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Method and toy element for generating a computer-readable representation of aconstruction made of toy building elements

Stoot, Adam Carsten

Publication date:2018

Document VersionPublisher's PDF, also known as Version of record

Link back to DTU Orbit

Citation (APA):Stoot, A. C. (2018). Method and toy element for generating a computer-readable representation of aconstruction made of toy building elements. (Patent No. EP3299072 ).

Printed by Jouve, 75001 PARIS (FR)

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(12) EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION

(43) Date of publication: 28.03.2018 Bulletin 2018/13

(21) Application number: 16190718.3

(22) Date of filing: 27.09.2016

(51) Int Cl.:A63H 33/04 (2006.01)

(84) Designated Contracting States: AL AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB GR HR HU IE IS IT LI LT LU LV MC MK MT NL NO PL PT RO RS SE SI SK SM TRDesignated Extension States: BA MEDesignated Validation States: MA MD

(71) Applicant: Danmarks Tekniske Universitet2800 Kgs. Lyngby (DK)

(72) Inventor: STOOT, Adam Carsten2200 Copenhagen N (DK)

(74) Representative: Zacco Denmark A/SArne Jacobsens Allé 152300 Copenhagen S (DK)

(54) METHOD AND TOY ELEMENT FOR GENERATING A COMPUTER-READABLE REPRESENTATION OF A CONSTRUCTION MADE OF TOY BUILDING ELEMENTS

(57) A method of generating a representation of aconstruction (114) made of interconnected toy buildingelements (101;102;103) comprising at least a first build-ing element (101) and a second building element (102);comprising: measuring (801) an electrical impedancethrough the construction at one or more frequencies viaa first contact area (110) touching at least the first building(101) element and via a second contact area (112) touch-ing at least the second building element (102); generating(802) a computer-readable impedance profile comprisinga representation of the electrical impedance at the oneor more frequencies; retrieving (803) a classificationmodel configured to classify the computer-readable im-pedance profile among a group of classes, comprisingclasses which are associated with a construction repre-sentation for presenting an audio and/or visual represen-tation of the construction (114); and performing classifi-cation (804) of the computer-readable impedance profile,using the classification model, and using the constructionrepresentation to present (805) the audio and/or visualrepresentation (116) of the construction (114).

There is also provided a toy element and a set of toybuilding elements comprising elements made fromgraphene.

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Description

[0001] Toy building elements, typically known as toybricks or bricks, have been very popular for decades andcontinue to be popular even though computer games andother types of game and playing apps and the like aretaking over many types of traditional ways of playing.[0002] It has been realized by many toy manufacturersthat computer programs and apps for tablet computersand smart-phones may enrich the play experience whenworking in unison with or interconnected with physicaltoy elements.[0003] However, especially for construction buildingsets by which various constructions may be assembled,there has not been an interface available for robustly andcost effectively obtaining a computer representation ofthe construction.

RELATED PRIOR ART

[0004] Known methods for obtaining a representationof a construction made of toy building elements are basedon acquiring a visual image and performing imageprocessing to reveal a representation of the constructione.g. a spatial description describing mutual spatial rela-tionships between building elements and referring to anelectronic library of predefined building elements. How-ever such methods requires a camera, are sensitive toambient light conditions, involves the problem that someportions of a construction may be visually hidden to acamera and requires complex image processing, whichrequires processing power.

SUMMARY

[0005] There is provided a method, implemented onan electronic system, of generating a representation ofa construction made of interconnected toy building ele-ments comprising at least a first building element and asecond building element that are electrically conductiveor semi-conductive; comprising:

- measuring an electrical impedance through the con-struction made of interconnected toy building ele-ments at one or more frequencies via a first contactarea touching at least the first building element andvia a second contact area touching at least the sec-ond building element;

- generating a computer-readable impedance profilecomprising a representation of the electrical imped-ance at the one or more frequencies;

- retrieving a classification model configured to clas-sify the computer-readable impedance profile intoone or more classes, comprising classes which areassociated with a construction representation forpresenting an audio and/or visual representation of

the construction; and

- performing classification of the computer-readableimpedance profile, using the classification model,and presenting the audio and/or visual representa-tion of the construction using the construction rep-resentation.

