Patent Description:
The following terms are used in this description:.

Currently, there exists a great variety of electronic devices equipped with displays. They can be used for various purposes, in particular, presentation of graphical data, education and entertainment, including puzzle applications.

For example, the background of the invention includes a known electronic device with a three-dimensional transformable display, which includes one central element, around which several peripheral elements are located, each having flat faces and being able to move with respect to and rotate about the central element, and each peripheral element has at least one display on an external face of the element and contact groups on the internal faces of the above-mentioned element, and the device has a microprocessor connected to a power supply located inside the above-mentioned element, see the specification of <CIT>.

In its technical essence, that device is nearest to the claimed invention, and in the patent specification herein, the difference from that device will be described.

The drawback of that device is that all its peripheral elements are linked to the central one by means of axes, as in well-known Rubik's Cube puzzle, which makes the device subject to wear. Moreover, that device contains only one microprocessor (or as few as possible), and becomes entirely inoperative, if the processor or a processor-display connector fails. In exactly the same way, it has a single power supply installed in the central element, and, when the power supply discharges, the device also stops operating until the power supply is recharged.

Additionally, it should be noted that if this device is used as an educational or gaming tool, and information about relative positioning of the device elements is required, the device needs a gyroscope and an accelerometer. These are additional elements, which complicate the structure and may fail as well. All this affects negatively the reliability and lifetime of the device.

Furthermore, operation of this device requires data exchange between device elements, which are equipped with display units. This also adds to the mechanical complexity of the structure and increases the possibility of failures of contact groups, and there should be quite a few contact groups to ensure parallel data transmission, otherwise the speed of device operation will be low due to serial data exchange via a small number of connections.

Thus, the problem of the invention background is wearing of the elements of the device during operation, as well as its low reliability.

Other examples of the art are <CIT>, <CIT> and <CIT>.

The main purpose of the invention is to propose an electronic device with a three-dimensional transformable display allowing one to increase reliability and lifetime of the device, which is the engineering problem to be solved.

To achieve this goal, each peripheral element is equipped with its own microprocessor connected with the own power supply. The processor and power supply are located inside this peripheral element, and the contact groups of the element are formed by magnets, which are manufacture in such a way as to ensure the possibility of holding the adjacent peripheral elements together, while transmitting electric signals between the elements at the same time.

Due to these advantageous options, a new possibility is opened up, one to make a device without any axes or wearing movable parts, being a structure that consists of individual stationary elements connected together only due to the action of the magnetic force.

There is an option of the invention, where magnets are made as balls, which are located in spherical seats and can rotate about their centers.

This advantageous feature allows the magnets to rotate individually and match their spatial orientation with the required polarity, thus ensuring their interaction with the magnets of another element.

Another option of the invention is a structure, in which magnets are made as balls fixed on the contact groups with collars that hold the magnets in place, while letting them rotate about their centers.

This advantageous feature provides the magnets with an alternative possibility to rotate individually and match their spatial orientation with the polarity required for interaction with the magnets of another element.

The cumulative evidence of the proposed invention is unknown in the background of the invention for similar-purpose devices. This makes it possible to conclude that the novelty criterion is complied with for this invention. The use of magnets to not only hold structural elements together, but transmit electric signals as well, with correct automatic orientation of the magnetic poles shows that this solution is unobvious to an expert in the field, which, in its turn, demonstrates that the "level of invention" criterion is complied with for this invention as well.

Other distinctive features and advantages of this invention appear clearly in the description presented for the sake of illustration and being not restrictive, with references to the drawings enclosed, where:.

According to <FIG>, the electronic device with a three-dimensional transformable display includes the central element (<NUM>) and several peripheral elements (<NUM>) located around it, which have flat faces (<NUM>) and are made so that they can move with respect to and rotate about central element <NUM>.

Each peripheral element <NUM> has at least one display (<NUM>) on the external face (<NUM>) of the element and contact groups (<NUM>) located on the internal faces (<NUM>) of this peripheral element.

