Patent Application
20250065217
The present invention relates to the field of chess sets, in particular to a levitated chess having game pieces that can levitate relative to the game board, and a method for controlling the levitated movement of game pieces.
As science and technology continue to advance in the Internet era and Artificial Intelligence (hereinafter “AI”) becomes more widespread, an increasing number of intelligent terminal devices are emerging and AI game boards (hereinafter “boards”) are constantly springing up in the market. The AI board transforms the existing boards and game pieces (hereinafter “pieces”) of various chess-like board games such as chess and Chinese chess, and adds corresponding electronic intelligent devices to cause traditional chess games to become intelligent.
Most of the existing intelligent board products pertain to voice prompt or display prompt products, and the movement of pieces still requires manual operation according to the prompts, thus lacking real interactivity. To achieve the real humanization and enhance the appeal of the board, it is necessary to design pieces capable of moving intelligently. At present, magnetic moving pieces already exist by operating in principles similar to the movement of magnetic coins against the desktop. This technology is novel to some extent, but one piece cannot cross other pieces, and can only bypass other fixed pieces, lengthening the movement path of pieces. In addition, after long-term movement and friction, the pieces may scratch the board. In addition, another existing method is to move pieces by using a mechanical arm next to the board or a mechanical structure above the board. This method results in a larger and less aesthetic board and a risk of mechanical injury.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
To solve the above problems, the present invention proposes a levitated chess, and a method for controlling the levitated movement of pieces. It can improve the movement speed of pieces, save game time, and increase the ornamental value and enhance the appeal of the game by means of the chess levitating technology, thus enhancing the intelligence of the board.
In one aspect of the invention, a levitated chess is provided, including: a board; a plurality of pieces; and a piece driving base located inside the board, where, in response to a piece moving instruction: the piece driving base moves to a corresponding position below the piece to be moved; the piece driving base and the piece to be moved respectively generate repulsive magnetic forces against each other, so that the piece to be moved is levitated relative to the board; the piece driving base drives the piece to be moved to move to a placement position; and the piece driving base changes the generated magnetic force to enable the piece to be moved to fall down.
According to one embodiment of the invention, the piece includes: a battery unit that powers each component in the piece; an electromagnetic coil configured to generate a magnetic force when activated; a wireless communication unit configured to receive activation instructions; and a control unit configured to send control instructions to each component in the piece.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the piece further includes: a wireless charging chip configured to utilize the electromagnetic coil to charge the battery unit when the piece is not activated.
According to another embodiment of the invention, the piece driving base includes: an electromagnetic coil component configured to generate a magnetic force when actuated; an electromagnetic sensor configured to detect the strength of the magnetic field generated by the electromagnetic coil inside the piece to be moved above the piece driving base; and a control unit configured to send control instructions to each component in the piece driving base.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the electromagnetic coil component includes at least four electromagnetic coils, and the at least four electromagnetic coils are configured to generate a magnetic force so that under the combined effect of the magnetic force generated by the at least four electromagnetic coils, the piece to be moved can levitate relative to the board and maintain a position unchanged relative to the piece driving base during movement of the piece driving base.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the piece driving base further includes an electronic coil group driving circuit for controlling the driving of each electromagnetic coil in the electromagnetic coil component according to a PWM signal output from the control unit so as to adjust the levitation height of the piece to be moved.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the control unit in the piece driving base determines the relative position of the piece to be moved from the electromagnetic sensor through the strength of the magnetic field generated by the electromagnetic coils inside the piece to be moved and detected by the electromagnetic sensor; and by dynamically adjusting the magnetic force of each electromagnetic coil by adjusting the frequency and the duty cycle of the PWM signal corresponding to each electromagnetic coil, the relative position between the piece to be moved and the piece driving base dynamically maintains unchanged.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the levitation height is greater than the height of the piece so that the piece to be moved can jump over other pieces when moving with the piece driving base.
According to another embodiment of the invention, the board includes a wireless charging coil for charging pieces put on the board.
In another aspect of the invention, a method for controlling the levitated movement of pieces is provided, including: in response to a piece moving instruction, controlling the piece driving base located inside the board to move to a corresponding position below the piece to be moved; controlling the piece driving base and the piece to be moved to respectively generate repulsive magnetic forces against each other, so that the piece to be moved is levitated relative to the board; controlling the piece driving base to drive the piece to be moved to move to a placement position; and controlling the piece driving base to change the generated magnetic force to enable the piece to be moved to fall down.
