The present invention provides a cubic puzzle which is capable of changing its entire body into a cubic block shape ad has an improved entertainment property as a toy. A controller automatically changes a display pattern to a reference pattern by an actuator, making it a minimum condition that a current pattern being a display pattern at that point of time when identified by a pattern identifying means is different from a reference pattern being a predetermined reference display pattern, while a start state detecting means detects a predetermined start state.

Disclosed are puzzle devices for production of one or more puzzles. The puzzle devices can include a body and at least one input device. The body can include a plurality of panels, each panel configured to display one or more visual indicators. The at least one input device can include a plurality of panels, each panel configured to display a visual indicator. The at least one input device can move relative to the body to align one or more panels of the input device with one or more panels of the body. The body can further include a plurality of visual output devices configured to generate visual indicators on the plurality of panels of the body.

Connector element includes an enclosure made of a generally non-magnetic material having an open face; an insulating plate with a plate aperture; a permanent magnet placed inside the enclosure, the magnet dimensions preventing egress from the enclosure through the plate aperture; a washer made of a conductive soft ferromagnetic material with a washer aperture being larger than dimensions of said permanent magnet, placed inside the enclosure. Also disclosed are transformable electronic devices, optionally including displays, toys and educational kits built using the self-actuating connector elements.

Connector element includes an enclosure made of a generally non-magnetic material having an open face; an insulating plate with a plate aperture; a permanent magnet placed inside the enclosure, the magnet dimensions preventing egress from the enclosure through the plate aperture; a washer made of a conductive soft ferromagnetic material with a washer aperture being larger than dimensions of said permanent magnet, placed inside the enclosure. Also disclosed are transformable electronic devices, optionally including displays, toys and educational kits built using the self-actuating connector elements.

Connector element includes an enclosure made of a generally non-magnetic material having an open face; an insulating plate with a plate aperture; a permanent magnet placed inside the enclosure, the magnet dimensions preventing egress from the enclosure through the plate aperture; a washer made of a conductive soft ferromagnetic material with a washer aperture being larger than dimensions of said permanent magnet , placed inside the enclosure. Also disclosed are transformable electronic devices, optionally including displays, toys and educational kits built using the self-actuating connector elements.

A wisdom ring puzzle includes a base, a three-dimensional structure including a columnar structure and a first structure having an arched structure or an annular structure, and a member having an annular structure. The columnar structure has a first connection member and a first annular member. The columnar structure and the first structure are provided to face each other in a side view. The first connection member passes through the first structure and has one end connected to the columnar structure and another end to the first annular member. The columnar structure and the first structure is included inside a ring of the first annular member.

A linked sequence of mechanically encoded puzzle pages is disclosed. Each page is comprised of multiple planar layers interconnected to implement the puzzle design of the page. The puzzle of each page must be solved to disengage a latching mechanism enabling the player to turn the page and begin solving the puzzle in the next page. Similarly for the next page, and each succeeding page until the last page, solution to the puzzle by the player will disengage a latching mechanism. The latching mechanism holds the active page being solved by the player to the next page. In the implementation of the invention described in this disclosure the latching mechanism comprises a hooking piece protruding in a perpendicular direction from the planar front surface of the next page, where the hooking piece fits into an opening on the planar back surface of the active page and a blocking piece on the active page is aligned between the hook portion and the exit to the opening, thereby preventing the hooking piece on the next page from disengaging from the active page.

A linked sequence of mechanically encoded puzzle pages is disclosed. Each page is comprised of multiple planar layers interconnected to implement the puzzle design of the page. The puzzle of each page must be solved to disengage a latching mechanism enabling the player to turn the page and begin solving the puzzle in the next page. Similarly for the next page, and each succeeding page until the last page, solution to the puzzle by the player will disengage a latching mechanism. The latching mechanism holds the active page being solved by the player to the next page. In the implementation of the invention described in this disclosure the latching mechanism comprises a hooking piece protruding in a perpendicular direction from the planar front surface of the next page, where the hooking piece fits into an opening on the planar back surface of the active page and a blocking piece on the active page is aligned between the hook portion and the exit to the opening, thereby preventing the hooking piece on the next page from disengaging from the active page.

A child play puzzle includes a set of pieces each defining a non-circular aperture therethrough. The child play puzzle also includes a base and a pole extending from the base along a pole axis. The pole sequentially receives each piece of the set of pieces with the pole extending through the aperture of each piece to form a stack of the pieces along the pole. The pole has multiple sections spaced along its length. Each section is of non-circular cross-section in a plane perpendicular to the pole axis. At least one of the sections is rotatable about the pole axis with respect to an adjacent one of the sections, such that moving a piece from about the rotatable section to about the adjacent section requires rotationally aligning the rotatable section with the adjacent section.

Disclosed herein are embodiments of three-dimensional puzzles that implement image sensors to read signatures of individual shell segments to thereby determine shell segment patterns. Also disclosed are embodiments of systems that implement RGB sensors adjacent gradient color maps to provide contactless absolute position encoders.