[0006] The electronic system, e.g. comprising a per-sonal computer, smart phone or tablet computer, mayperform the method or only some steps thereof on anongoing or looping basis while a construction is beingbuilt by a person interconnecting the toy building ele-ments.[0007] The method then presents the audio and/or vis-ual representation of the construction at hand that is ac-tually being built by the person. When classes are prop-erly defined it is possible to discriminate at least one con-struction at hand from another and compose the con-struction representation to give audio and/or visual feed-back to the person. The feedback may indicate whethera construction correctly matches a selected referenceconstruction and/or whether a construction correctlymatches a step or sequence of steps of a building in-struction on how to build a selected reference construc-tion. This will greatly improve the experience in a playinvolving the method and the building elements.[0008] Toy building elements that are inter-connecta-ble to build constructions are widely known, e.g. underthe trademarks LEGO, Fischer Technique, etc. Conven-tionally, such toy building elements are made from a plas-tics material such as ABS. However, as explained ingreater detail below toy building elements can be madefrom a material that is electrically conductive or semi-conductive while still preserving at least some of theirknown properties which may be properties enabling fric-tional coupling between elements.[0009] The classification model configured for classi-fying the computer-readable impedance profile may beselected and configured as it is known in the art. In someaspects the classification model is trained on computer-readable impedance profiles obtained by measuring theimpedance of a range of different constructions and at-taching classification labels such as ’correct’, ’step 1/2’,’step 2/2’, and ’unknown’ or according to another namingconvention. A classification model may be a nearestneighbour model, a Support Vector Machine, SVM, oranother type of classification model.[0010] In some aspects a classification model is trainedand downloaded from a server computer, e.g. via theInternet, to the electronic system as it is known in the art.The classification model may be updated via download-ing at intervals.[0011] The classification labels may be associated withconstruction representations e.g. by being stored in anappropriate data structure. The construction representa-tion may comprise a graphical representation of a con-struction that has the same or a similar impedance profile.

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The graphical representation may comprise one or moreof: a spatial description of the mutual relation of elementsin the construction, a type description or identifier, animage, a video sequence and an audio sequence. Thus,having determined a class from the impedance profile,construction representations relevant for the class maybe retrieved and presented.[0012] The presentation of the audio and/or visual rep-resentation of the construction may be rendered on agraphics display, on print and/or via an audio system.[0013] The measuring of an electrical impedance maybe performed at one or more predefined frequencies asit is known in the art. The impedance may be measuredvia an analogue-to-digital converter at the predefined fre-quencies and arranged in an appropriate data structuresuch as in an array of measurement values to generatethe computer-readable impedance profile.[0014] The contact areas touching at least some of thebuilding elements are arranged where frictional couplingor another type of coupling between elements take place.The contact areas may be arranged on or integrated withupwardly extending studs that are arranged in a modulararray for frictional coupling with one or both of inner sidesof a downwardly extending walls of a box-shaped or dif-ferently shaped element and a downwardly extendingdeformable round skirt arranged inside the element.[0015] In some embodiments measuring the electricalimpedance and generating a computer-readable imped-ance profile are performed by a first electronic devicewhich is interconnected with the first toy building elementand second toy building element and which is configuredto transmit the computer-readable impedance profile viaa wired or wireless connection to a second electronicdevice configured to the retrieving of the classificationmodel, the performing of the classification and the ren-dering of the audio and/or visual representation of theconstruction.[0016] The transmission may take place via a wired orwireless connection and appropriate electronic circuitry.In some embodiments a Bluetooth (TM) connection is usused for transmitting the computer-readable impedanceprofile.[0017] Thus, the electronic system comprises the firstelectronic device and the second electronic device. Thesecond electronic device may be a computing device witha graphical user interface, such as a personal computer,a tablet computer, a smart phone, or a smart watch, com-municating with the first electronic device, which may bean interface device configured to apply an electrical in-terrogation signal to the construction via the first contactarea and to acquire a measurement signal from the con-struction via the second contact area.[0018] In other aspects the method is performed by anintegrated electronic computing device with an interfaceconfigures as the interface device mentioned above anda graphical user interface.[0019] In some embodiments the measuring of theelectrical impedance comprises measuring an imped-

