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.

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.

A compact mechanical toy is provided. The toy is a base coupled to several stacks including multiple story and a plurality of movable disks. The toy includes a first part including one stack having different shaped stories that go from largest to smallest starting from the bottom which fits any one of the disks at one time. The toy further includes a second part movable disks coupled to the first part, the second part including complex embodied cavity shaped to fit each of the plurality of movable disks that matches all multiple stories attributes in a certain order. The object of the game is to move each of the plurality of disks from a first stack to the opposite stack.

The inductive/capacitive coupling technology and the radio frequency identification devices (RFID) technology are applied to analyze the relative position of multiple RFID tagged objects located within a finite three-dimensional space. The RFID tags of the objects are read by an antenna at a series of resonance frequencies, with an effective reading range of the antenna changing as the resonance frequency changes. The spatial sequence of the objects is derived based on the information of multiple sets of RFID tags in multiple readings. The technology can be applied to a variety of toys and teaching tools, such as the Tower of Hanoi game.

This invention relates generally to a game-piece article. In one embodiment, a game-piece article includes, but is not limited to, a base structure comprised of a base and at least one pylon structure coupled to the base structure and projecting therefrom.

The present invention provides a system and accompanying method for deriving spatial sequence of multiple objects on an interactive surface. The system includes an interactive surface and multiple physical objects. Each object is placed within a finite three-dimensional space on the interactive surface, and embedded with an RFID tag. The interactive surface further includes an RF module, an antenna, a host, an adjustable matching network, a channel switch, and an output module. The host instructs the channel switch to change the parameters of the components of the adjustable matching network to generate a series of resonance frequencies. And the host instructs the antenna to read the RFID tags at the series of resonance frequencies, with an effective reading range of the antenna changing as the resonance frequency changes. The host receives information of multiple sets of RFID tags in multiple readings, derives a spatial sequence of the objects placed on the interactive surface, and provides the output signal or action through the output module. The invention could be applied to the Tower of Hanoi game.