This is nearly bang on correct. The pieces don't contain any electronics or sensors, they have a conductive pattern built into the surface using specialized materials and a manufacturing technique we developed in house. Our custom software stack processes the raw data from the device's touch sensor using embedded ML on the NPU, which detects and tracks the pieces in real time.
That said, the device can detect the pieces whether you touch them or not. Touching them absolutely does change the response, and we pass that along as a parameter to the SDK.
Your coin exploration is seriously cool, please hit me up when you're next in NYC!
> they have a conductive pattern built into the surface using specialized materials and a manufacturing technique we developed in house.
Would this be something a home 3D printer could do? I'm not a maker but I could see the value of others being able to quickly build a universe of playing pieces if that was possible.
It's possible to make your own pieces with a multi-material 3d printer (our early prototypes have been made with Bambu X1C & H2D printers), though it's pretty finicky to do so, and requires some rather expensive filament. Happy to help anyone along though!
This was my immediate thought. I have a Bamboo X1C; buying special conductive filament is fine if you're just making a few pieces.
Board is MUCH more interesting to me if I can easily program it for my own games, especially if I can share them with others. I'm thinking about TTRPGs and other army building games where each piece has unique capabilities and rules.
It would be nice if I could buy smart bases, kind of like RFID stickers. Something I can glue to the base of an existing miniature with a 10-20mm round/square/hex base.
With those tools, I would build deep accounting assistance for complex games. If it's cheap, you could put custom terrain pieces on the Board with smart properties (hard cover, soft cover, blocks line of sight, etc).
Obviously there are lots of partnership opportunities there. You could get the table top game publishers to publish Board editions of their games that automatically keep up to date with the latest rules.
If that all works, the obvious next limitation would be board size. a 24" screen can do a lot, but many games would benefit from a screen measured in feet. That would be expensive and hard to move around though, given the current thickness.
Perhaps an intermediate solution would be support for tiling Boards. Everyone brings their own, you shove them together and have a much larger playing surface. Bezel width would be annoying here.
i imagine the special filament might only be needed for a layer or two (assuming the board contact surface is the top or the bottom that is)?
It might be easier to 3d print normally, then separately 2d print the capacitative layer, then stick it on the bottom of the 3d printed piece: https://youtu.be/ON-6bdhQHpI
It would sound more logical to me to buy a stack of pre-made patterns (e.g. coin or cube form-factor) and glue them into a like-shaped slot in a 3d-printed playing piece. Assuming that is possible, and you'd still have to make a conductive path to the person touching the piece, but this would be much easier than printing the pattern yourself.
Sure, a modular system would work as you suggest.
It is not a requirement to provide a conductive path to the person though. The patterns (glyphs as we call them) are detected and tracked regardless of whether they are being touched. However, when there is a conductive path to the person, the system detects that which provides another input vector.
This screams for compatibility with 3d printers. eg: design a piece to be "absorbed" by a LEGO brick (2x4, duh!), and design a capacitive pathway for "two buttons" a-la: https://a.co/d/f7wm3GA
3D print your goblin army, snap it to the base, touch the sword arm to attack, the shield arm to defend, etc. light up the base via capacitive to 0/1/2 inputs and you're set!
Have you played the zAPPed games?
Should Mars After Midnight be released on Steam?