Each peripheral element <NUM> has its own microprocessor (<NUM>) connected to the own power supply (<NUM>). Microprocessor <NUM> and power supply <NUM> are located inside peripheral element <NUM>, and contact groups <NUM> of peripheral element <NUM> are formed by magnets <NUM>, which make it possible to hold adjacent peripheral elements together, while transmitting electric signals between the elements at the same time.

For example, magnets <NUM> can act as four electric connectors, of which the first one is the grounding connector, the second is the +<NUM> V voltage one, and the third and fourth are serial ports for data reception and transmission. In this example of the contact group implementation, connector options may differ, specifically, some of them can be magnetic, while the others, nonmagnetic. Data exchange connections can use different data protocols, not only serial ones.

In the general case, the number of contacts can be different.

Magnets <NUM> can be made as balls which are set in spherical seats <NUM> and can rotate about their centers.

<FIG> shows schematically the direction of the magnetic field (the arrow with letters N and S). It is seen that magnetic balls are oriented freely. As soon as such a magnetic ball is approached by another magnet installed in another peripheral element, the both balls turn in spherical seats <NUM> interacting with each other, and their opposite poles are attracted and hold individual elements together. Since the magnets are made of current-conducting materials, electric currents can run from one element to another. The formed electric circuit allows transmitting electric voltage and data between peripheral elements.

In the general case, the grounding connector can be connected to the central element without magnets or in direct connection.

It should be emphasized that the magnet diameter is slightly less than the diameter of spherical seats <NUM>, i.e., the formed gap allows magnet <NUM> to move forward towards the matching element, which eliminates the problem of unstable gaps between peripheral elements.

In the general case, spherical seats <NUM> can be replaced with special fixing elements, e.g., collars <NUM>, which let the magnet rotate freely, while fixing it on the peripheral element (see <FIG>).

Generally, the device can have any shape, preferably that of a three-dimensional polyhedron, a typical representative of this class being a parallelepiped, preferably a cube. The device can consist of different amounts of peripheral elements.

The main variants of the general form of the assembled device are as follows:.

Different variants can have different amounts of displays, since there can be variants, where all peripheral elements are identical, as in the <NUM>×<NUM>×<NUM> case, or, as in the <NUM>×<NUM>×<NUM> case, the peripheral elements are not identical, but are subdivided into corner elements (with three displays each) and side elements (with two displays). Correspondingly, such peripheral elements can have different amounts of internal faces.

In the general case, peripheral elements can have additional electric components, including audio sources, microphones, and LEDs.

The example of operation of the electronic device with a three-dimensional transformable, which is presented here, is exhaustive allowing for the fact, however, that it does not restrict possible application of the invention.

A microprocessor and a power supply (rechargeable battery) are installed in each peripheral element and connected to displays on the external faces of the element. Thus, each peripheral element is an autonomous individual device. Being magnetically connected to similar peripheral elements via contact magnets, such elements are synchronized and can operate as an integral system, displaying a common image.

Therefore, it is possible to assemble one integral electronic device, which can display either one common image on a set of individual displays, or several different individual images, for example, one image per element face.

An important feature of such an electronic device is its mobility, i.e., the ability of individual peripheral elements to change their positions and be fixed in new positions with the general shape of the entire device being retained (in the general case, even the general shape can be transformed).

When individual peripheral elements move, the magnets of the adjacent elements are detached and reconnected in new positions. Magnets and magnetic connectors hold the structure in a certain position, but also ensure transmission of voltages and interface signals between elements by creating an electric circuit for the interaction of peripheral elements.

The central element installed in the center of the structure can be made as, e.g., a steel ball (in the general case, the shape and material of the central element can be different). It acts as an internal support for peripheral elements rotating about it.

