US20150209660A1

US20150209660A1 - Pseudo four dimensional puzzle cube

Info

Publication number: US20150209660A1
Application number: US14/167,800
Authority: US
Inventors: Patrick KREANDER
Original assignee: Spati4l Oy
Current assignee: Spati4l Oy
Priority date: 2014-01-29
Filing date: 2014-01-29
Publication date: 2015-07-30

Abstract

A puzzle cube comprising individual cells. Some cells may be positioned on the outer surface of the puzzle cube while other cells may be floater cells encapsulated within the puzzle cube by a rail structure. Preferably, the rail structure is intergrated into the structure of selective individual cells. Preferably, at least one cell is in the form of a Tesseract Schlegel diagram.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

None.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to games, toys and puzzles. In particular, the present disclosure relates to logical games with cubic forms, and more particularly a playable logic cube with a depth dimension.
The publication GB2356150A discloses a cubic puzzle that allows the relative rotation of cubes through an interaction between arcuate projections and curved slots on neighboring cube faces, with male and female elements being arranged in appropriate sequences throughout the puzzle. Rounded edges of individual cubes allow easy rotation. The cubes can be transparent, which allows for images or shapes to be placed inside of individual unit cubes. The central cube or the central cubes carry no connecting mechanisms but can give extra structural stability, and be thin-walled for improved transparency.
The publication US44325548A discloses a cubic puzzle comprising an outer framework and a plurality of small cubes, preferably forming nine squares on each side. The center of the cubic puzzle has an open-sided cage as a substitute for the 27^thcube. The cage is of a size adapted to receive a cube from the center of any six sides of the puzzle cube. The movement of any one of the center small cubes from any side of the cage prepares biasing means for expelling the small cube toward that side. The cube thus moved into the cage is retained in position in the cage by the movement of one of the edge cubes into the space previously occupied by the center cube of the side, thereby creating an additional space at the center of an edge and permitting other cubes, such as a corner cube or the center cube of an adjacent face to be moved into the open space.
Furthermore, a Rubik's™ cube with larger pieces or its pieces glued together is generally known. This kind of cube is called a Bicube or Bandaged Rubik's cube. The glued pieces or larger pieces make the puzzle very difficult as many moves are often blocked. The larger pieces or glued pieces are often called “Bandage” cells.
The permutations of the traditional Rubik's™ cube solutions is about 43 trillion, which makes the traditional Rubik's™ cube itself to be a tricky and challenging puzzle. However, the best players can still solve the puzzle in six seconds, and even with only one hand in ten seconds.
What is desired is to give new and more multi-functional logical challenges to the fans of the Rubik's™ cube and similar games, toys and puzzles.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure discloses a pseudo four dimensional puzzle cube that, instead of merely defining an essentially two dimensional playing region arrayed over the surface area of a cube, more fully utilizes the three dimensional nature of a cube by adding to the playing region a depth dimension, i.e. a dimension into the cube. By having the depth dimension included into the combination puzzle, the logical challenge of the game is made much more complex. Thus, the cube puzzle of the invention multiplies the surface-level permutations with the lower layer permutations, and hence, the number of possible permutations expands into whole new extent.
In one aspect of the present disclosure, a logic cube may include individual cells and a coupling system, wherein the cube has six faces forming an outer surface of the cube, the individual cells on the outer surface of the cube form an upper layer of the cube, and the rest of the individual cells are floater cells. The coupling system may constitute a plurality of rails connecting the individual cells on the upper layer, the rails and the individual cells on the upper layer build a shell encapsulating the floater cells, and at least one of the individual cells is transparent.
In another aspect of the present disclosure, a cell used in a logic cube may have a form based on a Tesseract Schlegel diagram, with markings visually separating the directions of the cell.
Additionally, in another aspect of the disclosure, a release chassis for dismantling a logic cube may comprise two adjacent, non-level surfaces, upon which the logic cube may be placed, and that tilt in respectively opposite directions relative to each other. The two surfaces may together be enclosed by a surrounding wall, border, or other restraint to keep the logic cube on the chassis for release of the cells.
The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A shows the formulation of one 1*1*1 cell of one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 1B shows a floater cell of one embodiment of the invention with colored plates.

