WO2000057972A1

WO2000057972A1 - Hexagonal games grid board

Info

Publication number: WO2000057972A1
Application number: PCT/GB2000/001111
Authority: WO
Inventors: Yehouda Harpaz
Original assignee: Yehouda Harpaz
Priority date: 1999-03-29
Filing date: 2000-03-23
Publication date: 2000-10-05
Also published as: AU3443000A

Abstract

A grid board for playing traditional and new board games which are played by each player indicating a point on the board. The board is made of many grid points (1) arranged in a hexagonal grid on a flat surface (6), and connected to a game manager (3) (a CPU + memory + software). Each grid point notifies the games manager when it is pressed, and the games manager can illuminate each grid point by one of two colours. The games manager displays the state of the game by illuminating the appropriate grid point. It interprets pressing a grid point as a move according to the rules of the current game, and changes the illumination of the grid points according to the implications of the move. The games manager is programmed to manage a large variety of games, both old and new.

Description

Hexagonal Games Grid Board

This invention relates to board games in which a move is done by indicating a point on the board, and the state of the game is expressed in the state of the points These include traditional games like Reversi and Go, but also large number of other potential games, puzzles and exercises The invention presents an electronic board to play these kind of games, but in an hexagonal format

Games like Reversi and Go are played by each player, in his turn, adding a pebble to the board, on one of the points in a grid of lines drawn on the board, or in one of the squares on the board These games have the advantages of being based on simple playing acts and being interesting intellectually Their disadvantages are

1 ) They require somewhat tricky movement when putting the stone on the board in the right place without disturbing other stones

2) They tend to suffer from delays when a player is thinking on a move

3) Some of the moves require additional 'housekeeping^" operations, e g taking stones of the board m Go or changing them to stones m another colour m Reversi

4) The players need to keep the rules and do the counting of stones themselves, which puts extra demand on the players

5) The stones are separate objects, which are easily lost

Disadvantages 3-5 can be solved by programming a computer to display the board and stones The program would be simple enough that it can be put on a small and cheap CPU, and hence be built into a standalone playing board In principle, the computer could also limit the time allocated to each player, thus solving disadvantage 2

The problem of input (disadvantage 1 ) , however, is not solved so well by current electronic systems That is because input for existing electronic svstems is normally done through buttons, or other devices, which are separated from the display For games where there is a small repertoire of possible different inputs this is acceptable, but for board games like Reversi, there are many possible different inputs (the number of points in the grid) Inputting a point on buttons off the display requires the players to perform some mental operation to convert the point they think about to the right input This is relatively slow and error-prone process For slow-going games that is very annoying but may be acceptable, but it makes it impossible to play fast on these systems, and for most people this is a decisive factor

This disadvantage can be overcome by a making an interactive board in which the input and the display are together When the input and output is done in discreet points, this kind of board may be reasonably cheap These kinds of boards started to appear, at least as patent applications, but the range of the games that can be played on these boards is still limited In particular, these boards has normally an square arrangement, 1 e the points form a grid of vertical and horizontal lines which are orthogonal The invention here is based on the observation that building such boards with hexagonal arrangement can be used to implement new variations of classical popular games like Reversi and Go in addition to many new games The conceptual structure of the hardware of the grid board is sketched in Figure 1, and the layout of the points is shown in Figure 3

According to the current invention (the hexagonal games grid board), the user accessible part of the grid board is made of grid points X & 2 which are arranged in an hexagonal grid on a flat surface 6 Each grid point is a clearly visible element 1 which can detect when it is pressed, and can be illuminated in at least two colours by an illumination source 2 in or below the surface Figure 1 shows only 3 grid points for clarity, but the actual board has many more grid points, e g 61 points as shown in Figure 3 Figure 1 also shows the illumination source 2 separately from the visible part of the grid point 1 , which denotes the fact that pressing a grid point does not affect its illumination All the grid points are connected to a games manager 3, which is a CPU + memory + software When a grid point is pressed, the games manager 3 is notified (arrows from the visible part 1 to the games manager 3), and the games manager 3 controls which sources of illumination are on (arrows from the games manager 3 to the sources of illumination 2) The games manager is programmed to manage various games Managing a game means that the board displays the state of the game by putting on the appropriate sources of illumination 2 When a sensor 1 is pressed, the games manager computes the implication according the rules of the current game, and changes some of the sources of illumination 2 (possibly none) to reflect the new state of the game The board may also change which sources of illumination are on when no point is pressed The board is used to implement many games, including classical games adopted to hexagonal arrangement, and new games

