Apparatus for determining the identity and position of game objects

System for monitoring, displaying, commenting and documenting chess games comprising:

• at least one electronic chessboard, each chessboard including:
• a plurality of individual chess pieces;
• a playing area divided into a plurality of equal size fields, each of said fields being subdivided into at least a first subfield and a second subfield and having an insulating layer disposed between said first and second subfields;
• a plurality of identification devices, each respective identification device including an impedance arrangement and being disposed with a respective one of the plurality of individual chess pieces, each said impedance arrangement electrically connecting said first and second subfields of a respective field when a chess piece is placed upon the respective field;
• signal generating means, connected with said first subfields, for applying an electrical input signal to said first subfields, the electrical input signal being conducted to the second subfield of a respective field by one of said identification devices placed on the respective field to produce an electrical output signal in dependence of the impedance of the impedance arrangement of said one identification device;
• scanning means, connected with said second subfields, for scanning each of said second subfields and for determining if an electrical output signal is present at respective second subfields;
• an evaluation device connected to said scanning means and including:
• storage means for storing signals associated with the impedance arrangement of each of said individual chess pieces;
• and comparator means for comparing the stored signals with the scanned electrical output signals, said comparator means providing an output signal indicating that an electrical output signal scanned at a specific second subfield corresponds to one of said stored signals;
• and
• output means for receiving the output signals of said comparator means and providing a signal corresponding to the identity and position of a chess piece;
• a video interface connected to the at least one electronic chessboard for receiving a signal representing the position of chess pieces placed thereon;
• a video display device connected to the output of the video interface;
• a sample-and-hold circuit connected to the output of the video interface;
• an input keyboard;
• a chess clock operable by the players and connected to the video interface, and
• a data processing device, wherein the video interface is connected with the input keyboard for receiving inputs of game data which are at least one of (a) displayed on the video display device and (b) fed to the data processing device, and the sample-and-hold circuit is connected with the input of the data processing device.

Apparatus for determining the identity and position of a plurality of individual game pieces disposed in different fields of a game board comprising:

• a playing area divided into a plurality of equal size fields, each of said fields being subdivided into first, second and third subfields and having an insulating layer disposed between each subfield;
• an identification device including an impedance arrangement disposed with each of said game pieces, said impedance arrangement electrically connecting at least two of said first, second and third subfields of a respective field when a game piece is placed upon the respective field;
• signal generating means, connected with one of said first, second and third subfields of each field, for applying an electrical input signal to said one subfields, the electrical signal being conducted to the other subfields of a respective field by one of said identification devices placed on the respective field to produce an electrical output signal in dependence of the impedance of the impedance arrangement of said one identification device;
• scanning means being connected with the other subfields for scanning each of the other subfields and for determining if an electrical output signal is present at respective other subfields;
• an evaluation device connected to said scanning means and including:
• storage means for storing signals associated with the impedance arrangement of each of said individual game piece;
• and comparator means for comparing the stored signals with the scanned electrical output signals, said comparator means providing an output signal indicating that an electrical output signal scanned at a specific other subfield corresponds to one of said stored signals;
• and
• output means for receiving the output signals of said comparator means and providing a signal corresponding to the identity and position of a game piece.