A hand-held puzzle game having an outer cube-shaped puzzle surrounding an inner spherical puzzle. An embodiment of the invention provides a six-sided, two-by-two cube puzzle containing a spherical puzzle with nine floating two-color parts and six pole centers, three of which are V-shaped to restrict rotation in some directions. The outer cube and inner sphere puzzles maybe solved independently, or the two puzzles may be solved jointly to solve the entire puzzle.

Ecosystems and related devices, methods, and systems are provided. An ecosystem includes a sensing implement that has one or more sensing implement light sources, one or more remote accessories that has one or more accessory light sources, and control circuitry that communicably couples the sensing implement to the one or more remote accessories. The control circuitry in operation determines a color of an object based on one or more signals received indicative of the color of the object, and generates one or more signals to cause the one or more sensing implement light sources to illuminate the sensing implement in a color that substantially matches the color of the object. The control circuitry in operation can also generate one or more signals to cause the one or more accessory light sources to illuminate the one or more remote accessories in a color that substantially matches the color of the object.

In one embodiment, a neuromorphic robot includes a curved outer housing that forms a continuous curved outer surface, a plurality of trackball touch sensors provided on and extending across the continuous curved outer surface in an array, each trackball sensor being configured to detect a direction and velocity a sweeping stroke of a user, and a plurality of lights, one light being collocated with each trackball touch sensor and being configured to illuminate when its collocated trackball touch sensor is stroked by the user, wherein the robot is configured to interpret the sweeping stroke of the user sensed with the plurality of trackball touch sensors and to provide immediate visual feedback to the user at the locations of the touched trackball touch sensors.

A constrained puzzle device including a housing formed with a radial crescent gutter; one or more slots providing an opening from an outer edge of the housing toward a centerline of the housing; a cartridge wheel nested within the slot and rotatably coupled to the housing, the cartridge wheel having multiple channels passing therethrough. The constrained puzzle device further includes one or more dials rotatably coupled with the housing, the dials configured with structures extending at least partially over the crescent gutter to create one or more pocket regions. Puzzle objects can be disposed within a channel of the cartridge wheel and the slot of the housing, or within the crescent gutter of the housing and a pocket formed by at least one arm member of the dial. The puzzle objects can be moved around in the constrained puzzle device as a user rotates the dials and/or the cartridge wheels.

In one embodiment, a neuromorphic robot includes a curved outer housing, and multiple touch sensors provided on the outer housing, wherein the robot is configured to interpret a touch of a user sensed with the touch sensors.

A hand-held puzzle game having an outer cube-shaped puzzle surrounding an inner spherical puzzle. An embodiment of the invention provides a six-sided, two-by-two cube puzzle containing a spherical puzzle with nine floating two-color parts and six pole centers, three of which are V-shaped to restrict rotation in some directions. The outer cube and inner sphere puzzles maybe solved independently, or the two puzzles may be solved jointly to solve the entire puzzle.

An apparatus for shape and color matching retrieval games to be played in a body of water, such as a swimming pool, includes base stations, cover panels, and retrieval objects that players retrieve from the body of water during play of the game. The base provides a support to which cover panels can be removably affixed. The base and the cover panels each have on their top surfaces a series of position markers in the nature of slots formed in various geometric shapes. Each base and cover panel has a subset of retrieval objects matched in shape and/or color to its respective position markers. A method is provided for playing different versions of retrieval games using the base and the cover panels.

A constrained puzzle device including a housing formed with a radial crescent gutter; one or more slots providing an opening from an outer edge of the housing toward a centerline of the housing; a cartridge wheel nested within the slot and rotatably coupled to the housing, the cartridge wheel having multiple channels passing therethrough. The constrained puzzle device further includes one or more dials rotatably coupled with the housing, the dials configured with structures extending at least partially over the crescent gutter to create one or more pocket regions. Puzzle objects can be disposed within a channel of the cartridge wheel and the slot of the housing, or within the crescent gutter of the housing and a pocket formed by at least one arm member of the dial. The puzzle objects can be moved around in the constrained puzzle device as a user rotates the dials and/or the cartridge wheels.