To allow the users to utilise all the functionality of the board, it will need a control area 4, which allows the players to change the current game, change the rules of the current game and change other parameters, like the length of time that each player has to perform his move The control area 4 also displays the current score of the game Typically, the control area will contain few control buttons and an alphanumeric display The games manager receives information from the control area about which control buttons were pressed, and controls what is displayed in the alphanumeric display

The basic functionality of the games manager comprises these actions

1 ) When the users indicate through the control area 4 that they want to change the current game or any of the parameters of the current game, the game manager sets its own internal state to the new value, and indicates to the users the new value

2) When one of the grid points is pressed and the current game and parameters make it illegal for the current player to press some of the points, the games manager checks if the pressed point is allowed according to the rules and parameters of the current game and the current state of the game (1 e which points are illuminated) If the pressed point is not allowed, the games board may issue some indication that an illegal point was pressed, may indicate why it is not allowed by some message through the control area 4, and may indicate which points are allowed (e g by flashing them) Note that illuminated points, while typically are not allowed, may be allowed in some games (for examples, see Life], Lιfe2, C leant ^"and Filllt on p 8-9, "Life^"" is an RTM) 3) When a point is pressed and it is allowed according to the current rules, parameters and state of the game, the games manager computes the implications and then changes the illumination of some (possibly zero) points to reflect the new state of the game Note that a) While typically the point that is pressed changes its illumination, this is not mandatory For example, in the game FindThem (p 9) the pressed point changes only if it is was illuminated in the right colour earlier, and in the game Clearlt (p 8) the pressed point never changes b) Other points except the pressed point may change as well , e g points that are caught in Reversi and Go In other games, every move changes some other points, e g the games Clearlt and Fύlit (pp 8-9)

4) If the rules of the current game require it, the games manager changes the illumination of some points even when none of the points is pressed, typically once each some time period (or 'generation') For examples, see the games Ghost, Touchlt, Lifel and Life! on P 8

5) After each change to the illumination of any grid point, the games manager computes the current score and displays it using the control area 4

6) After each change to the illumination of any grid point, the games manager checks, using a game-specific routine, if the game is finished If the game is finished, the games manager indicates it, typ-tcally by some message in the control area 4, and maybe other additional signals In some cases, finishing the game may involve some changes to the illumination of the grid points For example, when Vistput (p 9) reaches a finished position, l e it is clear what umllummated points belong to which colour, the games manager illuminates all the points with the colour they belong to

The board will also need a way to signal whose turn it is, which would typically be done by two turn lights 5, which are in two separate colours, corresponding to two of the colours of the illumination in the grid points The games manager controls these turn lights, and signal to the players whose turn it is by switching the corresponding turn light

The kind of εa es that the board will be programmed to play include (but not restricted to)

1 ) Traditional games like Go and Reversi adapted to hexagonal arrangement

2) Other two-player games between two human players or between a human and the games manager Because the games manager checks the legality of moves, performs all the changes and computes the score, these games can have rules that require complex legality checks, extensive changes and difficult score calculations but still be easy to play, which opens many new possibilities Examples include the games Vistput (p 9 j, where checking the legality of a move is difficult to humans, C ountLmes (p 9), where computing the score correctly would be difficult for humans, and Filllt (p 9), where each move involve large changes to the board All these games, which apart from these problems are simple and intellectually interesting, are effectively impossible to play without the games manager 3) Puzzles and single-player games For examples see the games I ouchlt and Symmetry on p 8

