Everything 2014++
Art of Agreement
Concrete suggestions

Simple inventions

Index

• Swinging chessboard  (2014-March)
• Dryer lint  (1969-spring/summer)

Swinging chessboard  (2014-March)

Chess players use chess diagrams for the logical reasons. It is however pleasant to watch tournament games among grandmasters on a computer screen, and the chess position (the board and the pieces) on the table between the players. Furthermore, a chess fan who player a game against a computer may prefer a 3D-representation of the position rather than a diagrammatic presentation. The 3D-representation is pleasant.

There is a difficulty related to a 3D-representation. The screen view is still 2D (not 3D) since the screen is 2D. It follows that 1.some pieces may partially obstruct the view of other pieces, and 2.the total picture does not feel sufficiently 3D.

SOLUTION

The image of the chess scene should swing slightly and at just right frequency, say one bach-and-forth swing once per second. Then the view would create a stereoscopic effect. From one moment to another one would see just a little visible portion of a chess piece. This way the pieces, even partially obstructed, would be easy to identify, and we would get the stereoscopic 3D-effect.

Let me add that for almost all people the effect of swinging would be easy on viewers and even pleasant.

There is more than one way to implement a presentation of an actual chess game between two payers. And in the case of chess fans playing their computers it is easy to simulate the swinging effect. Going back to presenting an actual game, here are two methods:

• The old fashion way: there can be just one camera but it'd swing inside a properly engineered compartment, so that the swing amplitude would be about ten iinches (25cm).
• The modern approach: a synchronized array of 4 to 6 cameras would film the scene continuously. But, in the simple case, only one image at the time would be presented in the following order (here consider 4 cameras C0 C1 C2 C3):
  

  ... C0   C1   C2   C3   C2   C1   C0   C1 ...

  so that each stage Ck would last 1/6 of a second. Furthermore, with a help of simple image processing we can insert inermediate images which would be weighted averages from the consecutive respective two neighboring cameras; for instant, inserting two intermediate images between every two listed consecutive images could be presented symbolically as follows:
  

  ... C0   001  011  C1 112  122   C2  223  233   C3  332  322   C2 ...  

  The actual size of the array of the synchronized cameras may depend on the state of technology, cost, etc.

Dryer lint  (1969-spring/summer)

I came to the USA near the end of spring of 1969. Since that time it bothered me that each I used a dryer I had to throw away the lint collected on the dryer's screen. I alway wanted to contact any chemist or other specialist to find a way to take advantage of this obviously wonderful material which was lint. I don't know why I what I was waiting for for nearly 45 years. Somehow this waste should be stopped. And someone should even make reasonable money on this. Go ahead, please do it. I'd be just happy to see my idea reduced to practice.