balls at you. What makes it special is that it can aim the ping pong balls and even better it can apply spin. So TrainerBot attaches to one end of the table, plug it in, says hello. You can put about 30 balls up here. I'm going to stand over here. It will fire ping pong balls at me and then I get to clean them up. One of the most important parts of ping pong is the spin of the ball. There's back spin, top spin, sideways spins and those affect how the ball flies through the air, where the ball goes when it hits the table. And most difficult for me is where the ball goes after it hits the paddle. And to play ping pong well you have to be able to create these spins but you also have to know how to counteract those spins when they're coming at you. I'm going to try some back spins. I could ask a buddy to send me some back spins but the nice thing about TrainerBot is that it's going to theoretically hit the same sector of the table each time. So now if I go down with my ping pong paddle, you see with these back spins I just go right into the table. So I have to lift this shot up somehow. I'm doing a terrible job. I'm just getting murdered by these back spins. What am I supposed to do? There we go, I got one. There we go. See it getting better. So yeah, I feel like I'm doing something wrong with my body but I feel like that angle of the paddle, that was very important and that motion, very important. And asking your buddy to hit you 20 identical shots until you can get better is going to break friendships. So like every robot, it's controlled with an app. So the TrainerBot app has a lot of stuff in it but first you've got to connect. It connects over Bluetooth. So the first thing you see is a bunch of custom drills. So this is like basically ping pong the video game. You get a sequence of shots and you got to deal with all of them. You can even like team up with somebody and you can also create your own spin. You choose which sector of the table you want it to hit. You choose which spin you want and then you can even fine tune each of the specific motors in TrainerBot to get the exact shot you want. And then you just hit start and you get ping pong balls fired at you. Okay so the ball is spinning like this and then it just goes crazy. So if I put my ping pong paddle. Okay so I need to counteract this somehow. Oh I need to do it with the forehand. That wasn't that bad. Maybe I don't need TrainerBot. Maybe I'm good enough already. This is still an early prototype and this is definitely going to get better. But what I've already learned today is how to deal with a backspin. How to deal with a sideways spin. How to do a forehand. Lots of things that I've played a lot of ping pong games and got marginally better at. I feel like just a little bit of time with this has actually made me a better ping pong player. This is coming to Kickstarter on May 16th and the early bird price for the first backers is about $330. Which is a lot of money for a robot that only plays ping pong and it does not pick up the balls after it fires them out. But it's a lot cheaper than maybe hiring a coach or taking lessons and you know you don't have to go out and meet anybody. It's perfect if you don't like people but love ping pong. And then if it fires ping pong balls at you. Oh maybe I should have put it in there. It'll come out. It'll be fine. One second. I put a ping pong ball in the ping pong hole. I didn't think that would be such a problem.
 I love playing ping pong but I don't have enough friends.
 Thankfully someone has made a robot to play ping pong with me.
 It's called TrainerBot.
 It's kind of like a pitching machine.
 It's got some motors in here to fire ping pong balls at you.
 What makes it special is that it can aim the ping pong balls and even better it can apply
 spin.
 So TrainerBot attaches to one end of the table, plug it in, says hello.
 You can put about 30 balls up here.
 I'm going to stand over here.
 It will fire ping pong balls at me and then I get to clean them up.
 One of the most important parts of ping pong is the spin of the ball.
 There's back spin, top spin, sideways spins and those affect how the ball flies through
 the air, where the ball goes when it hits the table.
 And most difficult for me is where the ball goes after it hits the paddle.
 And to play ping pong well you have to be able to create these spins but you also have
 to know how to counteract those spins when they're coming at you.
 I'm going to try some back spins.
 I could ask a buddy to send me some back spins but the nice thing about TrainerBot is that
 it's going to theoretically hit the same sector of the table each time.
 So now if I go down with my ping pong paddle, you see with these back spins I just go right
 into the table.
 So I have to lift this shot up somehow.
 I'm doing a terrible job.
 I'm just getting murdered by these back spins.
 What am I supposed to do?
 There we go, I got one.
 There we go.
 See it getting better.
 So yeah, I feel like I'm doing something wrong with my body but I feel like that angle of
 the paddle, that was very important and that motion, very important.
 And asking your buddy to hit you 20 identical shots until you can get better is going to
 break friendships.
 So like every robot, it's controlled with an app.
 So the TrainerBot app has a lot of stuff in it but first you've got to connect.
 It connects over Bluetooth.
 So the first thing you see is a bunch of custom drills.
 So this is like basically ping pong the video game.
 You get a sequence of shots and you got to deal with all of them.
 You can even like team up with somebody and you can also create your own spin.
 You choose which sector of the table you want it to hit.
 You choose which spin you want and then you can even fine tune each of the specific motors
 in TrainerBot to get the exact shot you want.
 And then you just hit start and you get ping pong balls fired at you.
 Okay so the ball is spinning like this and then it just goes crazy.
 So if I put my ping pong paddle.
 Okay so I need to counteract this somehow.
 Oh I need to do it with the forehand.
 That wasn't that bad.
 Maybe I don't need TrainerBot.
 Maybe I'm good enough already.
 This is still an early prototype and this is definitely going to get better.
 But what I've already learned today is how to deal with a backspin.
 How to deal with a sideways spin.
 How to do a forehand.
 Lots of things that I've played a lot of ping pong games and got marginally better at.
 I feel like just a little bit of time with this has actually made me a better ping pong
 player.
 This is coming to Kickstarter on May 16th and the early bird price for the first backers
 is about $330.
 Which is a lot of money for a robot that only plays ping pong and it does not pick up the
 balls after it fires them out.
 But it's a lot cheaper than maybe hiring a coach or taking lessons and you know you don't
 have to go out and meet anybody.
 It's perfect if you don't like people but love ping pong.
 And then if it fires ping pong balls at you.
 Oh maybe I should have put it in there.
 It'll come out.
 It'll be fine.
 One second.
 I put a ping pong ball in the ping pong hole.
 I didn't think that would be such a problem.