ance at DC, and wherein the representation of the elec-trical impedance at one or more frequencies in the com-puter-readable impedance profile is normalized relativeto the impedance at DC.[0020] This provides for a more robust classification ofconstructions. Impedance at DC is also denoted resist-ance.[0021] In some embodiments the measuring of theelectrical impedance comprises measuring and generat-ing the impedance profile to comprise one or more of: animpedance magnitude, an impedance phase shift, andan in-phase component and a quadrature-phase com-ponent.[0022] It may be sufficient, for reliably distinguishingconstructions, to measure an impedance magnitude.Measuring an impedance phase shift or a complex im-pedance at the one or more frequencies or at other fre-quencies provides for distinguishing whether a construc-tion is being touched or not.[0023] In some embodiments the impedance profilecomprises an impedance phase shift or a quadrature-phase component and wherein the classification modelcomprises a class which is associated with a special ef-fect representation for rendering an audio and/or visualrepresentation of the construction with a special effect inaccordance with the special effect representation.[0024] The class which is associated with a special ef-fect representation may be selected, when a constructionis being touched. A separate classification model maybe used to determine whether a construction is beingtouched e.g. by using a threshold based discrimination.[0025] In some embodiments the first contact area andthe second contact area are comprised by an array ofcontact areas that are individually or group-wise address-able via an electronic circuit (308); wherein the methodcomprises: via the electronic circuit applying an interro-gation signal at one or more contact areas comprisingthe first contact area and measuring a response signalat one or more contact areas comprising the second con-tact area.[0026] The interrogation signal may comprise a DC off-set which opens an electronic switch and an AC signalat the one or more frequencies. The AC signal may com-prise a frequency and/or phase swept signal. Thereby acompact and cost effective circuit is provided.[0027] The interrogation signal and the response sig-nal may be applied and measured, respectively accord-ing to a search strategy for generating an impedanceprofile which most strongly discriminates the constructionfrom other constructions.[0028] There is also provided a computer programproduct configured to perform the method set out above,when run on a computer, wherein the method is a com-puter-implemented method run on a computer.[0029] There is also provided a computer programproduct configured to:

- receive a computer-readable impedance profile

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comprising a representation of an electrical imped-ance at the one or more frequencies;

- retrieving a classification model configured to clas-sify the computer-readable impedance profileamong a group of classes, comprising classes whichare associated with a construction representation forrendering an audio and/or visual representation ofthe construction; and

- performing classification of the computer-readableimpedance profile, using the classification model,and using the construction representation to renderthe audio and/or visual presentation of the construc-tion.

[0030] There is also provided a toy element for gener-ating a representation of a construction made of inter-connected toy building elements comprising: a first cou-pling structure with a first contact area and a second cou-pling structure with a second contact area; and an elec-tronic unit configured to:

- measure an electrical impedance at one or more fre-quencies via the first contact point and the secondcontact point both touching a construction made ofinterconnected building elements and coupled to thefirst coupling structure and the second couplingstructure;

- generate a computer-readable impedance profilecomprising a representation of the electrical imped-ance at the one or more frequencies; and

- transmit the computer-readable impedance profilevia a wired or wireless connection.

[0031] In some embodiments the first coupling struc-ture and the second coupling structure are arranged ina spatial array of coupling structures.[0032] The spatial array may be a modular array suchthat building elements can be attached in the same wayat different positions which are spaced apart by modularsteps in one, two or three dimensions. The spatial arrayof coupling structures may allow for interconnection ofthe building elements only at certain angles such as atright angles.[0033] In some embodiments the first coupling struc-ture and the second coupling structure comprise studsarranged on a substantially plane platform.[0034] The studs may extend upwardly and constitutea male connection structure that is interconnectable byfrictional coupling with a female connection structurewhich comprises one or more downwardly extendingsidewalls and a downwardly extending round skirt. Alter-natives to frictional coupling are possible via clamps, riv-ets, nots and bolts and other types of mechanical cou-pling.