4) fluid games, which means games where the patterns of illuminated points changes even when the player(s) don"t press any point For examples see the games Lifel and Lιfe2 on p 8 1 ouchlt and Ghost(p 8) can also be regarded as a fluid game Currently, there is no realistic way to implement these kind of games

5) Memory games See for example the game FindThem on p 9

The games manager can be programmed to help the players to find which points are legal moves, typically by transiently illuminating (flashing) these points with the colour of the player This needs to happen in response to some input, for example a player pressing a point which is illegal move This is specially useful for novice players, which with this feature set on can learn to play a game simply by trying to play it

Because the behaviour of the board (l e which points are illuminated) is completely controlled by the games manager 3, what games can be played and what parameters can be changed is completely determined by the software of the games manager, which would normally be stored in some kind of ROM Even with a modest size ROM of 32kb, it is possible to store large number of games, with many settable parameters (the 12 games listed below use 26kb, including the main loop and the general code to display and set parameters), and the size of the ROM can easily be made larger so it can accommodate many more games The number of possible games that can be played with the same board can be made indefinitely large by making it possible to load new games into the board This can be done by making the ROM replaceable, or by adding a device to load software from a removable medium like a floppy disk

The actual size of the board, in terms of number of points, can vary The arrangement shown m Figure 3 seem to be the smallest one that still give interesting games From experiments, it seems that the next size, with each side containing six points rather than five, is the best size

A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings

Figure 1 shows the conceptual structure of the board

Figure 2 shows a sketch of the electronic components of an example board

Figure 3 is a sketch to demonstrate the rules of Reversi on the hexagonal board

The inputs of grid points 1 are implemented by a custom-design membrane keyboard 7 on a PCB 6 which together comprise the top of a flat box in the shape an hexagon with an extension on one side (the top in Figure 2) The membrane keyboard contains translucent buttons 1. arranged in an hexagonal grid with sides five buttons long, which are in a shape of small domes The PCB 6 has holes below each button, with additional holes 9 for the turn lights Both the PCB 6 and the membrane keyboard 7 has a hole for the alphanumeric display 1 1 The illumination of the grid points is implemented by pairs of LEDs 2 mounted on a PCB 12, which is itself mounted below the membrane keyboard such that each LEDs pair 2 is under the centre of one of the buttons 1 In each pair one LED is of one colour (e g green) and the other of another colour (e g red) Alternatively, each LEDs pair can be replaced by a bi-colour LED The two turn lights 5 (one of which is 'hidden' m Figure 2 by the membrane keyboard) are implemented by two large LEDs, one in one of the colours of the pairs of LEDs 2, and one in the other colour, mounted on PCB 12 as the rest of the LEDs The electronic circuitry to drive the LEDs 2 and the turn lights 5 is also on PCB 12 An alphanumeric display 13 is also mounted on PCB 12

The membrane keyboard 7 also contains several control buttons 10, which allow the users to control the game (start, stop etc ) and to select which game is played and set parameters for the current game The control buttons 10 and the display 1 1 together comprise the control area 4 of Figure 1

All the input from the membrane keyboard goes to the games manager 3, which is a small CPU (around 5MIPS) and a little ROM and RAM (around 32Kb and 6 Kb respectively) The games manager 3 is placed below the LEDs PCB 12 A custom design electronic circuitry (denoted by arrows from the membrane keyboard 7 to the games manager 3, and from the games manager 3 to the PCB 12 and to the display 13) allows the games manager 3 to switch on and off each individual LED, and to display the appropriate information m the alphanumeric display

The embodiment of the grid points which is described above seems to be the most effective with current technology, but some parts can easily be changed if and when other technologies improve or new technologies become available, without affecting the overall design of the board The detection of pressing a grid point may be done by any discrete input device, for example standard contact switch and capacitive switch The illumination of the grid points can be done by other kind of sources, for example gas-discharge lamps and incandescent lamps

