Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 17:25:06 02/19/98
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On February 19, 1998 at 15:02:07, Stuart Cracraft wrote: > >I am curious as to who went to the Tasc company with the >smartboard technology originally? > >Is there someone who holds a patent on this technology? > >I thought Ken Thompson and/or David Callenhdar invented >this technology years and years ago? > >On another note, does anyone have one of these Smartboards >and want to sell it to me? > >--Stuart To the best of my knowledge, Ken did it first. Using (first) reed switches and magnets, then, later, coils in the bottom of the pieces so that he could tell which piece was on a square. Dave Cahlander later made one for chess 4.6... I followed suit with several versions. One using hall effect transistors to detect magnetic strength, with various sized magnets so I could determine which piece (specifically) was on a square. Didn't work very well, even though I put 4 transistors under each square so the piece didn't have to be centered. I then used reed switches which worked perfectly. I still have that board although I haven't tried it in at least 10 years. These all date back to the late 1970's era. I first used mine in 1977, so Ken and dave were somewhat before that. Problem was, none of us thought to patent the idea... so it can't be patented now by anyone, since "prior work" can be proven... A shame we didn't think of it... but it was all for fun with us anyway...
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