EP1289612A1 - Conception d'un plateau de jeu quadrille - Google Patents

Conception d'un plateau de jeu quadrille

Info

Publication number
EP1289612A1
EP1289612A1 EP00948150A EP00948150A EP1289612A1 EP 1289612 A1 EP1289612 A1 EP 1289612A1 EP 00948150 A EP00948150 A EP 00948150A EP 00948150 A EP00948150 A EP 00948150A EP 1289612 A1 EP1289612 A1 EP 1289612A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
grid
points
point
player
illuminated
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP00948150A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Inventor
Yehouda Harpaz
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Individual
Original Assignee
Individual
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Individual filed Critical Individual
Priority claimed from PCT/GB2000/002863 external-priority patent/WO2001014028A1/fr
Publication of EP1289612A1 publication Critical patent/EP1289612A1/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

Links

Definitions

  • This invention is related to electronic games grid boards, in which players play by pressing a point in a grid of points on an electronic board, and the board displays the state of the game by illuminating some of the points It describes a construction to achieve an implementation of the grid itself which is cheap and robust, feel good to play on and is visually attractive
  • buttons are also relatively expensive, suffer mechanical wear, and it is difficult to illuminate the buttons in an attractive way Additional problem with buttons is that they have to be pressed vertically, and when playing fast that is a problem for the players, because they have to move their hand horizontally to the ⁇ ght place and stop it to actually press the point
  • a possible solution with current technology is to use membrane keyboard for the input, which solves the main problems of robustness and is relatively cheap
  • simply using a membrane keyboard above point light sources like L ⁇ Ds does not look appealing
  • the mam problems are that the illuminated area is not uniformly illuminated (it is b ⁇ ghter just above the light source, and there are also smaller inhomogeneities), and that if more than one light source is used, they illuminate somewhat different areas
  • the invention here describes a construction that gives an almost uniformly illuminated area, with more than one light source, and is based on standard and cheap components
  • the grid of points is constructed from the following four layers:
  • the four layers are held together, and the thickness of the separation layer is such that the light sources are not immediately below the translucent area, but some distance away.
  • the distance needs to be more than quarter of the diameter of the hole in the separation layer, and is typically 40-100% of the diameter of the hole.
  • the membrane keyboard and the control of the light sources are both connected to a CPU with some memory which uses them to manage various games and puzzles.
  • the sources of light are not immediately below the translucent layer, the light spreads before it reaches the translucent layer, so the difference between the illumination in the centre of the illuminated area and in its periphery is not so marked.
  • the sides of the holes reflect light that doesn't reach the translucent layer directly, and this reflected light is distributed homogeneously or even more at the periphery of the illuminated area, so makes the distribution of illumination more homogeneous.
  • the translucent layer smoothes out short range changes in the illumination.
  • the overall result is illumination that still decrease from the point above the source of light, but the change is small and smooth. Outside the circle above the hole the illumination drops almost to zero, thus giving a circular and almost homogeneous illuminated area.
  • the membrane keyboard will also need some marking which shows the players where the grid points are even when they are not illuminated.
  • the grid that is shown in the specific embodiment is a square grid, but the grid can have other arrangement, e.g. hexagonal, triangular or rectangular.
  • Figure 1 Shows a sketch of a typical board from above
  • Figure 2 Shows a cross section through the a column of grid points in the board
  • Figure 3 Shows an expansion of one grid point.
  • FIG 1 shows the grid from above, so only the membrane keyboard and the illumination of grid points are visible. Unilluminated points are denoted by empty circles, and illuminated points are denoted one of two patterns, one for red and one for green.
  • the membrane keyboard and translucent layer 1 are made together.
  • the translucent layer is made of HIPS (High Impact PolyStyrene) and serves as the base layer for the layers carrying the circuitry of the keyboard.
  • HIPS High Impact PolyStyrene
  • the layout of the membrane keyboard is specially designed for the board, but otherwise it is made by standard techniques.
  • the Membrane keyboard also has a graphic layer 2, which leaves the areas above the holes in the separation layer transparent 3, and is opaque in the rest of the surface of the board. This makes the borders of the points sha ⁇ er.
  • the press-sensitive area for one grid point is indicated in Figure 1 by the square in broken line 4. As discussed above it is much larger than the illuminated area of the grid point, to make it easier for the players to press a point.
  • the separation layer 5 is made of white harden foam.
  • the walls of the holes 6 are smooth, so they also reflect some of the light.
  • the PCB 7 is a standard PCB, and for each grid point it has two LEDs 8, one green and one red, and are mounted to project their light upwards.
  • the actual shape of the all the layers is rectangle, such that they extend more than the square grid of points to one direction.
  • the CPU and memory 9 are mounted below the PCB at this region, and on the top there are input and display devices 10 to allow the players to control the games that the CPU manages. This regions also contains the electronic connection between the PCB and the membrane keyboard (not shown).
  • the LEDs produce a cone of light 11, and the thickness of the separation layer is such that the cone of light intersects the walls of the hole a small distance below the translucent layer.
  • the periphery of the illuminated area receives more reflected light from the top of the walls than the centre, thus increasing the homogeneity of the illumination.
  • the LEDs are tilted slightly towards the centre, to compensate for the fact that they are not exactly in the middle of the hole.
  • the two LEDs in each grid point can be switched on independently, so the grid points can be illuminated either by green or red , which are marked with different patterns in Fig 1.
  • the visual look of the board and the easiness of making moves make it very appealing for playing any game that can be played on it. A list of such games is given below.
  • Each game has several parameters that can be set, but only a minority of these are described here.
  • Each two-players game can also be played against the board, and has a time limit for performing a move, which can be set by the players.
  • Othello, CountLines and Vis ⁇ ut flash the legal moves for a player that presses a point that is an illegal move.
  • Othello 'Adding a stone' is done by pressing an unilluminated point. If this is a legal move, the CPU switches the point on with the current player's colour (which corresponds to putting a stone in this point) and reverses the colour of the points that need to be reversed according to the rules of OTHELLO. Because the number of points is 9x9 rather than the usual 8x8, the start up position is different from the standard starting position. In each move the CPU checks if the current player has a legal move, and if not passes the turn to the other player. If both players don't have a legal move, the CPU finishes the game.
  • Compensate can be set, so when a player passes a move, the other player gets as a compensation more than one move.
  • Ghost This is a fluid game.
  • the board illuminates four points (the ghost), and then moves the ghost, by repeatedly switching on a point that is a neighbour of one of the illuminated points, and switching off one of the illuminated points.
  • the players try to 'catch the ghost', by pressing one of the points while it is illuminated
  • Lifel can be played in a 'kill' mode, in which the player tries to 'kill' the board, i.e. switch off all the points, as fast as possible, or in 'keep alive' mode, in which the player tries to keep the board 'alive', i.e. keep at least some points on, as long as possible. Adjusting the various parameters makes the task an interesting challenge.
  • L ⁇ fe2. Like Lifel, but there are points illuminated in either colour. The players play in turn, and each player tries to switch off all the points of the other colour.
  • Symmetry Single player game.
  • the CPU switches on a pattern of points on one side of the grid, and the player needs to press the symmetry related points on the other side of the grid. Parameters like the number of points in the pattern, the time that is allowed for doing the copying and the kind of symmetry operation that the player need to do are used to match the difficulty level of the copying to the level of the player.
  • the game is played according to the standard rules of GO. For each move, the board checks if it is legal, and rejects it otherwise. If the move captures points of the other players, the board switches them off. Like in Vis ⁇ ut, the CPU finishes the game when it is clear which part of the grid is controlled by whom. Because this is a complex operation in Go and the heuristics that are used may get it wrong, this feature is controlled by several settable parameters, and can also be switched off.