[0035] In some embodiments the first coupling struc-ture and the second coupling structure comprise studsand at least a portion of one or more of the studs is madefrom an electrically conductive material, such as a metal,or a semi-conductive material, such as a plastics materialmixed with a metal or graphite.[0036] There is also provided a set of toy building ele-ments comprising a toy building element as set out aboveand a set of interconnectable toy building elements madeof a semi-conducting material.[0037] In some embodiments the set of toy buildingelements are made from a composition of a plastics ma-terial and graphene.[0038] The toy building elements may have an electri-cal conductivity in a range selected from the groups of:

1. 1*10-10 S/m to 1*106 S/m

2. 1*10-7 S/m to 1*105 S/m

3. 1*10-7 S/m to 1*103 S/m

4. Above 1*10-7 S/m

[0039] Where S/m denotes the SI-unit Siemens permeter. The first range, comprises electrical conductivityfor toy building elements made from a metal. The Secondrange comprises electrical conductivity for toy buildingelements made from ABS-plastic with a graphene mon-olayer (pristine). The third range comprises electricalconductivity for toy building elements made from ABS-plastic with rGO (0.4wt%-5.6wt%). The third range is use-ful at least for measuring capacitive impedances.[0040] In some embodiments the set of toy buildingelements comprises a toy building element as set outabove and comprising a computer program product or acomputer programmed to:

- receive a computer-readable impedance profilecomprising a representation of an electrical imped-ance at the one or more frequencies;

- retrieving a classification model configured to clas-sify the computer-readable impedance profileamong a group of classes, comprising classes whichare associated with a construction representation forrendering an audio and/or visual representation ofthe construction; and

- performing classification of the computer-readableimpedance profile, using the classification model,and using the construction representation to renderthe audio and/or visual representation of the con-struction.

[0041] Here and in the following, the terms ’electronicsystem’, ’unit’ and ’device’ are intended to comprise anycircuit and/or device suitably adapted to perform the func-

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tions described herein. In particular, the above term com-prises general purpose or proprietary programmable mi-croprocessors, Digital Signal Processors (DSP), Appli-cation Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), Programma-ble Logic Arrays (PLA), Field Programmable Gate Arrays(FPGA), special purpose electronic circuits, etc., or acombination thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0042] A more detailed description follows below withreference to the drawing, in which:

fig. 1 shows a block diagram of an electronic systemfor classifying a construction made of toy buildingelements;

fig. 2 shows a platform for building elements accom-modating an electronic circuit for measuring andcommunicating an AC impedance measurement toa computer;

fig. 3 shows a block diagram of an electronic circuitfor measuring and communicating an AC impedancemeasurement from the platform for toy building ele-ments to a computer;

fig. 4 shows a range of curves representing a mag-nitude component of AC impedance measurementsfor different constructions of toy building elements;

fig. 5 shows different constructions of toy buildingelements;

fig. 6 shows the range of curves representing a mag-nitude component of AC impedance measurementsand an indication of different measurement frequen-cies;

fig. 7 shows a range of curves representing a phasecomponent of AC impedance measurements for dif-ferent constructions of toy building elements; and

fig. 8 shows a flowchart of generating a computer-readable characterization of a construction made ofinterconnected toy building elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0043] Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of an electronicsystem for classifying a construction made of toy buildingelements. The electronic system 100 comprises a firstelectronic device 115 which communicates with a secondelectronic device such as a smart-phone 108 or a laptopcomputer 109 and serves as an interface between a con-struction 114 made of interconnected toy building ele-ments 101, 102, 103 and second electronic device. Thefirst electronic device 115 communicates with a second

electronic device via a communication connection 118,119 which may be a wired or wireless connection e.g.according to USB, Bluetooth (TM) and/or a Wi-Fi stand-ard.[0044] The first device 115 has a wired connection toat least two different contact areas 110, 111; 112, 113.The contact areas are in this embodiment integrated ata top portion of studs, generally designated by referencenumeral 120, wherein the studs are arranged on a firstplatform 104 and a second platform 105. Each platformcomprises in this embodiment four studs. The contactareas 110, 111; 112, 113 may touch one or more innersides of sidewalls of the building elements 101, 102, 103and/or a round skirt arranged inside the building ele-ments.[0045] The contact areas 110; 111, 112; 113 are con-nected via electrical connections 121, 122 to a unit 106which is configured to measure an AC impedance at oneor more frequencies and in some embodiments also aDC impedance (resistance) between electrical connec-tions 121, 122. A circuit for measuring AC and DC im-pedance is known in the art. Integrated circuits conven-tionally used for estimating a body-fat-percentage maybe used for measuring AC and DC impedance. The unit106 may output an impedance profile as an analogue ordigital signal e.g. in accordance with the I2C protocol tothereby generate a computer-readable impedance pro-file comprising a representation of the electrical imped-ance at the one or more frequencies.[0046] A unit 107 is coupled to receive the impedanceprofile from the unit 106 and serves as an interface forthe communication with the second electronic device108;109 external to the first electronic device 115.[0047] The second electronic device is programmedto receive the impedance profile and to retrieve a classi-fication model configured to classify the computer-read-able impedance profile into one or more classes. Theclassification model has a representation of a decisionboundary distinguishing classes from each another. Theclassification model may be a decision tree, a K-nearestneighbours algorithm, a Support Vector Machine, etc. asit is known in the art. The classification model may bestored locally at the second computing device and/ordownloaded from a server computer. The classificationmodel is trained as it is known in the art to distinguishdifferent constructions made of building elements.[0048] One or more of the classes may be representedby a classification label. Such a classification label maybe associated with a construction representation for pre-senting an audio and/or visual representation of the con-struction e.g. as described in US 6,389,375. The con-struction representation may comprise codes for render-ing a construction on a graphical display or for playbackof another type of audio/visual media. The constructionrepresentation may also or alternatively comprise a codefor raising an event - e.g. for raising an event of playinga presentation and/or of entering a user interface wizardand/or of entering a chapter of human-computer interac-