In the embodiment which was described above the players press the grid points with their fingers This is very convenient, which is one of the advantages of the board However, it has a problem that the board cannot distinguish which player is pressing a point, so the players can press a point out of their turn The possible solutions to this problem seem to be too cumbersome and in some cases too expensive, so they are not included in the preferred embodiment However, some of the solutions may prove to be convenient and cheap enough to be acceptable, and if the board is used for formal tournaments it may become an essential requirement

A cheap and simple solution is to add two buttons on two sides of the board, one for each player, and the player will need to either hold down his own button while pressing a point or to first press his button and then press the point

Another solution is to have two probes connected to the board, and the players use them to press the points The contact between the probe and the board creates a short circuit which the board detects and hence can tell which probe, and hence which player, presses the point An advantage of this solution is that it means that the sensor in each grid point can be a simple conducting element, instead of the membrane kevboard which is described above which may make the board actually cheaper Alternatively this method can be used to detect which player presses a point, in combination with another method to detect which point is pressed For example, a membrane keyboard can be coated with a conducting layer, and the short circuit is caused when the probe touches this layer In this case the membrane keyboard will detect which point is pressed, and the short circuit detects which player presses it

Another variation of this solution is that the board emits some signal (electromagnetic or maybe ultrasound), and the probe detects this signal, and the probe that detects the signal more strongly is the one that actually presses In this case the probe does not need to touch the board, so may be worn by the players , rather than held, which is more convenient Another variation is that the probe interferes with or reflects the signal, and the board uses this response to detect which player presses the board in this case, the probe does not need to be connected to the board Alternatively, the probes themselves may emit different signals

The solution above requires the players to hold or wear an object, which is uncomfortable A possible solution is to mark the fingers of the players, by some material that adhere to the skin, and that the board can detect Even more advanced technology may be able to recognise the fingers of the players directly

The software:

The central loop of the software repeats these four steps

1 ) Check if any of the control buttons was pressed If any control button was pressed, perfoπn the appropriate operation (change the game, set a parameter, stop the game, start the game)

2) Check if any of the grid points was pressed If so, compute the implications according to the rules of the current game, perform all the changes to the board, and then switch the turn to the other player The computations for the game Reversi are given below (p 9) as an example Switching the turn means switching the turn light of the current player off, setting the internal variable current __player to the other player, switching the turn light of the other player on and setting a variable, the turn end mark, to the current time plus the turn time

3) Check the clock and compare it to various time marks A time mark is a variable set to some value, which is compared to the current time The most important is the turn end mark, and if this is passed, switch the turn as in 2 Other time marks are for updates of the displays

4) Check if there are game specific operations to perform If a player plays one of the two-players games against the board, this check perform the board^'s move In the fluid games Ghost, Lrfel, lif 2 and Touchlt this is used to perform the generation change in the / fe games, adding a point in I ouchlt. and moving the Ghost in Ghost

Games on the Hexagonal Grid Board

The following 12 games are example of the range of games that can be played on the hexagonal grid board 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 In the discussion below and in the claims, the closest points for each points are refer to as its 'neighbours' Note that most of points have six neighbours, but a point on the side has four neighbours, and a point in the corner has three neighbours

X) Reversi. Each player in their turn presses an unillummated point, which is switched on with the player's colour In addition, for each of the lines emanating from the point through its neighbours (arrows emanating from point 15 m Figure 3), if this line goes through one or more points illuminated by the opponent^'s colour and then a point illuminated by the player's colour without any intervening unillummated points, then the points in the opponent's colour are switched to the player's colour (these are points are said to be captured) For example, in Figure 2, the circles are points, squares mark points illuminated in the current player colour, and pluses mark points illuminated in the opponent^'s colour If the current player plays at point 15, points 16 are captured (1 e change their colour to the player^'s colour), but not any of the other points

By default, only moves that capture some of the opponent's colour points are legal moves, but there is a parameter that can be set to make any unillummated point a legal move Another parameter changes it such that if one of the lines goes through points in the opponent^'s colour only until it reaches the end of the board, these points are captured as well For example, with this parameter set, playing m point 15 also captures points 17

When neither of the players has a legal move, the player with more points m his/her colour