In the state, when an internal face of one peripheral element moves closely to a similar internal face of another peripheral element, the ball magnets affected by the magnetic field of the approaching contact group rotate and are attracted to each other according to their polarity (S N/N S), thus forming electric circuits. The situation, when identical poles of the ball magnets face each other (S S/N N), is impossible, since the balls are not fixed rigidly and can rotate in their seats.

Magnets, which are fixed rigidly, and magnets, which can rotate freely, can be used simultaneously. In this case, fixed magnets can be used to ensure magnetic connection with the central ball.

The electronic device with a three-dimensional transformable display can be implemented in practice by a specialist in the corresponding field and, being implemented, ensures realization of the stated purpose, which allows one to conclude that the "industrial applicability" criterion is complied with for this invention.

In accordance with the proposed invention, a <NUM>×<NUM>×<NUM> prototype of the electronic device with a three-dimensional transformable display has been manufactured and has a central ball with eight identical peripheral elements surrounding it. Each of the peripheral elements has three displays.

Tests of the prototype of the electronic device with a three-dimensional transformable display have showed that:.

Thus, this invention achieves the stated goal, namely, improvement of reliability and lifetime of the device.

An additional useful technological result of the proposed invention is that it can be used:.

Additionally, this application discloses the following possible specifications of the device, which were added at the moment of submission of the international application and were not disclosed in the priority application, namely, an option of the invention, where magnets are covered with protective current-conducting plates made of a non-magnetic material, which act as contacts.

Due to this advantageous option, there appears an alternative that lets a magnetic ball get oriented freely. In this case, the above-mentioned plate covers it on the outside and ensures high-quality connection by reducing the number of contacting surfaces in a pair from three (as in <FIG>) to one. The plate itself acts as a conductor, while the magnetic ball is but a self-orienting magnet.

There is a possible option to the invention, where protective current-conducting plates are made of brass.

The choice of the specific material for manufacture of the current-conducting plate is determined by the above-specified advantageous characteristic.

Another option of the invention is where the magnets on the inside of the peripheral element are limited by a ferromagnetic conductor connected to the peripheral element.

Due to this advantageous option, a possibility appears that at the contact instant, the ferromagnetic conductor will be located at one of the poles of the magnetic ball. This point ensures the strongest magnetic attraction and, therefore, the best possible contact. This is one of the longest-lasting design options.

Additionally, the description is supplemented with two new figures:.

It is seen in <FIG> that this option ensures the following advantage: it lets magnetic ball <NUM> orient itself freely, while plate <NUM> covers it on the outside, thus reducing the number of contact surfaces from three (as in <FIG>) to one and improving quality of the connection. The plate (<NUM>) itself acts as a conductor, and ball <NUM> is required only as a self-orienting magnet.

<FIG> shows that ferromagnetic conductor <NUM> is located on the side opposite to ball <NUM>. An advantage of this option is that at the instant of the contact, ferromagnetic conductor <NUM> will be located at one of the poles of magnetic ball <NUM>. At this point, the strongest magnetic attraction and, therefore, the best possible contact are ensured.

Claim 1:
An electronic device with a three-dimensional transformable display, which includes one central element, around which several peripheral elements are located, each having flat faces and being movable with respect to, and rotatable about, the central element, and each peripheral element having at least one display on an external face of that peripheral element, and contact groups on internal faces of the peripheral element, the electronic device characterized in that: each peripheral element has its own microprocessor connected to its own power supply, and the microprocessor and the power supply are installed inside the peripheral element, wherein the contact groups in the peripheral element are formed from magnets, which are manufactured in such a way as to ensure the possibility of holding adjacent peripheral elements together, while transmitting simultaneously electrical signals therebetween, each of the magnets being housed in a corresponding socket that defines an interior cavity and an aperture, wherein the cavity is sized to contain the magnet while permitting the magnet to move therein, and wherein the aperture is sized to permit a portion of magnet to protrude from the socket, and wherein the socket further contains a conductive retention structure situated at a side of the magnet opposite the aperture and electrically coupled to the magnet when the magnet is engaged with a magnet from another peripheral element through the aperture.