If you haven’t seen this eat, Korean designer Joonho Sung is trying to build a new table top go set:

https://www.yankodesign.com/2019/05/24/ ... a-refresh/

Opinions and reactions are mixed. The traditionalist in me is almost offended, the artist in me rather likes shiny things and appreciates striving for a new go aesthetic, and the engineer in me thinks Sung went way over the top with unnecessary and gee-whiz elements.

Could such a device stimulate a Hikaru-like surge in fresh go enthusiasts?

I wish the proponents success but I am confident I will not own one.

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David Bogie, Boise ID
I play go, I ride a recumbent, of course I use Macintosh.

For starters, in a way, it's just a "pretty drawing" of an idea that existed for a long time. But even though the idea existed for such a long time, there are some challenges which make it hard to execute. (TL;DR it's just too expensive).

From a technical point of view, it has technical similarities with this product: https://www.adafruit.com/product/1929
Extrapolate the cost of 90$ for an 8x8, it would come down to >500$ for a 19x19.
However at that point you would also need a more powerful power supply.
An USB cable would certainly be insufficient to power it, that's for sure.

Locally the market wouldn't be big enough for it. But to reach an international market
shipping costs and import taxes would add another 100$ probably.

Having clarified that, it actually already exists in China. I can't retrieve the exact website right now, but I first learned about it from this tweet of the Russian Go federation:
https://twitter.com/gofederationru/stat ... 5540177920
Anyway, I tried to find more info on their website. But I figured it would be impossible to get one shipped to EU.

Having said all that, I would love to use one to study with AI. But not if costs are as high as 600$.

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