FIG. 2A shows a simplified exoskeleton structure of the invention.

FIG. 2B shows a set of rails constituting sort of tower of rails.

FIG. 2C shows the principle of placing the cells with rails (upper view).

FIG. 2D shows the principle of placing the cells with rails (side view).

FIG. 3 shows the release chassis.

FIG. 4A shows the cross section of an effective rail structure of the invention.

FIG. 4B shows the cross section of another effective rail structure of the invention.

FIG. 5A shows an exemplary view of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 5B shows an exemplary section view of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 5C shows an exemplary view of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 5D shows an exemplary formulation of the middle piece (M) of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention (all six side views).

FIG. 5E shows an exemplary middle piece (M) of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 5F shows an exemplary formulation of a corner piece (C) of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention (all six side views).

FIG. 5G shows an exemplary corner release piece (C) of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention (all six side views).

FIG. 5H shows an exemplary corner release piece (C) of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 5I shows an exemplary corner release piece (C) with shortened left rail of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 5J shows an exemplary corner release piece (C) with triangle marks of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 5K shows an exemplary edge piece (E) of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention (all six side views).

FIG. 5L shows an exemplary edge piece (E) of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 5M shows an exemplary section view of an edge piece (E) of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 5N shows an exemplary edge release piece (E) of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 5O shows an exemplary edge release piece (E) of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention (all six side views).

FIG. 5P shows a floater piece of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention (side view).

FIG. 5Q shows a floater piece of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 5R shows one exemplary preferred rail shape with clearance of 0.2-0.4 mm of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 5S shows the rail system structure of a 3*3*3 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 6A shows an exemplary section view of a 5*5*5 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 6B shows an exemplary view of a 5*5*5 logic cube of the invention with release pieces on 3^rd, top row and 2^nd, bottom.

FIG. 6C shows an exemplary view of a 5*5*5 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 6D shows one exemplary preferred rail shape with clearance of 0.2-0.4 mm of a 5*5*5 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 6E shows an exemplary release piece (2^nd, bottom) with visible shorten rail of a 5*5*5 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 6F shows an exemplary release piece (3^rd, top) with visible shorten rail of a 5*5*5 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 7A shows an exemplary view of view of a 7*7*7 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 7B shows an exemplary view of view of a 7*7*7 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 7C shows an exemplary section view of view of a 7*7*7 logic cube of the invention.

FIG. 8A shows an exemplary section view of the mushroom rail.

FIG. 8B shows an exemplary 3D view of a release center piece (0,0) for minus side.

FIG. 8C shows an exemplary side view of the release center piece (0,0) for minus side.

FIG. 8D shows an exemplary 3D view of a release center piece (1,0) for plus side.

FIG. 8E shows an exemplary side view of the release center piece (1,0) for plus side.

FIG. 8F shows an exemplary 3D view of a release corner piece (2,0) for minus side.

FIG. 8G shows an exemplary side view of the release middle piece (2,0) for minus side.

FIG. 8H shows an exemplary side view of the release middle piece (1,0) for minus side.

FIG. 8I shows an exemplary 3D view of a release center piece (1,0) for minus side.

FIG. 8J shows an exemplary 3D view of a release center piece (1,1) for plus side.

FIG. 8K shows an exemplary side view of the release middle piece (1,1) for plus side.

FIG. 8L shows an exemplary section view of the logic cube pieces with rails.

FIG. 8M shows an exemplary side view of the release middle piece (2,1) for plus side.

FIG. 8N shows an exemplary 3D view of a release middle piece (2,1) for plus side.

FIGS. 9A-D show exemplary bandage floater cells.