2) SpeedGo Each player in their turn switches on an unillummated point with his/her colour by pressing it An illuminated point is in a group with all the points that are illuminated with the same colour, and are either neighbours of the point itself or neighbours of other pomt(s) in the same group If none of the points in a group has an unillummated neighbour, the group is captured, which means all the points in the group are switched off

An unillummated point where all its neighbours are from the same group (which is said to be surrounded by the group) is an illegal move, except by the player of the other colour if the move captures the surrounding group The game ends where neither of the players has a legal move, or any legal move of either player would allow the other player to catch the group that the point is part of in his next move Then each player gets a point for each point in his colour and for each unillummated point surrounded by groups of his colour, and the player with more points wins

The software of the board checks after each move if it is clear what will be the colour of each point in the end of the game, and if it is it finishes the game and gives each player the appropriate number of points This saves the players playing the last moves of the game after the result is already known, but before reaching the end according to the formal definition in the previous paragraph

3) Ghost This is a fluid game The board illuminates several 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 touching one of the illuminated points

4) Lifel This is a fluid game, l e the state of the illumination of grid points changes even if the players do not play Each fixed time period {generation, a settable parameter) , the games manager checks for each point how many of the six points around it are illuminated, and accordingly decides if the point is going to be illuminated in the next generation Thus the pattern of illumination of the grid points changes each generation This is implemented by setting a time mark for a generation period and the game specific check (step 4 in the central loop) performs a generation step when the mark passes In parallel, the player(s) can switch on or switch off points by pressing them

Life I can be played in a 'kill' mode, in which the player tries to 'kill' the board, l e switch off all the points, as fast as possible, or m 'keep alive^' mode, m 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

5) Lιfe2 Like Lifel, but the points are of two colours, and each player tries to switch off all the points of the other colour

6) Touch. Single player game, mainly testing reaction time and accuracy The games manager switches on a few points (1-4) one after the other with a short time gap, and then switches them off The player needs to press the last point that was switched on before the next point is switched on or all of them are switched off By changing the time gap between switching the points on, the number of points and their pattern, the player can fit the game to his own level to make it a good challenge

7) Symmetry Single player game The games manager 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

8) Clearlt The game starts with an equal number of points illuminated in each of the two colours, but otherwise randomly distributed on the grid Each player m his turn presses an empty point, and the games manager switches of all the points in a fixed pattern around the point (The pattern can be set by the players) The winner is the player that switches off all the other player^'s points first This game is an example of a game when pressing a point never affects its illumination

9) Filllt. Each player m their turn presses an empty point which causes a pattern of points around this point (which the players can set) to be switched on with the player colour if they were off, or reverse their colour if they were on The winner is the player that has more points when all the points are switched on This is another game that cannot be really played on old-style board, because each move causes large number changes on the grid

X0) FmdThem A memory game In the beginnmg of the game the games manager switches on an equal number of points in both colours but in a random pattern for a short period of time, and then switches all of them off Each player in turn tries to switch on a point of his own colour by pressing a point If this point was switched on with his colour in the beginning, it is switched on The winner is the player that first switches on a fixed number of points (a settable parameter)

11) CountLtnes Each player in his turn switches on a point of his colour by pressing it A player is not allowed to press in two successive turns two points that are too close to each other (the distance is a settable parameter) The winner is the player that when all the points are switched on has the larger number of straight lines of a fixed number (a settable number) points of his colour

12) Visψut Each player in their turn switch on an unillummated point with their colour by pressing it, provided it is a legal move A point is a legal move if its 'visibility' for the player is above or equal to some fixed number The 'visibility' of a point is determined by checking in turn each of the imaginary straight lines emanating from the point and going through its closest neighbours If the line does not pass through any illuminated point, it is assigned a value of 0 Otherwise the line is assigned a value of 1 if the closest illuminated point that it passes through is illuminated in the colour of the player, or -1 if it is in the opponent^'s colour The sum of the values of the lines is the 'visibility' of the point for the player The game ends when neither of the players has a legal move, and the player with more points of his/her colour wins

