Amusement devices: games – Board games – pieces – or boards therefor – Electrical
Patent
1991-06-25
1993-02-23
Grieb, William H.
Amusement devices: games
Board games, pieces, or boards therefor
Electrical
340323R, A63F 302
Patent
active
051883686
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to electronic game apparatus and in particular to such a game where the role of one of the players is taken over by a computer. The invention can typically be applied to board games such as chess in which different pieces or ranks of pieces are to be located.
Various board games of this type are already known. One such game consists of a board which can sense the presence of a playing piece on the board. This may be done by means of a switch, such as a reed switch, located beneath each playing square. A magnet is provided within the playing pieces and, as a playing piece is placed on the square, the magnet causes the switch to flip. Electronics are provided to detect this switch action and so determine that a piece has been placed on or removed from the playing square.
Another presence sensing system is described in our British Patent Application No. 8920204. In this system, two sets of coils are placed beneath the playing surface, one set to transmit a signal and one set to receive a signal. A metal disc is provided in the base of each playing piece. An alternating current signal is then sent down each transmit coil in turn and mutually couples with the receive coils. If a playing piece is present on a square, the voltage induced in the receive coil below that square will be significantly reduced, owing to the presence of the metal disc. Electronics are provided to detect the induced voltage, compare it with a reference and hence determine whether or not a piece is present on each square.
Board games which merely detect the presence of a playing piece have the disadvantage that the board cannot directly recognise the rank of, for example, a particular chess piece on a square. This difficulty can be overcome by identifying a piece relative to the position it took at the start of the game. Thus, the game has to start with the playing pieces in pre-defined positions. The position from and to which a piece is moved (which is detected by the presence sensing system) then allows the identity of the piece to be determined. It is not therefore possible for a player to set up a practice game, as if play was in progress, without entering the position and rank of the playing pieces into the memory.
Board game apparatus has been developed which can directly identify the rank of particular playing pieces. One such apparatus is disclosed in British Patent No. 2 103 943 wherein tuned circuits (resonators) are fitted to each of the pieces. These tuned circuits consist of coils which are wound on rod cores and are connected to capacitors. The coils within the playing pieces couple with coils built into the board, which stimulate the resonators and pick up the signals produced. Different pieces or different piece types have different resonant frequencies, so that the frequency of the signal picked up in a given square indicates the piece type present on that square.
The coils in the board are arranged in two groups, one group for stimulating (or transmitting) and the other for receiving. The coils of each group are connected together in an addressable fashion using a diode at each coil. For each of the board squares, a current pulse is applied to the stimulating (or transmitting) coil, the rapid change of current on the trailing edge of this pulse making the resonator `ring` at its resonant frequency. This signal is picked up by the sensing coil, amplified, and its frequency measured by thresholding, to give a digital signal whose transitions in a fixed period are counted. In the absence of a piece, there is no ringing so few transitions occur.
In the apparatus of British Patent No. 2 103 943, only one transition of current in the stimulating coil is used to cause the resonator to ring. This means that, in order to achieve a received signal of an appreciable amplitude, the coils within the board have to consist of several turns and a large current pulse with a fast edge has to be used. This large current pulse means that the energy consumed by this system is relatively high. Also the radiated fields
REFERENCES:
patent: 3760404 (1973-09-01), Khlebutin
patent: 4981300 (1991-01-01), Winkler
patent: 5082286 (1992-01-01), Ryan et al.
Grieb William H.
Saitek Limited
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