Puzzles of various types for people of all ages are embodied having a wide selection of shapes, sizes, and complexity. One popular non-limiting example of a three-dimensional puzzle is known as the Rubik's Cube (originally called the “Magic Cube”), referenced hereinbelow as simply “cube” and illustrated in
The outer surface of the cube 30 is formed by an aggregation of what appears to be twenty-six (26) smaller component cubes, hereinafter referred to as “cubelets,” 36, 38, 40. The cubelets 36, 38, 40 are not truly cubes but appear so from outside the cube 30 because their face segments 34 on the outer surface of the cube 30 resemble the faces that true cubes would have on the outer surface of the cube 30, if they were the components from which cube 30 were made. That is, the six central cubelets 36 at the center positions of faces 32 each have one face segment 34, the twelve central edge cubelets 38 at the edges of the faces 32 but not at the vertices (corners) of faces 32 each have two face segments 34, and the eight vertex cubelets 40 at the vertices of the cube 30 each have three face segments 34. Each cubelet 36, 38, 40 is free to rotate relative to an adjacent cubelet 36, 38, 40.
Within the cube 30 is an inner core, which may be embodied, as non-limiting examples, as the core 42 of cube 44 in
The central edge cubelets and the vertex cubelets (not shown in
Within a single face 32, each face segment 34 is free to move relative to the others. As illustrated in
With reference to the cube 62 in
Cubes 30 and 62 of
With respect to cubes such as those of
Both beginning and advanced players have a need for guidance to aid in increasing proficiency in solving the puzzle. For beginners, arranging all face segments accordingly is both complicated and challenging, and many players seek assistance through a variety of text and/or video guides. These guides present solution algorithms that many players can find difficult to understand, and such has led to a need for a system of interactive feedback to guide new users more easily to solutions. More advanced players can regard quickly solving these puzzles as a type of competition, sometimes referred to as “speedcubing” and “speedsolving,” Leagues and competitions are available in which the players strive to solve the puzzles as fast as possible. In International Application WO 2018/138586, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety, the present inventors describe a system for interactive feedback and guidance suitable for both new and advanced players employing optical sensors to track component movement.
International Application WO 2018/138586 also describes how to track shell segment patterns using an elaborate combination of unique signatures located at the shell segments and signature sensors within the shell. Types of signature sensors disclosed included RFID, NFC, and optical sensors, and one type of optical sensor discussed was an RGB sensor.
The inventors realized that other types of optical sensors could be used to determine and track shell segment patterns, and accordingly they sought new and inventive alternatives to RGB sensors to read the signatures of individual shell segments. The inventors also discovered that the use of RGB sensors for contactless position monitoring could be exploited for uses beyond those for three-dimensional puzzles.
Embodiments of the present invention implement image sensors to read signatures of individual shell segments to determine shell segment patterns. Alternate embodiments implement RGB sensors to provide contactless absolute position encoders for uses other than for determining shell segment patterns of three-dimensional puzzles.
More specifically, the invention maybe embodied as a three-dimensional puzzle having a shell, a core, multiple unique sensors, and at least one image sensor. The shell has at least four faces and is formed by multiple shell segments, each shell segment being free to move relative to an adjacent shell segment. The core is within the shell, and the faces are free to rotate relative to the core about axes extending from the core toward the faces. The multiple unique signatures are located at the shell segments. The at least one image sensor is within the shell and views the unique signatures to provide data to processing circuitry based on sensed signatures to determine shell segment motion.
The invention may also be embodied as a contactless absolute position encoder having an RGB sensor and a gradient map. The RGB sensor is affixed to a first platform and has a field of view. The gradient color map is within the field of view of the RGB sensor and is affixed to a second platform. The RGB sensor provides output indicative of the absolute position of the first platform relative to the second platform.
Embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are briefly described as follows:
The invention is described below in the appended claims, which are read in view of the accompanying description including the following drawings, wherein:
Disclosed herein are implementations of optical sensing to identify the colors of the face segments of three-dimensional puzzles, their positions on the puzzles' faces, and their motion relative to other face segments. Embodiments of the invention monitor the puzzle state as well as movements executed by the player. Multiple embodiments of optical sensing configurations are described. The sensors are positioned inside the puzzle, such as at or inside the core, connected, and powered using for example the techniques used for optical sensors described in International Application WO 2018/138586. Electronic deployment inside the cube enables when desired the use of lighting sources such as LEDs to facilitate clear optical sensing. The optical readings may be further processed to evaluate the puzzle state and movements either by a companion CPU/DSP residing in the same core or by sending the raw data to external processing unit, such as that in a mobile phone. Further details of how the internal CPU and wireless device are wired and powered are provided in International Application WO 2018/138586.
Embodiments discussed below frequently reference the well-known 3×3 Rubik Cube, that is the puzzle with nine face segments on each of six sides. Such examples are merely illustrative and do not limit the scope of the invention to exclude different numbers of elements, and the scope of the invention further does not exclude face segments that may differ by displaying thereon differing numbers, shapes, patterns, and symbols, as non-limiting examples of ways how face segments may differ.