FIG. 9E shows an exemplary bandage piece extending on the outer layer with exoskeleton structure and on the floater layer of the puzzle cube.

FIG. 10A shows the release chassis on one preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 10B shows the beginning of the opening of a 5*5*5 puzzle cube.

FIG. 10C shows a top-down-view of the opening of a 5*5*5 puzzle cube.

FIG. 10D shows the beginning position of the assembling of the 5*5*5 cube.

FIG. 10E shows the 5*5*5 puzzle cube in the beginning of the rotation.

FIG. 11A shows the coordinates of the cells/pieces of the outer layer of an exemplary 5*5*5 cube of the invention.

FIG. 11B shows the formulation of the corner piece C in

location

2,2 of the exemplary 5*5*5 cube of the invention.

FIG. 11C shows the formulation of the edge piece E in location 2,0 of the exemplary 5*5*5 cube of the invention.

FIG. 11D shows the formulation of the edge piece E in

location

2,1 of the exemplary 5*5*5 cube of the invention.

FIG. 11E shows the formulation of the middle piece M in location 0,0 of the exemplary 5*5*5 cube of the invention.

FIG. 11F shows the formulation of the middle piece M in location 1,0 of the exemplary 5*5*5 cube of the invention.

FIG. 11G shows the formulation of the middle piece M in

location

1,1 of the exemplary 5*5*5 cube of the invention.

FIG. 11H shows the formulation of the floater pieces of the exemplary 5*5*5 cube of the invention.

FIG. 11I shows the formulation of the edge release piece E in location 2,0 of the exemplary 5*5*5 cube of the invention.

FIG. 11J shows the formulation of the edge release piece E in

location

2,1 of the exemplary 5*5*5 cube of the invention.

