> The ball bearing could be damped with a fluid, which would also
> prevent damage to the ping-pong ball

As well as your own reservations, damping would, er, do exactly
that, and you'd lose the very small movements that are a requirement
of the project. The fact that a ball bearing moves so easily on the
inside of the ball is a major plus

> I like this design, though

Me too - it was just one of those serendipity things. I was channel
surfing and saw a few seconds of table tennis on ESPN and a light
bulb lit up

> And with the addition of more sensors you could know the tilt in
> multiple directions.  It would be an interesting project, but at some
> point an accelerometer seems better suited cost and size-wise.  It
> would be interesting to compare the two methods side-by-side, though

I would like to compare the two, but the immediate push was to get
something, anything, ready this week. Now that there's a prototype
working, which fortunately took surprisingly little time, the pressure's
off a little and I can now shop around and experiment with other
devices, maybe sort out a Plan A and a Plan B

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