Today’s invention is a snooker/pool table which collects the balls at the end of a game, beneath the playing surface, as usual, but then detects which balls are which by running them past a camera with appropriate recognition software on board.
It then pumps the balls back onto the playing surface via a tube.
The tube has a whole-table-sized frame (not just the usual triangle) attached to its outlet end and this directs the balls to their correct starting positions for whichever type of game is about to be played next.
The frame is automatically withdrawn beneath the table and a new game can commence.
If a frame could be designed which was reconfigurable, then the position at some critical point in an historic final could be reproduced -together with a challenge to the current players to see if they could do better from this point.