According to one embodiment of the invention, controlling the piece driving base to drive the piece to be moved to move to a placement position further including: controlling the piece driving base to detect the strength of the magnetic field generated by the piece to be moved above the piece driving base; and controlling the piece driving base to determine the relative position of the piece to be moved from the piece driving base through the detected magnetic field strength, and dynamically adjusting the magnetic force of each electromagnetic coil inside the piece driving base by adjusting the PWM signal corresponding to each electromagnetic coil in the piece driving base so as to dynamically maintain the relative position between the piece to be moved and the piece driving base unchanged.
According to another embodiment of the invention, further including: controlling the board to charge pieces put on the board.
Compared with the scheme in the prior art, the levitated chess having pieces that can levitate relative to the board, and a method for controlling the levitated movement of pieces provided in this invention can improve the practical and ornamental values and enhance the appeal of the intelligent board.
These and other features and advantages will become apparent by reading the following detailed description and by reference to the associated drawings. It should be understood that the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are illustrative only and are not restrictive of the aspects as claimed.
In order to understand the manner in which the above features of the present invention are used in detail, the above briefly summarized contents can be described in more detail with reference to various embodiments, some of which are shown in the accompanying drawings. However, it should be noted that the accompanying drawings only show some typical aspects of the present invention and should not be considered to limit its scope, because the description may allow for other equally effective aspects.
The accompanying drawings are not drawn to actual scale.
The present invention will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and the features of the present invention will be further revealed in the following detailed description. The detailed description of the following embodiments and the accompanying drawings are used to exemplarily illustrate the principles of the present invention, but cannot be used to limit the scope of the present invention, that is, the present application is not limited to the described embodiments.
In the description of the present invention, it is to be noted that, unless otherwise indicated, “plurality” means more than two; the terms “top”, “bottom”, “left”, “right”, “inside”, and “outside” are merely for the convenience of describing the present application and for simplifying the description, rather than for indicating or implying that an indicated apparatus or element must have a specific orientation, and must be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, which thus shall not be understood as a limitation to the present application. In addition, terms such as “first”, “second”, and “third” are merely intended for the purpose of description, and shall not be understood as an indication or implication of relative importance. “Vertical” is not strictly vertical, but within an allowable range of error. “Parallel” is not strictly parallel, but within an allowable range of error.
The terms representing directions in the following description are all directions shown in the drawings and do not limit the specific structure of the present application. In the description of the present application, it should be further noted that, unless explicitly specified and defined otherwise, the terms “installation”, “interconnection” and “connection” should be understood broadly, for example, they may either be a fixed connection, or a detachable connection, or an integrated connection; and they may either be a direct connection, or an indirect connection through an intermediary. Those of ordinary skill in the art may understand the specific meanings of the foregoing terms in the present application according to specific conditions.
Reference herein to an “embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor a separate or alternative embodiment that is mutually exclusive of other embodiments. It is explicitly and implicitly understood by those skilled in the art that the embodiments described herein may be combined with other embodiments.
In the description of embodiments of the present invention, the term “and/or” describes only an association relationship for describing associated objects and represents that three relationships may exist. For example, A and/or B may represent the following three cases: Only A exists, both A and B exist, and only B exists. In addition, the character “/” in this specification generally indicates an “or” relationship between the associated objects.
During piece movement, in response to a piece moving instruction, the piece driving base 106 may move to a corresponding position below the piece to be moved 104b to generate repulsive magnetic forces with the piece to be moved 104b, respectively, thereby levitating the piece to be moved 104b relative to the board 102. Then, the piece driving base 106 drives piece to be moved 104b to move to a placement position, and the piece driving base 106 changes the generated magnetic force to enable the piece to be moved 104b to fall down.
