KR101430966B1 - Electronic Dice with Simple Structure - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an electronic dice capable of simple structure and low power consumption.
According to the present invention, in an electronic die,
Wherein the electronic dice include an acceleration sensor, a free fall sensing device, a short range wireless communication device, and a rechargeable battery;
The acceleration sensor outputs an acceleration value of the electronic die;
The free fall detection device detects whether the electronic die is free-falling;
And the short range communication device transmits the acceleration value output from the acceleration sensor to the external device by the short distance wireless communication method for a predetermined period from the moment when the free fall detection device senses the free fall.
By using the present invention as described above, it is possible to provide electronic dice of a simple structure to enable electronic dice of a low manufacturing cost, and to provide electronic dice with low power consumption, so that they can be used for a long time by replacing or charging the battery.

Description

Electronic dice with simple structure {Electronic Dice with Simple Structure}

The present invention relates to an electronic dice capable of simple structure and low power consumption.

The dice game uses physical dice to determine the number of dice or points on the top of the dice thrown after the user throws the dice, and the game is played through the dice value.

And recently, computers have provided the ability to randomly select dice values instead of the functions of these physical dice. Thus, computer dice games using computers have limited entertainment effects because they do not actually feel throwing dice.

Thus, in the prior art, electronic dice are used that can embed electronic devices in physical dice and transfer the dice value after throwing the dice to an external electronic device such as a computer. For example, Patent Registration No. 10-52485 And the method for determining the die value) has the same structure as shown in Fig.

1 uses an electronic die including an acceleration sensor 17, a battery 15 and a circuit board 13 inside a cube shaped main body 11, Two circuit boards 13 are disposed at the center in the upper and lower positions with the battery 15 interposed therebetween to hold the center of gravity of the electronic die 10 and the acceleration sensor 17 is positioned at the center of the circuit board 13 The acceleration value in the three-axis direction is measured.

1, the acceleration sensor 17 positioned at the center on the circuit board 13 is connected to the processing and control unit 16, and the processing and control unit 16 The operation of the acceleration sensor 17, the memory unit 18, the transmission / reception unit 19, and the output unit 20, which are connected to the battery 15, the memory unit 18, the transmission / reception unit 19, And performs necessary data processing.

Therefore, the electronic dice as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 use the dice value determination method as shown in Fig.

First, the acceleration sensor 17 continuously detects the acceleration in the X, Y, and Z axes (S32). If the acceleration values in the X, Y, and Z axes detected in the motion detection step S33 are all below the set value P (Initial state) (S31). If any one of them is equal to or greater than the set value (P), it is determined that the user holds the electronic dice and throws them or throws them.

When motion is detected in the motion detection step S33, a change with time of the acceleration values in the three axial directions of X, Y, and Z of the acceleration sensor 17 is read (S34), and the read acceleration value displacement And performs a peak detection step (S35) for detecting whether it exceeds a predetermined set value (V). If at least one of the acceleration displacement values in each direction exceeds the set value (V), this means that the user has dropped the dice and fell on the floor or hit the object.

When such a peak is detected, the detection start for determining the number of dice is visually or audibly informed to the user by LED light or buzzer (S36).

Subsequently, a change with time of the acceleration values of X, Y and Z of the acceleration sensor 17 is periodically read (S37). When the acceleration value displacement becomes equal to or smaller than the set value P for a predetermined time, (S38), and visually or audibly informs the user that the movement of the dice has been completed (S39).

Now, based on the acceleration values sensed in these end states, based on the acceleration values sensed for the three axes X, Y, and Z, the top direction of the stopped dice is determined and stored in advance in the memory unit 18 of the electronic die The number of dice determined according to whether the direction of the stored top of the dice corresponds to X, Y or Z is determined to determine the number of dice (number), and the determined dice value is converted into a local wireless communication method To a variety of external devices (e.g., PC, smartphone, smart TV) (S40).

Therefore, in the electronic dice according to the related art, a memory unit 16 for storing a program and a set value of a complicated process as shown in FIG. 3 is necessarily required. In order to process a complicated process as shown in FIG. 3, 16) are necessarily required, so that the manufacturing cost of the electronic dice becomes high.

And, by performing such a complicated process, there is a high possibility of errors.

Particularly, since the electronic dice according to the related art are required to continuously perform the complicated processing as shown in Fig. 3 in cooperation with the memory unit 16, the power consumption of the battery 15 is fast, It is difficult to use the battery 15 and the battery 15 must be replaced or charged at any time.

