Patent Application
20220203220
This invention relates to games and toys, and in particular to systems, devices, apparatus and methods for physically organizing a plurality of pentagon face pieces in combination with a plurality of triangular face pieces that form an icosidodecahedron in a two-color puzzle setup or a four-color setup to form one of several predetermined patterns, wherein each of the pieces include magnets on their bottom ends which magnetically attract to a central metal bearing forming an overall generally spherical shape.
Three-dimensional twisting and sliding type puzzles are known in the prior art, the most famous being Rubik's Cube®. Rubik's Cube® generally consists of a cube with six sides, each side being divided into nine pieces which may be moved in a sliding fashion by rotation around the 3-axes in such a way that different colors may be aligned on each face of the cube. An internal pivot mechanism enables each face to turn independently, thus mixing up the colors. For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be returned to have only one color. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,116 to Rubik, which is incorporated by reference in its' entirety.
Other versions of cubic puzzles have been done over the years. See for example: U.S. Pat. No. 3,690,672 to Dreyer; U.S. Pat. No. 4,427,197 to Doose; U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,377 to Ashley; U.S. Pat. No. 6,626,431 to Possidento.
Other three-dimensional puzzle type games have included other geometrical shapes, such as a polyhedron shape (U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,715 to Meffert) and dodecahedron shape (U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,750 to Abu-Shumays et al.)
Spherical three-dimensional puzzles have also been proposed over the years. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,865,323 to Heusinkveid; U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,872 to Urrestarazu Borda; U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,895 to Ray; U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,278 to Harris; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,571 to Chen.
Three-dimensional cubicle and spherical puzzles held together by a central magnet have been done over the years. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,872 to Hall and U.S. Pat. No. 6,158,740 to Hall.
These types of puzzles share a characteristic that all of its components should be moved from the disordered positions to the designated positions or to form predetermined patterns. Another characteristic common to this group of puzzles is that all movements are constrained and that every movement must involve more than one component.
Most prior art puzzles in this category have only one goal and one level of difficulty. Once the player learns to solve Rubik's Cube, there is no additional logic that must be learned. Many of the alternative solution settings of the present invention require new skills and discovering new algorithms.
Thus, the need exists for more challenges to puzzle-lovers and solutions to the above problems with the prior art.
A primary objective of the present invention is to provide a system for playing a multi-directional, icosidodecahedron mechanical rotational puzzle game using 12 pentagon face pieces with 20 triangular face pieces where a half of the total number of pieces are rotated together around one of 6 axes along six cross-section directions until they form one of several predetermined patterns.
A secondary objective of the present invention is to provide systems, devices, and methods for providing and physically playing a multi-directional, icosidodecahedron rotational puzzle game using 12 pentagon face pieces with 20 triangular face pieces, each of the pieces having magnets on their bottom which magnetically attract to a central ferromagnetic metal bearing forming an overall sphere shape.
A third objective of the present invention is to provide systems, devices, and methods for providing and physically organize 12 pentagon face pieces with 20 triangular face pieces that form an icosidodecahedron in a two-color puzzle setup to form one of several predetermined patterns.
A fourth objective of the present invention is to provide systems, devices, and methods for providing and physically organize 12 pentagon face pieces with 20 triangular face pieces that form an icosidodecahedron in a four-color puzzle setup to form one of several predetermined patterns.
A goal of the mechanical puzzle is to organize the different pieces to form faces of an icosidodecahedron and create one of several predetermined patterns. Those patterns could be made of two, or more distinct colors or shades. The geometry of the puzzle is always based on icosidodecahedron and may be made of flat faces, concaved faces as well as faces that are rounded to give the puzzle the shape of a sphere. An orthographic projection of an icosidodecahedron onto a sphere is shown in
The mechanics of the puzzle is accomplished by means of counter-rotation of pentagonal rotundas around the 6 axes that go through the center of two pentagons on the opposite ends of the icosidodecahedron.
Each rotation involves 16 adjacent pieces—6 pentagons and 10 triangles.
Further objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the presently preferred embodiments which are illustrated schematically in the accompanying drawings.
The drawing figures depict one or more implementations in accord with the present concepts, by way of example only, not by way of limitations. In the figures, like reference numerals refer to the same or similar elements.
