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TileToy LED Puzzle And Jeff Noon's Randominoes
TileToy is described on its website as a "modular, electronic game prototype for tangible LED game tiles." The tiles themselves are two inch-square plastic boxes with a matrix of LEDs on one face.
In one possible version of the games that could be played with TileToys, a pattern of LEDs appears on each cube. The player must match up the four cubes; if the player fails to match them up within a time limit, the cubes all change their patterns, and the game restarts.
(TileToy LEDs change to restart game)
TileToy provides a very flexible platform for all kinds of games; the LEDs can even play simple animations. The source code and hardware are available via open licenses.
The re-programmable and constantly updated graphical information on each tile is displayed with a LED matrix system. The screen displaying the information is an endlessly versatile surface for updated visual communication. Each tile is controlled individually and can be used to transmit information on its own or in groups of several tiles. The assembled tiles transmit wirelessly their individual position in relation to each other and based on that changing information, a central computer, or a dedicated tile runs the different applications.
(From TileToy)
TileToy is very similar to the randominoes from Jeff Noon's 2000 novel Nymphomation.
As soon as the dominoes hit the table their numbers began to change! What was once the double-six was now the the five-one. He picked up the bone, not believing what he had seen. In his hand, after two seconds, it changed again, this time to the three-one. Every two seconds brought another change...'"Intrigued, Jimmy?" asked Malthorpe...
"It's quite simple. Max, here, invented them. We call them randominoes. Very clever; a random number generator in each piece. The dots are best thought of as rather large pixels. They light up according to the numbers generated."
(Read more about Jeff Noon's randominoes)
TileToy is a collaboration between Tuomo Tammenpaa and Daniel Blackburn and is supported by the Center for Excellence in Digital Design at the University of Huddersfield in the UK.
Find out more about TileToy (and at Techeblog); thanks to Armchair Anarchist for the tip and the quote on this story.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 5/18/2006)
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