FIG. 12 shows the release bone structure in more detail.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the specification and the claims, the following terms will be accorded the meanings that respectively follow them, which should be understood by those familiar with the art. These meanings are provided to facilitate understanding of the specification by those unskilled in the art, as well.
Cell: A single element (usually 1*1*1) with six differently colored and/or patterned faces movable and reversible such that the whole game structure has only one color and/or pattern on each face when the puzzle cube is solved. A cube with order of n preferably has n̂3 cells. Each cell is preferably formed based on a Tesseract Schlegel diagram, which is a three dimensional projection of a four dimensional hyper cube.
Floater: A single free cell inside the exoskeleton structure.
Exoskeleton and rails: The entity structure of the outer layer cells and the rails squeezing the inner floater cells as a cube.
Release bone: part of the rail enabling the puzzle cube to be assembled and disassembled without any screws.
Bandage cell: A cell that is of some other orders than 1*1*1. The order may be e.g. 1*1*2 or 3*3*3 etc. The bandage cells may, dependent on the position and heading, lock or release the compilation in some specific directions.
Mushroom rail: A rail assembly shaped generally like a mushroom.
FIGS. 1A and 1B generally show one exemplary cell of the disclosed puzzle cube, having a form based on a Tesseract Schlegel diagram. In one embodiment of the disclosed puzzle cube, the cell may be e.g. 20-40 mm of height (h). The height (h) may also be 1-30 mm or 35-100 mm. In one specific embodiment, the height of 23.6 mm may be used. Other embodiments may use larger or smaller heights, as desired. With a 23.6 mm height of the puzzle cube's cells, the clearance between the cells may be e.g. 0.1-0.3 mm, and preferably about 0.2 mm. In a 7*7*7 structure, the diameter of the floater cell or cells may be 0.1-0.2 mm larger than the cells on the outer surface of the puzzle cube. Between the floater cells, the clearance will be diminished, and therefore, to get the floater cells, outer layer cells, and the corner cells to be straight in the rows of the puzzle cube, the floater cells should be a bit larger than the fixed cells on the outer surface of the puzzle cube. The cube may, of course, be manufactured in any size, depending on the application. Therefore, the above mentioned measures are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
The cube disclosed herein may be embodied in any appropriate size, which may include for example, a 3*3*3 cube, a 5*5*5 cube, or other desired order. Preferably, the cube consists of exactly n̂3 cells, where at least one cell is translationally movable and rotationally moveable in relation to at least one other cell. A depth dimension, with visible inner cubes, may be achieved by configuring the independent cells based on a four dimensional hyper cube's Schlegel diagrams.
A Schlegel diagram is a d-1 dimensional projection of a d dimensional polytope. By this geometric construction, the resulting d-1 dimensional entity is a polytopal subdivision of the facet, and such combinatorially equivalent to the original polytope.
The structure of the invention may be produced in orders of 3*3*3, 5*5*5, 7*7*7, 9*9*9, and so on. For the working structure of the cube, the size should preferably be an uneven order of a cube to provide a working rail structure, which will be described in further detail later in this disclosure.
In one embodiment of the disclosed logic cube, at least one of the individual cells is in the form of a Tesseract Schlegel diagram. Furthermore, at least the individual cells on the outer surface of the cube may be in the form of a Tesseract Schlegel diagram. In one preferred embodiment, all individual cells are in the form of a Tesseract Schlegel diagram.
As all the supporting beams (3) of an inner cube member (4) of the Tesseract Schlegel diagram are not necessary for the game cube cell, some embodiments may include as few as one supporting beam (3). Thus, although FIG. 1 depicts a cell formed based on a Tesseract Schlegel diagram and having eight supporting beams (3), the cell may alternatively have the form of a Tesseract Schlegel diagram with or without all supporting beams of the inner cube attached.
Furthermore, the size of the cells could in some embodiments be an arithmetic or geometric sequence enlarging from the upper layer toward the center of the cube.
Preferably, the disclosed puzzle cube may be assembled and disassembled with only one hand, and more preferable without any adhesives and/or screws. This enables a “bandage cell” mode, described in detail later in the specification, wherein the player may construct the cube in different selective combinations of desired locked and released pieces. This gives the player a whole new aspect on the game, as the solution algorithms of these different do not necessarily overlap.
The disclosed puzzle cube novelly combines a multidimensional cube with Tesseract Schlegel diagram cells. The cube structure of the cells may preferably be supported by a novel and inventive rail shape, simultaneously making the structure more robust and flexible than existing puzzle cubes.
In one embodiment of the invention, a supporting outer exoskeleton structure is used. An exemplary such structure is shown in FIGS. 2A-2D. FIG. 2A shows the location of the cells (1) in an exemplary 5*5*5 puzzle cube structure. In this exemplary puzzle cube, an exoskeleton structure may be preferably included to bind the cube in a manner that permits the movement of the individual cells as previously described. The exoskeleton preferably includes a set of rails (2) as shown in FIG. 2B. In a 5*5*5 structure, a total of four rails (2) in each transverse direction of the cube may be used. When combining the cells (1) and the rails (2), a structure of FIGS. 2C and 2D is achieved. In FIGS. 2B-2D only a set of four rails for one direction is shown for simplicity. The whole exoskeleton structure can be seen e.g. in FIGS. 5S (a 3*3*3 cube with 2+2+2=6 rails) 6C (a 5*5*5 cube with 4+4+4=12 rails) and 7B (a 7*7*7 cube with 6+6+6=18 rails).