In view of the problems in the prior art, the present invention provides a simple structure electronic dice to lower manufacturing cost and provide an electronic die with low power consumption, thereby enabling long-time use by replacing or charging the battery.

According to an aspect of the present invention,

Wherein the electronic dice include an acceleration sensor, a free fall sensing device, a short range wireless communication device, and a rechargeable battery;

The acceleration sensor outputs an acceleration value of the electronic die;

The free fall detection device detects whether the electronic die is free-falling;

And the short range communication device transmits the acceleration value output from the acceleration sensor to the external device by the short distance wireless communication method for a predetermined period from the moment when the free fall detection device senses the free fall.

By using the present invention as described above, it is possible to provide electronic dice of a simple structure to enable electronic dice of a low manufacturing cost, and to provide electronic dice with low power consumption, so that they can be used for a long time by replacing or charging the battery.

1 shows the structure of an electronic dice according to the prior art.
Fig. 2 shows the overall configuration of the electronic dice of Fig. 1 of the prior art.
FIG. 3 illustrates a method of determining a die value in the electronic die of FIG. 1 of the prior art.
4 shows the overall structure of an electronic die according to the present invention.
5 is a diagram illustrating a free-fall detection operation and an acceleration value transmission function of the present invention.

The overall structure of the electronic dice according to the present invention will now be described with reference to Fig.

The electronic die 40 according to the present invention has an acceleration sensor 42 and a short range communication module 43 (for example, a Bluetooth communication module) arranged on a circuit board 41 and a rechargeable battery 44 And supplies power to the circuit board 41 from the rechargeable battery 44. The USB port 45 is disposed on the circuit board 41 so that the rechargeable battery 44 can be charged by connecting a USB cable to a USB port of a computer or the like. In addition, the LED lamp 46 is provided to indicate the charged amount of the rechargeable battery 45, and when it is insufficient, the red lamp is turned on. The LED lamp 47 is turned on when the electronic die 40 is operated ) Will light blue for a few seconds (eg 5 seconds).

4, the acceleration sensor 42, the short range communication module 43, the USB port 45, the LED lamp 46, and the LED lamp 47 are disposed on the upper surface of the circuit board 41. However, It is preferable that a part of the substrate 41 is disposed on the lower surface of the circuit board 41 in consideration of the fact that the substrate 41 is disposed inside the electronic dice of a small size.

An opening (not shown) is provided on the surface 48 of the electronic die 40 so that the USB port 45, the LED lamp 46, and the LED lamp 47 are exposed to the outside.

The acceleration sensor 42 outputs the acceleration values in the X, Y, and Z axes from the time of detecting the free fall described below. In the short distance communication module 43, the acceleration sensor 42 outputs X, The acceleration values of the Y and Z axes are transmitted to an external terminal (eg, a computer, a smartphone, a game machine, or a smart TV) using a near field wireless communication method (eg, Bluetooth or Zigbee communication method).

Next, a free fall detection operation and an acceleration value transmission function according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In the conventional technique of FIG. 3, a motion detection step (S33) for detecting a user throwing operation is performed, a peak detection step (S35) is performed to detect that the electronic dice fall on the floor, A stop state detection step (S38) of detecting a stop state is performed. In the present invention, however, a simple method of detecting only a free fall state in which an electronic die leaves a human hand and has no acceleration is used.

That is, if the electronic die 40 is thrown and the electronic die 40 leaves the hand and the force by the hand is not applied, the acceleration sensor 42 of the MBA180 chip model name of Bosch Co., It has built-in free fall detection that detects when acceleration values are close to zero at the same time. In this acceleration sensor 42, an error range that can be regarded as a true free fall is set, and a count period (for example, 0.5 seconds) is set in advance to exclude a case where the free fall time is short as in the case of being slightly thrown on the palm And a pulse is generated at the free fall sensing terminal A only when the free fall considered period to which the error is applied exceeds this count period.

Then, when the pulse output of the free fall detection terminal A is inputted to the timer 49, the timer 49 generally generates a pulse for a predetermined sufficient duration considering the time until the electronic dot falls to the bottom and stops The output of the timer 49 is inputted to the enable terminal E of the local area communication module 43 and the local communication module 43 is activated for the duration time (for example, 5 seconds) And transmits the X, Y, and Z axis acceleration values received by the acceleration sensor 42 to an external terminal (e.g., a PC or a smart phone) in a short distance wireless communication method at an appropriate time interval (e.g., 0.1 second interval).

