The Achilles heel of table tennis: people without friends can’t play. Unless you raise the one side of the table, I suppose. But why do that when you can buy an automatic ball-shooting machine?
The Robo-Pong comes in a few different varieties starting at $229 for a basic unit (the 540) or $359 “for intermediate and tournament players” (the 1040) Finally, there’s the Robo-Pong 2040 for $695 (seen in the above video), which recycles the balls you hit back to it, allowing you to play all day and all night. There are also upgrade kits available, so you can start out with the 540 and work your way up as you improve.
Robo-Pong [Company Site via Electricpig via Ubergizmo]