The structure of FIGS. 2B-2D now locks the cells in one dimension of the cube only. Further, by adding similar rail tower addition for the two further dimensions a fixed structure is achieved. The rails and the outer layer of the cells now constitute a kind of shield encapsulating a tissue or a set of floater cells, which in this case is of size 3*3*3.
In usage of the 3*3*3 puzzle cube, the single floater cell is mainly cosmetic, as it cannot rotate inside the cube itself. However, as in addition to the one cell surface on the outer surface of the logic cube, also the other surfaces of the cell are visible through the transparent cells. Thereby, each middle piece of the logic cubes side can be oriented in four different ways, giving 4̂6 different solutions for the logic cube. This is described in more detail in connection to the FIGS. 5A-5S.
In a 5*5*5 puzzle cube there is a cube of 3*3*3 floater cells encapsulated in the shield of upper layer cells and the exoskeleton rails. In a 7*7*7 puzzle cube there is a cube of 5*5*5 floater cells encapsulated in the shield of upper layer cells and the exoskeleton rails.
In one embodiment of the invention, the body of the cube structure may be enlarged such that e.g. the outer layer cells have the dimension toward the outer surface with double height and the corner cells would be sized as 2*2*2 cells. This necessitates a longer rail, which makes the movement of the cells more fluid, and along a defined path, and makes it possible to have individual release bone pairs also in the edges.
FIG. 3 shows an exemplary release chassis for opening the game cube. The chassis constitutes of two surfaces (A and B) tilting at respectively opposite directions relative to each other. When placing the disclosed puzzle cube on this kind of chassis, all cell layers of the cube will be inclined similarly. As the cells are no longer side by side, but sloping upon each other, one first cell can be slid along a lower cell, and thereby released. Thereafter, all cells of the game cube can be released sequentially.
The cell release chassis depicted in FIG. 3 enables the disclosed puzzle cube to be taken into pieces easily. Only two cells in the cube need to be specially formulated for release. This enables more slender rails to be used in the exoskeleton structure.
In one particular embodiment of the invention a mushroom rail may be used in the exoskeleton structure to facilitate the movement and orientation of the cells. Furthermore, alternative rail structures for binding the outer surface cells together and encapsulating the floater cells are shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B. FIG. 4A shows a cross section of an alternative rail structure in which both halves of the circle formed rail are separated by sweeping the shown cut for the circle. Some clearance may be further added. The upside down mushroom-like pattern is preferably heading, in all rails, toward the center layer and the central layer of the cells in the cube. The two lower rails preferably have a reversed orientation with respect to that of the two upper rails.
Another alternative handshake-like rail structure is shown in profile cut in FIG. 4B.
In one further embodiment, bandage cells may be used to lock or release some dimensions of translation or rotation. An embodiment of the Rubik's™ cube with some larger cells on the outer surface of the cube is known to those skilled in the art, known as a “Bandage” cells. These larger “bandage” cells on the outer layer are similarly feasible on the cube disclosed herein. However, in the cube presently disclosed, enlarged “bandage” cells may optionally include floater cells in the inner layers. This could include not only bandage cells spanning a single layer of a multi-layer cube, but also bandage cells spanning one or more layers in the disclosed puzzle cube. The floater cells could be either fixed together to form such bandage cell or manufactured separately as another embodiment of the invention.
In utilization of the so called Bandage cells, the cells could be generated by enlarging the size of the cell in at least one direction. Additionally, the cells may be enlarged to form not only polyhedron, but also e.g. a cell formed as an “L”, a “T”, a “C”, etc. However, preferably, the bandage cells should always be polyhedrons. The measurements of the bandage cells should be optimized such that a proper clearance occurs between the cube cells both for the upper layer and the floater cells.
In one embodiment of the invention, at least one cell is a larger cell that covers a space of several unit edge sized smaller cells. In other words, the cell size of any given cell in each dimension may be the unit edge of a smaller cell or its multiple. Furthermore, at least one of the larger cells may be located in the outer surface of the logic cube. Alternatively, at least one of the larger cells may be located among the floater cells.
In one embodiment of the invention, the cells of the disclosed puzzle cube are made of plastic.
Furthermore, in an embodiment of the invention, colored plates in the cells may be used. The colored plates may be realized as a separate adhesive label, fixed coloring, etc. In one preferred embodiment, the markings on the cells are colors or patterns. The markings may be e.g. multicolor or bossed.
In one embodiment of the invention, the unit edge of a cell is the minimum order of the cells, and the size of the cube is an odd multiple of the unit edge. Furthermore, in one embodiment of the invention, the unit edge of a cell is dependent on the cell's location in the cube. For example, the unit edge of a cell may depend on whether the cell is located in the outer surface of the puzzle cube or whether (or which) interior layer the cell us located in.
