Atomic and molecular modeling system

A modeling system comprising:

• a first and a second physical atomic model each including:
• a three-dimensional spherical structure representing a nucleus, wherein the three-dimensional spherical structure has primarily one color that is selected from a finite set of colors,
• at least one bonding arm connected to an outer surface of the nucleus structure, wherein the at least one bonding arm extends distally from the nucleus structure,
• a magnetically attractive portion attached to a distal end of the at least one bonding arm, and
• at least one bonding site on the outer surface of the nucleus structure, wherein the at least one bonding site includes a magnet structured for connecting at least one magnetically attractive portion thereto, wherein the magnet of the at least one bonding site of the second physical atomic model is connected to the magnetically attractive portion of the first physical atomic model to form a molecular model comprising the first and second physical atomic models;
• and
• an application stored on a computer-readable medium, the application including a vision detection and analysis algorithm which when executed by a processor causes the processor to:
• receive image data for a captured image of the molecular model,
• from the received image data, identify a first portion of the image having one of the finite set of colors and a second portion of the image having one of the finite set of colors,
• identify a first at least one contour in the first portion of the image and a second at least one contour in the second portion of the image,
• estimate a size of a first object in the first portion of the image based on the first identified at least one contour and a size of a second object in the first portion of the image based on the second identified at least one contour, and
• identify a first atom represented by the first object and a second atom represented by the second object based on the estimated sizes of the first and second object and the colors of the first and the second portion,
• determine an identity of the molecular model based on the identified first and second atom.

A modeling system comprising:

• at least one physical atomic model including:
• a structure representing a nucleus,
• at least one bonding arm connected to the nucleus structure,
• a magnetically attractive portion attached to a distal end of the bonding arm, and
• at least one bonding site including a magnet structured for connecting at least one magnetically attractive portion thereto;
• and
• an application stored on a computer-readable medium, the application including a vision detection and analysis algorithm which when executed by a processor causes the processor to:
• capture image data associated with the physical atomic model,
• identify at least one color associated with the captured image data,
• identify at least one contour associated with the captured image data, and
• in response to the identified color and the identified contour, identify at least one atom represented by the physical atomic model;
• and
• a circuit included within the nucleus structure, the circuit configured to activate a switch associated with at least one connection communication means when at least one magnetically attractive portion is connected to at least one bonding site.