Before explaining the disclosed embodiments of the present invention in detail it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its applications to the details of the particular arrangements shown since the invention is capable of other embodiments. Also, the terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.
The subject inventor tested an online computer game as an experiment in WebFL format between approximately July and November 2020 on a website at Rotosphere.org and a website at speedsolving.com, along with postings on facebook and youtube.
The experiment was limited to forming triangular faces and pentagon faces for an assembled icosidodecahedron puzzle.
No version of any mechanically moveable puzzle pieces, especially with magnets was demonstrated, shared, nor discussed in any of these forums.
In the Summary above and in the Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiments and in the accompanying drawings, reference is made to particular features (including method steps) of the invention. It is to be understood that the disclosure of the invention in this specification does not include all possible combinations of such particular features. For example, where a particular feature is disclosed in the context of a particular aspect or embodiment of the invention, that feature can also be used, to the extent possible, in combination with and/or in the context of other particular aspects and embodiments of the invention, and in the invention generally.
In this section, some embodiments of the invention will be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which preferred embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout, and prime notation is used to indicate similar elements in alternative embodiments.
Other technical advantages may become readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after review of the following figures and description.
It should be understood at the outset that, although exemplary embodiments are illustrated in the figures and described below, the principles of the present disclosure may be implemented using any number of techniques, whether currently known or not. The present disclosure should in no way be limited to the exemplary implementations and techniques illustrated in the drawings and described below.
Unless otherwise specifically noted, articles depicted in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.
The following terms used herein are defined.
“Icosidodecahedron” is used herein to describe a geometrical shape which is a polyhedron with twenty (icosi) triangular faces and twelve (dodeca) pentagonal faces. An icosidodecahedron has 30 identical vertices, with two triangles and two pentagons meeting at each, and 60 identical edges, each separating a triangle from a pentagon.
A “pentagonal rotunda” represents one half of the spherical shaped icosidodecahedron that is counter-rotated as one unit consisting of 16 adjacent pieces that include 6 pentagons and 10 triangles,
A “tile” is used herein to refer to a puzzle piece that can be moved or manipulated to solve the puzzle herein.
A list of components will now be described.
Because of the different geometry the invention presents a completely new set of challenges over the prior art. As such, it is a next step puzzle for people who enjoy these types of games but have learned everything there is to know about the prior art games.
The invention has many different levels of difficulty depending on which end setting goal the player is attempting to achieve. Most prior art puzzles in this category have only one goal and one level of difficulty. Once the player learns to solve Rubik's Cube®, there is no additional logic that must be learned. Many of the alternative solution settings of the invention require new skills and discovering new algorithms.
When a new player is trying for the first time to solve the subject invention puzzle without any additional instructions, the player can easily disassemble the puzzle and assemble it back into predefined pattern or solved position from which it is possible to learn and develop strategies by repeating and remembering different sets of steps.
By discovering repercussions of such sets of steps (algorithms) it is possible to modify them to achieve specific tile or face location goals. The easy assembly or disassembly of the puzzle sets it apart from other prior art, which once they are in the disorganized state, the only way to get it back to organized state is to solve the puzzle. The easy disassembly provides a better path to learning and discovering algorithms that help with strategies.
Because the subject invention puzzle pieces rotate around 6 different axes, the game is less rigid, more creative and gives the player more choices in achieving goals than the prior art games in this category.
One of the specific features of icosidodecahedron geometry is that it can be achieved by overlapping six equally angled equatorial cross sections in such a way that they divide a sphere into equally sized 12 pentagons and 20 triangles as shown in FIGS. 7B, 7C, 7D, 7E, 7H and 7G. This puzzle utilizes equatorial cross sections of icosidodecahedron as its means of providing boundaries for moving tiles from one location to another.
By having six axes of rotation vs. puzzles based on 3 axes, this invention presents additional challenges as well as opportunities. The six axes of rotation are formed by rotating the sphere along six different equators.
The first challenge for the player is to overcome the confusion caused by the additional directions that user may not be accustomed to.
Once the player becomes familiar with the puzzle mechanics, the additional directions present opportunities to move puzzle pieces to desired positions with fewer rotations that would be the case with 3 rotational axes.
Another opportunity of six different equatorial counter rotations is the possibility of using different paths to achieve the same results. The flexibility of six directions makes it possible for the user to be more creative while solving the puzzle and the procedures to achieve desired results are less rigid than it is the case with the prior art puzzles.