In one embodiment of the invention, the outer cells may be e.g. two times larger than the inner ones. In another embodiment, the relation between the outer cells height (h₀), the inner cells height (h₁) and the thickness of the exoskeleton structure rails (t_r) would be h_o=2*h_i+0.5*t_r. The goal of the measurement relation optimization (in addition to the rail lengthening) is to maximize the visibility inside the cube in all possible angles of view.
In one preferred embodiment of the logic cube of the invention, at least one of the individual cells has an optimized form that facilitates the disassembly of the puzzle cube. Furthermore, in one preferred embodiment, the cell form in the puzzle cube has details that depend on the location of the cell in the puzzle cube.
The puzzle cube cells are the structural pieces of the logic cube. As a product, the puzzle cube consists of cells, which are the pieces of the assembly kit. Therefore, in some context, the above mentioned cells are also called pieces.
The FIGS. 5A-5S show an exemplary structure of a 3*3*3 logic cube in more detail. Each of the cells if FIG. 5A are labelled with E (edge pieces), C (corner pieces) or M (middle pieces) showing the possible locations of the constructions shown in the FIGS. 5D-5O. The rails on FIGS. 5D-5O include some roundings to help the sliding on the pieces in the puzzle cube. The roundings are not necessary for the invention but can be added without affecting the main functionalities of the puzzle cube. Especially, the specific formulation of the release pieces is shown in FIGS. 5F-5I. As noted in FIG. 5A, each of the middle pieces M can be oriented in four different directions. The cell edge of the middle piece M toward the edge piece E on the left, can also face toward the edge piece E on the right, up or down. As the marked of coloured surface of the inner cube member is different in each direction, also the orientation of the middle piece effects on the logic cube solution.
The FIGS. 6A-6F show an exemplary structure of a 5*5*5 logic cube in more detail. Especially, the FIG. 6D shows an optimized rail shape for the logic cube structure and FIGS. 6E and 6F show the optimized rail shortenings for the logic cube to be easily dismantled.
The FIGS. 7A-7C show an exemplary structure of a 7*7*7 logic cube in more detail.
The FIG. 8A shows a side view of the preferred section view of the mushroom rail. The FIGS. 8B-8K and 8M-8N show the preferred formulations of the release cells or pieces in connection to the rail shape of FIG. 8A. FIG. 8L shows a section view of the entire structure with preferred cell/piece formulations and rail shapes.
The FIGS. 8B-8K and 8M-8N illustrate the structure of release bone with mushroom rail. Part of the rails in the cells are smooth (normal rails) and part of them have profile that looks like a fish bone (release bones). By arranging the bone parts (e.g. in 5*5*5 cube there are 32 of them) correctly, the parts will slope staggered to each other as the upper part of the cube is lifted up
The FIGS. 9A-9D show exemplary floater cells for the puzzle cube. In FIG. 9A a regular 1*1*1 cell is shown. In FIG. 9B a 1*1*2 cell is shown. In FIG. 9C a 1*1*3 cell is shown. And in FIG. 9D a 2*3*2 cell is shown.
In FIG. 9E is shown an exemplary bandage piece extending on the outer layer with exoskeleton structure and on the floater layer of the puzzle cube. In the present construction a bandage cell may be either on the outer layer of the puzzle cube, on the floater layers or both.
FIGS. 10A-D show the opening of a 5*5*5 puzzle in more detail.
FIG. 10 A shows the release chassis. In the beginning of the opening, as in FIG. 10B, the top layer of the puzzle cube will be rotated 180 degrees clockwise to release the cell pieces. FIG. 10C shows a top-down-view of the opening of the cube. There are two release pieces R, one 3^rdon the 1^strow and other 2^ndon the 5^throw. FIG. 10D shows the beginning position of the assembling of the 5*5*5 cube.
As the 5*5*5 cube is assemplied, the solving rotation is made as shown in FIG. 10E.
When solving the puzzle cube, one whole layer of pieces or cells are rotated. The layer to be rotated can be chosen of all three dimensions and in each dimension, the rotation can be done in two different directions. The rotation is always 90 degrees or its multiple. Each of the corner pieces C will always be corner pieces, each of the edge pieces E will be edge pieces and each of the middle pieces M will be middle pieces. The same is valid for the floater cells too. The floater cell in the very middle of the puzzle cube could be called as origo floater. The origo floater could be considered as a static center of the cube, which determines the correct orientation of each of the cube pieces.
FIGS. 11A-J illustrate one possible formulation of all cells/pieces of a 5*5*5 cube in more detail.
The opening principle of the release bone is shown in more detail in FIG. 12. One of the rails of the exoskeleton structure is the release bone 1. In the opening permutation 2 of the cube each of the opening pieces has an individual counterpart letting the piece to slide free and hence splitting the cube into two parts. The release bone 3 has the profile shown in FIGS. 8B-8N. The rail counterpart 4 matches with release bone 3 as in FIGS. 4A and 4B. When using the rail profile of FIG. 4B the release bone 3 and its counterpart 4 have similar profile. Inside the upper cells and exoskeleton structure with release bone, there are floater cells 5.
The terms and expressions that have been employed in the foregoing specification are used therein as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention, in the use of such terms and expressions, of excluding equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof, it being recognized that the scope of the invention is defined and limited only by the claims that follow.