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tions.[0049] Then, the second electronic device may per-form classification of the computer-readable impedanceprofile, using the classification model, and presenting theaudio and/or visual representation of the construction us-ing the construction representation. The audio represen-tation may comprise sound effects, music, and/orspeech.[0050] The toy building elements may have an electri-cal conductivity in a range selected from the groups of:1*10-10 S/m to 1*106 S/m; 1*10-7 S/m to 1*105 S/m; 1*10-7

S/m to 1*103 S/m and above 1*10-7 S/m, wherein S/mdenotes the SI-unit Siemens per meter. In some embod-iments the building elements are made from a plasticsmaterial mixed with a carbon material such as Grapheneor reduced graphene oxide or graphene related materialsor other 2D-materials or a mix thereof.[0051] Fig. 2 shows a platform for building elementsaccommodating an electronic circuit for measuring andcommunicating an AC impedance measurement to acomputer. The platform 201 comprises a housing 202accommodating the electronic circuit for measuring andcommunicating an AC impedance measurement to acomputer or another electronic device. The platform 202comprises an array with rows and columns of couplingstructures, generally designated by reference numeral203, in the form of upwardly extending studs with a con-tact areas for establishing electrical contact with buildingelements placed for coupling with the coupling structureson the platform. The coupling units are arranged in amodular array, equidistantly, for frictional coupling withone or both of inner sides of a downwardly extendingwalls of a box-shaped element and a downwardly ex-tending deformable round skirt arranged inside the build-ing elements. In some embodiments, other types of build-ing elements may be used e.g. cylindrically shaped ele-ments.[0052] Fig. 3 shows a block diagram of an electroniccircuit for measuring and communicating an AC imped-ance measurement from the platform for toy building el-ements to a computer. The block diagram comprises anarray, generally designated 301, of contact areas ar-ranged in rows and columns. Each contact area is con-nected to a switch circuit 304 which is electrically con-nected to the contact area, a row line and a column line.Row lines, such as R1 and R2 are connected to a rowinterrogation circuit 302 and column lines, such as C1and C2, are connected to a column sensing circuit 303.An addressing circuit 305 controls the row interrogationcircuit 302 and the column sensing circuit 303 to obtainimpedance profiles in co-operation with impedancemeasurement unit 306 between selected ones or groupsof contact areas e.g. by scanning. The impedance pro-files are communicated to a second electronic devicesuch as a personal computer 307.[0053] The switch circuit 304 is shown in greater detailand comprises a ’row terminal’, a ’column terminal’ andan ’electrode terminal’. The ’row terminal’ is connected

