Patent ID: 7753276

Claim:
An electronic-ink based multi-purpose board game, comprising: a game board having a first electronic-ink display structure for displaying a graphical appearance associated with a particular game to be programmed and played using a plurality of game pieces, wherein each said game piece has a second electronic-ink display structure for displaying a graphical appearance associated with the particular game programmed and to be played using said board game; wherein said first and second electronic-ink display structures each include: (1) an addressable display assembly including a layer of electronic ink including a bi-stable non-volatile imaging material disposed between an activation layer and a transparent electrode layer located above said layer of electronic ink, for activating said layer of electronic ink at particular locations to display graphical indicia on the surface of said addressable display assembly corresponding to said graphical appearance of said particular game, wherein said layer of electronic ink does not require electrical power to maintain the display of said graphical indicia; (2) at least one antenna structure for receiving electromagnetic data signals carrying information corresponding to one of instructions, programs, data and graphical indicia to be displayed by said addressable display assembly; (3) an integrated circuit structure having (i) a storage element for storing said instructions, programs and data, and (ii) a programmed processor using said programs to process said instructions and data for (i) determining the graphical indicia to be displayed by said addressable display assembly at any moment in time, (ii) controlling and coordinating operation of said addressable display assembly, and (iii) generating output signals for instructing said addressable display assembly to display the determined graphical indicia; and (4) a signal receiving structure, operably connected to said integrated circuit structure and said at least one antenna structure, for receiving electromagnetic data signals from an activation module, using said at least one antenna structure; wherein said received electromagnetic data signals carry information corresponding to said programs, said instructions, said data or said graphical indicia to be displayed by said addressable display assembly; wherein said integrated circuit structure is responsive to electromagnetic data signals received from said activation module, by said at least one antenna structure and said signal receiving structure; and wherein said addressable display assembly is responsive to said output signals generated by said programmed processor, to display the determined graphical indicia representing said game board or said game pieces for the selected game to be programmed and to be played using said electronic-ink based multi-purpose board game.