Unlike Rubik's Cube® and derivative puzzles where there are a number of pieces that never change their relation to each other (middle pieces on each face of the cube always stay on the same face of the cube), all of the invention puzzle pieces are affected by the rotations and none of them has a fixed position in relation to any other that cannot be changed.
Each rotation of the invention puzzle pieces causes a change in position of half of the puzzle pieces vs. Rubik's Cube® where each rotation affects only one third of the puzzle pieces.
As shown in
Puzzle pieces such as 3 of
Referring to
The top portion of piece 3 is embedded with three positioning magnets 31a, 31b, 31c, one on each side of the triangular shaped piece.
When positioning magnets are used on pentagonal pieces as an alternative to ferromagnetic inserts (
Just below the section with the positioning magnets is an interlocking groove 35 that contains an interlocking protrusion 33 that interlocks and aligns puzzle piece 3 with puzzle piece 4. The grooves above and below the protrusions of the puzzle piece 3 provide channels through which the protrusions of the pair of pieces 3 can pass each other during the rotations while preventing them from being dislodged. In the bottom portion of puzzle piece 3 is a bottom holding magnet 37 that is attracted to and is removably attached to a ferromagnetic spherical center during the assembly and mechanical operation of the puzzle pieces 3 and 4. There are twenty triangular shaped pieces required to form the icosidodecahedron puzzle of the present invention.
Puzzle piece 4 has an equilateral pentagon shape with blunted or rounded edges on the face 40 as shown in
For a stronger magnetic attraction (
Just below the top portion of puzzle piece 4 is an interlocking groove 43 (shown in
The basic instructions for the novel puzzle will be described below as to the objectives and movements of the puzzle pieces.
Table 1 shows the number triangular face pieces and number of pentagon face pieces for the icosidodecahedron puzzle if two colors are used.
Table 2 shows the number triangular face pieces and number of pentagon face pieces for the icosidodecahedron puzzle if four colors are used.
Referring to TABLES 1 and 2, colors can include but are not limited to any combination of red, yellow, blue, orange, green, black, white, as well as different variations of the colors thereof.
Additionally, different patterns, letters, or numbers can be used in place of the colors and/or in different combinations with the colors.
A mechanically moveable prototype was constructed in 2020 using puzzle pieces with the colors of red, yellow, light blue, and dark blue, and other prototypes with different color combinations having approximately the following dimensions:
The Outer faces on the pieces can be smooth, roughened, flat, convex curved, convex to create different appearance. Other sizes of pieces and ferromagnetic center can be used as needed.
The term “approximately”/“approximate” can be +/−10% of the amount referenced. Additionally, preferred amounts and ranges can include the amounts and ranges referenced without the prefix of being approximately.
Although specific advantages have been enumerated above, various embodiments may include some, none, or all of the enumerated advantages.
While a preferred embodiment describes and shows the puzzle pieces attached by magnets in order to allow for the mechanical rotations, the physical implementation of the icosidodecahedron puzzle can also be achieved with different mechanisms, such as but not limited to incorporating supporting tracks, sliders, gears and levers.
In addition to a physical form, the icosidodecahedron puzzle game can be implemented in a virtual form as a part of a computer, console, mobile, or internet-based video game.
The sets of patterns presented in
Modifications, additions, or omissions may be made to the systems, apparatuses, and methods described herein without departing from the scope of the disclosure. For example, the components of the systems and apparatuses may be integrated or separated. Moreover, the operations of the systems and apparatuses disclosed herein may be performed by more, fewer, or other components and the methods described may include more, fewer, or other steps. Additionally, steps may be performed in any suitable order. As used in this document, “each” refers to each member of a set or each member of a subset of a set.
To aid the Patent Office and any readers of any patent issued on this application in interpreting the claims appended hereto, applicants wish to note that they do not intend any of the appended claims or claim elements to invoke 35 U.S.C. 112(f) unless the words “means for” or “step for” are explicitly used in the particular claim.
While the invention has been described, disclosed, illustrated and shown in various terms of certain embodiments or modifications which it has presumed in practice, the scope of the invention is not intended to be, nor should it be deemed to be, limited thereby and such other modifications or embodiments as may be suggested by the teachings herein are particularly reserved especially as they fall within the breadth and scope of the claims here appended.