to the row line; the ’column terminal’ is connected to thecolumn line; and the ’electrode terminal’ is connected tothe contact area of the coupling unit. The row interroga-tion circuit 302 applies a signal to the ’row terminal’ suchthat the transistor 310 opens and such that an interroga-tion signal for measuring the impedance at DC and oneor more frequencies is applied to the contact area - e.g.via an interrogation signal comprising a DC componentand one or more AC components. The column sensingcircuit 303 receives a signal via diode 309 at selectedone or more columns. Contact areas may then be ad-dressed row-by-row one or more at a time via the rowinterrogation circuit 302 and column-by-column one ormore at a time via the column sensing circuit 303. Col-umns and rows are used for convenience, but they maybe interchanged or laid out in a different spatial configu-ration.[0054] Fig. 4 shows a range of curves representing amagnitude component of AC impedance measurementsfor different constructions of toy building elements, whichare shown in fig. 5. The range of curves 401, 402 and403 are recorded from impedance measurements acrossa wide range of frequencies and at a fine frequency res-olution. The magnitude component of the AC impedancemeasurements are normalised with respect to a DC im-pedance and is dimensionless. The curves represent im-pedance profiles comprising a relatively large number ofvalues due to the fine frequency resolution; however farfewer values may be sufficient.[0055] The curve 401 is measured across contact ar-eas A and B of the construction 114; curve 402 is meas-ured across contact areas A and B of the construction502, and curve 403 is measured across contact areas Aand B of the construction 503. The constructions are allmade of building elements with connection units ar-ranged in a 2-by-4 array.[0056] As can be seen for the curves shown in fig. 4different classification models may distinguish the imped-ance profiles from each other and hence distinguish theconstructions from each other.[0057] Fig. 6 shows the range of curves representinga magnitude component of AC impedance measure-ments and an indication of different measurement fre-quencies. Also here the impedance measurements arenormalised with respect to the impedance at DC. Themeasurement frequencies may be chosen as indicatedby OC1, OC2 and OC3 which are located at three differ-ent frequencies e.g. at about 220Hz, 4kHz, and 58 kHz.Such a limited number of frequencies e.g. less than 20,10 or 5 frequencies may be sufficient to achieve satisfyingclassification.[0058] Fig. 7 shows a range of curves representing aphase component of AC impedance measurements fordifferent constructions of toy building elements. Thecurve 701 is measured across contact areas A and B ofthe construction 114; curve 702 is measured across con-tact areas A and B of the construction 502, and curve703 is measured across contact areas A and B of the

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construction 503. The phase component of AC imped-ance measurements may be included in the impedanceprofile.[0059] Fig. 8 shows a flowchart for a method, imple-mented on an electronic system, of generating a compu-ter-readable characterization of a construction made ofinterconnected toy building elements. The method com-prises the steps of:

- measuring 801 an electrical impedance through aconstruction made of interconnected toy building el-ements;

- generating 802 a computer-readable impedanceprofile comprising a representation of the electricalimpedance at the one or more frequencies;

- optionally: transmitting 806 the computer-readableimpedance profile to an computer; and receiving 807the computer-readable impedance profile at thecomputer;

- retrieving 803 a classification model configured toclassify the computer-readable impedance profile in-to one or more classes;

- performing classification 804 of the computer-read-able impedance profile, using the classification mod-el;

- rendering 805 an audio and/or visual representationof the construction as it estimated to be based onthe classification.

[0060] In some embodiments the classification modelis downloaded and/or updated from a server computer808, such as cloud based server computer.[0061] Although the above embodiments have beendescribed with reference to toy building elements usinga particular frictional coupling mechanism and a partic-ular modular system, it should be noted that other typesof toy building elements may be used such as toy buildingelements based a connection mechanisms comprisinge.g. rivets, bolts and nuts or other types of connectionmechanisms such as glue.

Claims

1. A method, implemented on an electronic system, ofgenerating a representation of a construction (114)made of interconnected toy building elements(101;102;103) comprising at least a first building el-ement (101) and a second building element (102)that are electrically conductive or semi-conductive;comprising:

- measuring (801) an electrical impedancethrough the construction made of interconnect-ed toy building elements at one or more frequen-cies via a first contact area (110) touching atleast the first building (101) element and via asecond contact area (112) touching at least the

second building element (102);- generating (802) a computer-readable imped-ance profile comprising a representation of theelectrical impedance at the one or more frequen-cies;- retrieving (803) a classification model config-ured to classify the computer-readable imped-ance profile into one or more classes, compris-ing classes which are associated with a con-struction representation for presenting an audioand/or visual representation of the construction(114);- performing classification (804) of the compu-ter-readable impedance profile, using the clas-sification model, and presenting (805) the audioand/or visual representation (116) of the con-struction (114) using the construction represen-tation.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein measuringthe electrical impedance and generating a computer-readable impedance profile are performed by a firstelectronic device (115) which is interconnected withthe first toy building element (101) and second toybuilding element (102) and which is configured totransmit the computer-readable impedance profilevia a wired or wireless connection (118;119) to asecond electronic device (108;109) configured to theretrieving of the classification model, the performingof the classification and the rendering of the audioand/or visual representation of the construction.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein themeasuring of the electrical impedance comprisesmeasuring an impedance at DC, and wherein therepresentation of the electrical impedance at one ormore frequencies in the computer-readable imped-ance profile is normalized relative to the impedanceat DC.