Operations of the software when a grid point is pressed and the current game is

Reversi a Switch of the turn light of the current player and set a short (Current time + -500 ms) delay mark b Check if as the result of this move any of the points of the opponent's colour are captured, as described above If so, switch these points to the colour of the current player

If the move does not capture anything, rejects the move . which means notify the players via the alphanumeric display, switch on the turn light of the current player on and return

c Switch on the colour of the current player m the grid point d Update the digit display to show the new count of points for each player e Check if the other player has a legal move If he does continue to step f Otherwise, check if the current player has a legal move If he does give the current player another turn and return to the main loop. Otherwise, finish the game and declare the winner f Wait until the delay mark which was set in step (a) passes g Pass the turn to the other player, l e switch the turn light of the other player on and set the time mark (current time + the time for a move) for this player, and return to the main loop

Claims

CLAIMS An electronic board comprising an hexagonal grid of grid points on a flat surface, where each grid point is a visible element which is capable of detecting when it is pressed, and can be illuminated in two different colours by an illumination source inside or below the surface, and

a game manager made of a CPU and memory, connected electronically to the grid points and illumination sources such that it has complete control on which grid point is illuminated and in what colour, and it is notified whenever any of the grid points is pressed, and a computer program which is executed by the CPU, which manages two or more games by displaying the current state of the current game using the illumination sources to illuminate a pattern of grid points on the grid, and changing the pattern according to the rules of the current game in response to a player pressing one of the grid points

A board as in Claim 1, where one of the games is a two-players game with these rules each player is associated with one of the colours, each player in turn switches on an unillummated point with his/her colour by pressing it,

In addition, for each of the lines emanating from the point through its neighbours, if this line goes through one or more points illuminated by the opponent's colour and then a point illuminated by the player s colour without any intervening unillummated points, then the points in the opponent s colour are switched to the player's colour ,

When neither of the players has a legal move, the player with more points in his colour wins

A board as in Claim 1, where one of the games is a two-players game with these rules each player is associated with one of the colours, each player m turn switches on an unillummated point with his/her colour by pressing it, an illuminated point is in a group with all the points that are illuminated with the same colour, and are either neighbours of the point itself or neighbours of other poιnt(s) m the same group, if none of the points m a group has an unillummated neighbour, all the points in the group are switched off, an unillummated point where all its neighbours are from the same group (which is said to be surrounded by the group) is an illegal move, except by the player of the other colour if the move captures the surrounding group, the game ends where neither of the plavers has a legal move, or any legal move of either player would allow the other player to catch the group that the point is part of in his next move, each player gets a point for each point in his colour and for each unillummated point surrounded by groups of his colour, and the player with more points wins

A board as in Claim 1 where one of the games is a two-players game with these rules each plaver is associated with one of the colours Each player in their turn switch on an unillummated point with their colour by pressing it, provided it is a legal move. the legality of a point for a player is evaluated by checking in turn each of the imaginary straight lines emanating from the point and passing through the its closest neighbours, assigning a value of 0 to each of these lines that does not pass through an illuminated point, a value of 1 if the closest illuminated point that it passes through is illuminated with the colour of the player, and -1 if it is m the opponent's colour, then comparing the sum of the values of all the lines to a fixed number, and if the sum is larger or equal the point is a legal move for the player, the game ends when neither of the players has a legal move, and the player with more points of his/her colour wins

A board as in Claim 1, where one of the games is a two-players game with these rules each player is associated with one of the colours, the game starts with an equal number of points illuminated in each of the two colours, each player in their turn press a point, and in response the games manager switches of some points and potentially changes the colour of some other points, when all the points that are illuminated are illuminated in the same colour, the player of this colour wins

A board as in Claim 1, where one of the games is a two-players game with these rules each player is associated with one of the colours,

Each player in his turn presses an empty point which causes a pattern of points around this point to be switched on with the player colour if they were off, or reverse their colour if they were on, the winner is the player that has more points when all the points are switched on