In the above description, the case where the free fall detection device and the acceleration sensor are implemented by one IC has been described, but the same is true when the free fall detection function is separated from the acceleration sensor.

Also, the function of the timer may be implemented in the inside of the short-range communication module, or may be calculated by software, so that the power of the wireless module may be automatically shut off after the transmission for a predetermined period of time.

The external terminal determines that the change of the acceleration through the X, Y and Z axis acceleration values received for 5 seconds is less than the set value for a predetermined time or longer, Determines the direction of the top surface of the stopped dice based on the acceleration values of the X, Y, and Z axes in the electronic dice, and determines whether the direction of the top surface of the stopped dice previously stored in the memory unit of the electronic die corresponds to X, Y, or Z The die number is read to determine the die number (number).

As a result, in the prior art electronic dice, a complicated process including a motion detection step / a peak detection step / a stop state detection step is performed as shown in FIG. 3 to detect a stop state. Therefore, And a memory for storing a program for performing the process as shown in FIG. 3 is essential, so that the manufacturing cost of the electronic dice becomes high.

However, according to the present invention, it is possible to manufacture a low-priced electronic dice because only a free fall can be detected, so that there is little possibility of error and the processing is simple and a low-performance processing device is possible.

3, since the processing and control unit 16 and the memory unit 16 must be always operated, the battery 15 is required to be continuously operated, It is difficult to use the electronic dice for a long time and the battery 15 must be replaced or charged from time to time.

However, in the electronic dice of the present invention, the processing is simple and a low-performance processor can be used, so that the power consumption of the rechargeable battery (battery) is small and it can be used for a long time without charging.

On the other hand, the electronic dice of the simple structure of the present invention described above can be applied not only to general dice from one point to six points, but also to various dice such as numbers, flags, fruits, .

Further, in the case of the existing electronic dice, it is difficult to change because a method of determining a die value in the internal memory is already built in. However, in the present invention, since it can be determined in software by an external terminal, This is possible.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to a regular hexahedron die, the present invention is also applicable to various regular hexahedra such as 4, 8, 10, and 12-sided bodies depending on the calculation capability of the external terminal. That is, it is possible to apply the polygonal six-sided dice reading method in which only acceleration values of -g, 0, and + g are recognized to 1 / 2g or the like more finely.

Although it has been described above that the acceleration value received by the acceleration sensor 42 is transmitted to the external terminal through the short-range wireless communication method for a predetermined sufficient duration, it is determined that there is no variation in the acceleration value When the state (close to 0) is maintained for a predetermined time, it is determined that the thrown dice have stopped at the floor, and the radio transmission by short-range wireless communication is voluntarily interrupted, thereby reducing power consumption.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims (6)

In electronic dice,
Wherein the electronic dice include an acceleration sensor, a free fall sensing device, a short range wireless communication device, and a rechargeable battery;
The acceleration sensor outputs an acceleration value of the electronic die;
Wherein the free fall detection device detects whether the electronic die is in a free fall state in which there is no acceleration value;
Wherein the short range communication device transmits an acceleration value output from the acceleration sensor to an external device by a short distance wireless communication method for a preset period of time from a moment when the free fall detection device senses a free fall state;
Wherein the external device determines that the change in the received acceleration is a stop state when the change in the received acceleration is equal to or less than a predetermined value for a predetermined time or longer, and determines a die value. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the rechargeable battery is charged through a USB port built in the electronic dice. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the electronic dice further include an LED lamp that lights for a predetermined period of time from the instant of freefall detection to inform that the electronic dice are operating. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the electronic dice are printed on the surface of the electronic dice so as to be distinguishable from each other. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the electronic die is a regular polyhedron. In electronic dice,
Wherein the electronic dice include an acceleration sensor, a free fall sensing device, a short range wireless communication device, and a rechargeable battery;
The acceleration sensor outputs an acceleration value of the electronic die;
Wherein the free fall detection device detects whether the electronic die is in a free fall state in which there is no acceleration value;
The short range communication device starts to transmit the acceleration value outputted from the acceleration sensor to the external device in the short distance wireless communication method from the moment when the free fall detection device senses the free falling state, If it is determined that the thrown die is stopped at the floor, the wireless transmission by the short-range wireless communication is stopped;
Wherein the external device determines a die value in such a stopped state.

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