For discussions below, the term “vertex element” references the element of the cubic puzzle that has three vertex face segments (one vertex face segment from each of the three faces of the vertex). The vertex segment is marked inside (that is, not marked on or near the face segments facing outward) with a unique signature, or code, that identifies the vertex segment and its three-dimensional orientation. That is, the code indicates the colors of the three face segments and their orientation.
One example of such code for a vertex element 76 is illustrated in
The non-vertex edge segments also have colors on the inside indicating the colors of the two outside face segments. The correspondence of the colors on the coded region matching the colors of the face segments is a natural result when the vertex elements and the non-vertex edge segments are manufactured using three and two, respectively, separate solid-colored pieces. For example, such configuration is common when manufacturing the Dayan Cube, which competes with the Rubik's Cube.
However, some cubes, such as the Rubik's Cube, are manufactured using plastic of a single color, and the face segments are later colored, for example, by placing stickers thereon. Accordingly, stickers, paints, or other visually-distinctive indicia may be applied to the inner areas for coding, such as provided for a vertex element 88 having a coded area 90 as illustrated in
To read the codes, an image sensor, such as a CCD array, a CMOS array, or a camera, is placed inside the cube at or near the core, which holds the system electronics (see International Application WO 2018/138586 for details). Accordingly, the system processes the viewed codes of each piece to determine the colors of each piece and their orientations. To show a system of an image sensor and cubelet codes,
The innermost region of the image that the image sensor views indicates the face segment colors of the face that shall be called the “Front Face,” in the context of the present discussion, and the remaining portion of the viewed image indicates the colors of the bounding face segments of the Up, Left, Right, and Down Faces.
Additionally, continuous image readings and image processing enable the system to compare new images to previous images to identify small movements executed by players. Such processing may be either performed by an inner controller (inside the core near the image sensor) or by streaming the raw/compressed image data to an external processing unit, such as in a mobile device, to identify small movements. For example, with reference to
One exemplary embodiment of the invention tracks the movements of all face segments, that is, the face segments on the side of the cube directly in front of the image sensor discussed above and also the face segments of the other five faces, by deploying five more image sensors to view the coded regions of the additional vertex elements and non-vertex edge segments.
The Background section of the present disclosure discusses posts of three-dimensional puzzles that extend outward from the cores and support central cubelets. (Reference is made to posts 50 of
The alternate embodiment illustrated in
Embodiments discussed above determine the color of each face segment by viewing each face segment's corresponding coded region by an image sensor. This process can be denoted “absolute sensing.” This process differs from another process that determines the color of each face segment by using knowledge of the puzzle pattern's initial state, that is, the color of each face segment at a starting time, and knowledge of subsequent face rotations. This process is analogous to the use of dead reckoning for navigation, and the process is discussed in detail in International Application WO 2018/138586.
As disclosed in detail in U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/583,553 and in International Application WO 2018/138586, an RGB sensor is another type of optical sensor that can be implemented as a signature sensor to read coded regions of the shell segments of three dimensional puzzles. The coded regions have unique signatures in the form of color gradient maps. The output of an RGB sensor is a single color, represented by three components, R, G, and B, as opposed to multiple three-component values, one for each image pixel, which is the output of an image sensor. In other words, an image sensor provides many values, which result in an output of the many different colors (if the object sensed has many colors) within the image sensor's field of view. In contrast, the output of an RGB sensor is a single three-component value determined by an integration of all the colors sensed within its field of view.
The inventors found that, by directing an RGB sensor to view a gradient color map and associating a unique color to a unique position, the RGB sensor can be utilized to provide absolute position information. Further, the inventors realized that uses for such position encoding were not limited to determining positions of shell segments of three-dimensional puzzles. Accordingly, the following embodiments are discussed:
The location of any point on the gradient color maps 142, 148 in
Many types of surfaces could be described as extending in three dimensions of a Cartesian coordinate system. One example is that of an automobile surface. A gradient color map can be affixed thereto, so that the car surface is the platform of the gradient color map. An RGB sensor can be affixed to an ultrasonic testing device, which becomes the platform for the RGB sensor. The color map and RGB sensor thus become a contactless absolute position encoder that indicates which part of the irregularly-shaped (that is, not flat, cylindrical, spherical, or other typical geometric shape) automobile surface the ultrasonic testing device is checking.
Having thus described exemplary embodiments of the invention, it will be apparent that various alterations, modifications, and improvements will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Alternations, modifications, and improvements of the disclosed invention, though not expressly described above, are nonetheless intended and implied to be within spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the foregoing discussion is intended to be illustrative only; the invention is limited and defined only by the following claims and equivalents thereto.
This application claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of the Nov. 9, 2017 filing of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/583,553, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/IB2018/058825 | 11/9/2018 | WO | 00 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62583553 | Nov 2017 | US |