4. A method according to any of claims 1-3, whereinthe measuring of the electrical impedance comprisesmeasuring and generating the impedance profile tocomprise one or more of: an impedance magnitude,an impedance phase shift, and an in-phase compo-nent and a quadrature-phase component.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein the imped-ance profile comprises an impedance phase shift ora quadrature-phase component and wherein theclassification model comprises a class which is as-sociated with a special effect representation for ren-dering an audio and/or visual representation of theconstruction with a special effect in accordance withthe special effect representation.

6. A method according to any of claims 1-5, whereinthe first contact area and the second contact area

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are comprised by an array of contact areas that areindividually or group-wise addressable via an elec-tronic circuit (308); wherein the method comprises:

- via the electronic circuit (308) applying an in-terrogation signal at one or more contact areascomprising the first contact area (110;111) andmeasuring a response signal at one or morecontact areas comprising the second contact ar-ea (112;113).

7. A computer program product configured to performthe method as claimed in any of the preceding meth-od claims, when run on a computer, wherein themethod is a computer-implemented method run ona computer.

8. A computer program product configured to:

- receive (807) a computer-readable impedanceprofile comprising a representation of an elec-trical impedance at the one or more frequencies;- retrieving (803) a classification model config-ured to classify the computer-readable imped-ance profile among a group of classes, compris-ing classes which are associated with a con-struction representation for rendering an audioand/or visual representation of the construction;and- performing classification (804) of the compu-ter-readable impedance profile, using the clas-sification model, and using the construction rep-resentation to render (805) the audio and/or vis-ual presentation of the construction.

9. A toy element (200) for generating a representationof a construction made of interconnected toy buildingelements comprising:

a first coupling structure with a first contact areaand a second coupling structure with a secondcontact area; andan electronic unit configured to:

- measure an electrical impedance at oneor more frequencies via the first contactpoint and the second contact point bothtouching a construction made of intercon-nected building elements and coupled to thefirst coupling structure and the second cou-pling structure;- generate a computer-readable impedanceprofile comprising a representation of theelectrical impedance at the one or more fre-quencies; and- transmit the computer-readable imped-ance profile via a wired or wireless connec-tion.

10. A toy element according to claim 9, wherein first cou-pling structure and the second coupling structure arearranged in a spatial array of coupling structures.

11. A toy element according to claim 9 or 10, whereinthe first coupling structure and the second couplingstructure comprise studs arranged on a substantiallyplane platform.

12. A toy element according to any of claims 9-11,wherein the first coupling structure and the secondcoupling structure comprise studs and at least a por-tion of one or more of the studs is made from anelectrically conductive material, such as a metal, ora semi-conductive material, such as a plastics ma-terial mixed with a metal or graphite.

13. A set of toy building elements comprising a toy build-ing element according to any of claims 9-12 and aset of interconnectable toy building elements madeof a semi-conducting material.

14. A set of toy building elements according to claim 13,wherein the set of toy building elements are madefrom a composition of a plastics material and graph-ene.

15. A set of toy building elements comprising a toy build-ing element according to any of claims 9-14 com-prising a computer program product or a computerprogrammed to:

- receive a computer-readable impedance pro-file comprising a representation of an electricalimpedance at the one or more frequencies;- retrieving a classification model configured toclassify the computer-readable impedance pro-file among a group of classes, comprising class-es which are associated with a construction rep-resentation for rendering an audio and/or visualrepresentation of the construction; and- performing classification of the computer-read-able impedance profile, using the classificationmodel, and using the construction representa-tion to render the audio and/or visual represen-tation of the construction.

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REFERENCES CITED IN THE DESCRIPTION

This list of references cited by the applicant is for the reader’s convenience only. It does not form part of the Europeanpatent document. Even though great care has been taken in compiling the references, errors or omissions cannot beexcluded and the EPO disclaims all liability in this regard.

Patent documents cited in the description

• US 6389375 B [0048]