As an example, the board 102 may also include a drive rod (not shown in
Further, the piece 200 also includes a housing 208 and a closed magnetic housing 210, where the closed magnetic housing 210 may, for example, be a ferrous oxygen closed magnetic housing or other closed magnetic housings. As a non-limiting example, as described in
Herein, the electromagnetic coil component 302 may be configured to generate a magnetic force when driven. The electromagnetic sensor 304 may be configured to detect the strength of the magnetic field generated by the electromagnetic coil inside the piece to be moved above the piece driving base 300; and The PCB control board 306 may be configured to send control instructions to each component in the piece driving base 300.
As an example, the electromagnetic coil component 302 includes at least four electromagnetic coils, and the at least four electromagnetic coils are configured to generate a magnetic force so that under the combined effect of the magnetic force generated by the at least four electromagnetic coils, the piece to be moved can levitate relative to the board and maintain a position unchanged relative to the piece driving base 300 during movement of the piece driving base 300. As shown in
The levitated piece 402 may include a lithium battery 404 (i.e., one of the battery units 202 shown in
The MCU 410 serves as a control unit that may be configured to send control instructions to each component in the levitated piece 402. The wireless communication chip 414, as a wireless communication unit, may be configured to receive activation instructions. For example, the wireless communication chip 414 may include Bluetooth, SUB-1G, WIFI, 2.4G, etc., and the wireless communication chip 414 may receive instructions, for example, via the antenna 406. As an example, the wireless communication unit may receive an activation instruction from the piece driving base. As another example, the wireless communication unit may also receive an activation instruction from a control board other than the piece driving base (e.g., a control board positioned in or outside of the board), a mobile terminal (e.g., a cellular phone, a tablet computer, etc.), and the like. In addition, the electromagnetic coil component driving circuit 416 may be used to control the driving of the electromagnetic coil 418 based on a Pulse Width Modulation (hereinafter “PWM”) signal output by the MCU 410.
Further, as a non-limiting example, the levitated piece 402 may also include a wireless charging chip 412, and the electromagnetic coil 418 may be multiplexed as a receiver coil for wireless charging, which may be switched for use, for example, by a load switch. Specifically, the wireless charging chip 412 may be configured to utilize the electromagnetic coil 418 to charge the lithium battery 404 when the levitated piece 402 is not activated (e.g., the pieces 104a and 104c in
In another aspect, the levitated base control mainboard 436 (i.e., the PCB control board 306 in
Specifically, the MCU 432 may drive the electromagnetic sensor 426 via the electromagnetic sensor detection circuit 428 to detect the magnetic field strength of each electromagnetic coil 424 in the electromagnetic coil component, and the magnetic field strength of the electromagnetic coil 418 inside the levitated piece 402 above the piece driving base 442 at different levitation heights, so as to determine the relative position of the levitated piece 402 from the electromagnetic sensor 426; and by dynamically adjusting the magnetic force of each electromagnetic coil 424 by adjusting the frequency and the duty cycle of the PWM signal corresponding to each electromagnetic coil 424, the relative position between the levitated piece 402 and the piece driving base 442 dynamically maintains unchanged.
As a specific embodiment, the piece driving base 442 may be moved, for example, by a motorized drive rod below the piece to be moved. The piece to be moved (i.e., the levitated piece 402 shown in
The electromagnetic sensor 426 of the piece driving base 442, under the control of the piece driving base control mainboard 436, detects the magnetic force of the levitated piece 402 for a short period, thereby determining the relative position of the levitated piece 402 from the piece driving base 442. Specifically, in conjunction with the piece driving base 300 of
As described above, the piece driving base 442 thereby determines the position parameters of the current position of the levitated piece 402 from the electromagnetic sensor 426 in each of the X(t), Y(t), and Z(t) axes, as well as the incremental rates of change dx(t), dy(t), and dz(t) in the three directions. The magnetic strength U(t) corresponding to each channel in the electromagnetic sensor 426 is calculated from the two parameters, PID proportional and differential, by the following formula:
Herein, Ka, Kb, and Kc are proportional coefficients, and the coefficient corresponding to each electromagnetic coil can be derived according to the actual engineering debugging; Ta, Tb, and Tc are differential coefficients, and the coefficient corresponding to each electromagnetic coil can also be derived according to the actual engineering debugging.