Abstract

Selon l'invention, une grille de points est construite à partir des quatre couches suivantes : un clavier membranaire transparent comportant une zone sensible à la pression sur chaque point de la grille ; une couche de matériau translucide uniforme en dessous du clavier membranaire ; une couche de séparation de matériau opaque en dessous de la couche translucide, comportant pour chaque point de la grille un trou circulaire avec des parois réfléchissantes ou très claires ; une carte à circuit imprimé en dessous de la couche de séparation, sur laquelle au moins deux sources de lumière sont montées par point de la grille, et portant le circuit de commande de ces sources de lumière. Ces quatre couches sont assemblées, et la largeur de la couche de séparation est choisie de manière que les sources de lumière ne se situent par immédiatement en dessous de la zone translucide, mais à une certaine distance. Le clavier membranaire et la commande des sources de lumière sont tous deux connectés à une unité centrale disposant d'une certaine quantité de mémoire, qui les utilise afin de gérer différents jeux et puzzles.
EP00948150A 2000-07-25 2000-07-25 Conception d'un plateau de jeu quadrille Withdrawn EP1289612A1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
PCT/GB2000/002863 WO2001014028A1 (fr) 1999-08-19 2000-07-25 Conception d'un plateau de jeu quadrille

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP1289612A1 true EP1289612A1 (fr) 2003-03-12

Family

ID=9885165

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP00948150A Withdrawn EP1289612A1 (fr) 2000-07-25 2000-07-25 Conception d'un plateau de jeu quadrille

Country Status (1)

Country Link
EP (1) EP1289612A1 (fr)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
See references of WO0114028A1 *

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