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The chess board is called Square Off and the company behind it, following a Kickstarter campaign back in 2016, is called Infivention.
The slogan is: “So advanced that it doesn’t need a screen. Get back to the real, tangible board, this time with the one that has a brain too.”
And yes, it’s very clever that the 2.5-inch pieces don’t collide when being moved automatically.
Arduino and Raspberry Pi
It’s a great idea, of course. And they are not the first to have it, but it seems they are first to market with a commercial product.
In June 2013 we highlighted on Gadget Master an Arduino-based system that used wireless comms to physically move chess pieces. See Arduino powers remote chess moves in (almost) real time.
And back in August 2016, we highlighted a Raspberry Pi chess system to control the movement of pieces on the board. See Wizard Chess moves via Raspberry Pi.
Chess board spec
How does it work? The board uses a 2-axis robotic arm with a magnetic head beneath the box to move the magnetic peices.
It’s powered by an Atmel ATMega2560 chip with Bluetooth comms. It runs on a 2200 mAh Li-io battery (apparently with enough charge for 50 games).
A smaller board measures 486 x 486 x 75mm, and a larger one measures 621 x 486 x75mm. The Square Off app runs on both Android and iOS.
Shipping?
Is it actually shipping? As mentioned, they ran a successful KickStarter campaign at the end of 2016, and around 800 backers pledged £170K to help bring the project to life. It seems they are still in initial fulfilment stage.
The message on the website says “We are currently fulfilling our first batch” and they are taking preorders for more. I can’t see an actual price, but campaign backers were paying £170 for a board.
The computer element of the device – now described as “AI powered”, of course – also has 20 difficulty levels so can train yourself to play better chess. It’s not just about remote games.
It was on display at CES 2018, in the Eureka Park exhibit area for startups.
“Several prototypes, many exhibitions, exhaustive feedback and numerous nights have gone into simplifying the design of Square Off. Finally, a spectacular board was coded in such a fashion that the pieces don’t collide when they move automatically,” says Aatur Mehta, co-founder.
“It’s undergone massive changes and is become swankier by the day,” says the other co-founder, Bhavya Gohil. “After a great deal of research, testing, trials and errors, we have created the board that’s slimmer, classier and the functioning is smoother than ever.”
[Via PC Pro podcast]
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