After deriving the magnetic strength U(t) of each coil according to the above PID algorithm, U(t) is converted into the driving PWM frequency and duty cycle corresponding to the four electromagnetic coils 424, and the constant current driving circuit is controlled by outputting PWM signals through the pins (e.g., General-purpose inputs/outputs GPIOs) of the MCU 432, so as to dynamically control the magnetic force of each electromagnetic coil 424 in the electromagnetic coil component, and to dynamically control the levitated piece 402 and the piece driving base 442 in a certain relative position.
As described above, the piece driving base 442 can dynamically control the relative motion of the levitated piece 402 in real time during movement through the signals fed back from the electromagnetic sensor 426 inside. Specifically, the levitated piece 402 may follow the piece driving base 442 and remain at a constant relative height, and when the levitated piece 402 moves to a specified position, the levitated piece 402 is controlled to disconnect the electromagnetic coil 418, the levitated piece 402 falls, thus ending the movement of the piece. It can be appreciated that during the movement of the levitated piece 402, the piece driving base 442 may also dynamically adjust the levitation height of the levitated piece 402 in real time according to the actual needs, so as to, for example, enable the levitated piece 402 to jump over a different number of unactivated pieces stacked on the board or of different heights.
In another aspect, in an example where the piece driving base 506 includes a wireless communication unit, the piece driving base 506 may also send an activation instruction to the piece after moving to a corresponding position below the piece to be moved to activate the piece to be moved. The piece may correspond to the received activation instruction and generate a magnetic force (e.g., a magnetic force of the same polarity) that is repulsive to the piece driving base 506, thus levitating relative to the board. It should be appreciated, however, that the activation instruction for the piece to be moved is not limited to a wireless signal instruction sent by the piece driving base 506, but may also be sent by a cell phone, a mainboard, or a control board other than the piece driving base 506.
In one example, one of the two players may play chess remotely online via a mobile terminal 502 (e.g., an APP on a cell phone or a tablet). The piece driving base 506 may move the corresponding piece via the levitation technology as described above, after receiving a piece movement instruction, either wired or wirelessly. The other player may move the pieces in two ways as follows: One is to hold the piece with hands for direct operation in front of the levitated chess 504. After operation, the piece driving base 506 recognizes the piece information and synchronously uploads the information to a remote device via wired or wireless method; the other method is to also play chess through a mobile terminal (e.g., an APP on a cell phone or a tablet). Similarly, the piece driving base 506 may move the corresponding piece via the levitation technology as described above, after receiving a piece movement instruction, either wired or wirelessly.
Further, in one example, the method 600 may also include controlling a board (e.g., the board 102 in
The above describes a levitated chess having pieces that can levitate relative to the board, and a method for controlling the levitated movement of pieces provided in this invention. Compared with the scheme of the prior art, the present invention at least has the following advantages: Through the intelligent chess levitating technology, the previous contact-type piece movement method is changed. The pieces in the present invention can move in a straight line from point to point, without bypass. This greatly improves the speed of piece movement. In addition, the ornamental value and appeal of playing chess is improved while avoiding noise from friction between pieces and the board and board scratch from long-term friction.
The scope of the present disclosure can cover a variety of chess games. In other words, the present disclosure can be applied to international chess, Chinese chess, Go, Japanese Shogi, checkers, military chess, Gomoku, international draughts, Ludo, and many other types of chess games. Accordingly, the design of the board can also be adjusted according to these different chess games to accommodate their unique board layouts and rules. For example, the Chinese chessboard has a specific river boundary and a Sudoku layout, the Go board consists of a 19×19 grid of intersections, and the checkers board includes squares of different colors, and so on so forth. The present disclosure can flexibly adapt to these specific board layouts, whether traditional or modern, thereby providing support and enhancement for various types of chess games.
The above description includes examples of various aspects of the claimed subject matter. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the aforementioned embodiments. However, those of ordinary skill in the art should recognize that many further combinations and permutations of the claimed subject matter are possible Thereby, the disclosed subject matter is intended to cover all such alternatives, modifications, and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202210519930.2 | May 2022 | CN | national |
The present application is a U.S. continuation of International Application No. PCT/CN2023/093393 filed May 11, 2023, which claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202210519930.2 filed with China National Intellectual Property Administration on May 12, 2022, the contents of the above applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/CN2023/093393 | May 2023 | WO |
| Child | 18945458 | US |
