Discriminating white ball from colored ball in pool table, comprises measuring light reflected from points on white ball in order to obtain reference value for this ball
Reference value for the white ball (cue ball) is obtained by shining light (9, 9) against at least two parts of the white ball, measuring the reflected light (10, 10) and storing the data, repeating these two steps a number of times and processing the stored data. Light is shone against at least two parts of a ball and the reflected light is measured and compared with reference values corresponding to different colors in order to determine whether the ball is white or colored. An independent claim is also included for the detection system, comprising a passage (2) for the ball, at least two light sources for shining light against the ball (1) as it travels through the passage, at least two receivers (F1-F6) cooperating with the light sources in order to measure the reflected light and convert it into data and a microprocessor (3) connected to the receivers and used to convert the data into reference values.