Claims

I/We claim:

1. A puzzle cube having six faces forming an outer surface, the puzzle cube comprising:

a plurality of first cells positioned on the outer surface of the cube and at least one floater cell positioned beneath the outer surface of the puzzle cube;

a coupling system comprising rails connecting the first cells on the outer surface where the rails and the first cells encapsulate the at least one floater cell; where

at least one of the cells is transparent.

2. The puzzle cube of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the first cells is in the form of a Tesseract Schlegel diagram with at least one supporting beam of the inner cube attached.

3. The puzzle cube of claim 2, wherein at least the first cells are in the form of a Tesseract Schlegel diagram.

4. The puzzle cube of claim 3, wherein all first cells and all floater cells are in the form of a Tesseract Schlegel diagram.

5. The puzzle cube of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the rails is integrated on the first cells and is in the form suitable for exoskeleton structure.

6. The puzzle cube of claim 1, wherein the unit edge is the minimum order of the cells and the size of the cube is in odd unit edge numbers.

7. The puzzle cube of claim 1, wherein the unit edge of a cell is dependent on the cell's location in the cube.

8. The puzzle cube of claim 1, wherein at least one of the cells covers a space of several unit edge sized cells.

9. The puzzle cube of claim 8, wherein the at least one of the cells is located into the outer surface of the logic cube.

10. The puzzle cube of claim 8, wherein the at least one of the cells is located among the floater cells.

11. The puzzle cube of claim 1, wherein at least one first cell has an optimized form that facilitates the dismantlement of the logic cube.

12. A cell capable of being combined with other cells to form a puzzle cube, wherein the cell is substantially in the form of a Tesseract Schlegel diagram and has markings on it visually separating the directions of the cell.

13. The cell of claim 12, wherein its size in each dimension is the unit edge or its multiple.

14. The cell of claim 12, wherein the first cell is made of plastic.

15. The cell of claim 12, wherein the markings are colors.

16. The cell of claim 12, wherein the markings are patterns.

17. The cell of claim 16, wherein the patterns are multicolored.

18. The cell of claim 16, wherein the patterns are bossed.

19. The cell of claim 12, wherein the cell has details that depend on the location of the cell in the puzzle cube.

20. A release chassis for dismantling a puzzle cube, the chassis having two surfaces tilted in opposite directions relative to each other, and having a member that retains the puzzle cube on the two surfaces when dismantling the cells.