Alice Chess Set -- chessmen vanish into opaque blocks when out of play

Yasmine Sethi, a final year student at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. designed this Alice Chess Set inspired by Through the Looking Glass. When pieces are removed from the board, they become opaque, obscuring them while they're out of play.

The theme of 'Alice through the Looking Glass' is the difference between the real world and the world behind the mirror. In keeping with this theme there is a contrast between the unlit mirrored piece and the clear glass piece. Each unlit mirrored piece is a smooth and modern shape. Each lit piece is clear glass, with the negative shape of a traditional, delicate Staunton chess piece enclosed within it. In the book the White Knight talks about how he thinks better when he is upside down. In a reference, the White Knights in the set only work when they are placed upside down. This joke is hidden to all but those who know the background of the chess set
The Chessboard is made out of LightPoints a material manufactured by Schott, which is glass that has LED's embedded in it; the pieces are coated with Mirona, a Material that turns transparent when light shines through it. When the piece is placed on the board it completes the circuit and lights up the LED under it turning it transparent, like magic.

Link

Discussion

Take a look at this

#1 posted by kaiza , July 2, 2008 8:24 AM

Great ideas are a dime a dozen. The devil, as always, is in the details.

I really do love the idea, and it would be possible to make, but name dropping random tech is often a giveaway that the designer doesn't have even half a clue on how the tech or the design actually works.

For the interested:

http://www.schott.com/architecture/english/lightsolutions/lightpoints.html?highlighted_text=lightpoint
http://www.mirropane.com/mirona.htm

Was gonna write more but must... not... rage...

#2 posted by Cefeida , July 2, 2008 8:34 AM

WANT!

I'll add it to the list of things I'll buy some day when I'm super rich.

#3 posted by TopRamen , July 2, 2008 9:22 AM

@#1 umm...they DID make it. They weren't just randomly name dropping.
Quote:
"The Chessboard IS MADE out of LightPoints a material manufactured by Schott, which is glass that has LED's embedded in it; the pieces are coated with Mirona, a Material that turns transparent when light shines through it. When the piece is placed on the board it completes the circuit and lights up the LED under it turning it transparent, like magic."

Plus the picture of two people using it is a dead giveaway.

#4 posted by fencesitter , July 2, 2008 9:54 AM

Mirona, a Material that turns transparent when light shines through it

Sounds like some Heisenberg-like material. How can you tell it's not transparent when there's no light shining through it?

#5 posted by fancyfeast , July 2, 2008 10:11 AM

The pictures of people playing it are clearly photoshop mockups. Sweet design, but not reality.

#6 posted by Mazoola , July 2, 2008 10:22 AM

I'm still open on the question of whether or not it was actually prototyped, but the reason for name-dropping the tech behind it is simple: It was a competition sponsored by Schott, maker of both LightPoints and Mirona.

#7 posted by Mazoola , July 2, 2008 10:27 AM

I take it back: Never built; only a mock-up (he sez, 6" from the monitor, sans contacts).

#8 posted by help i cant comfirm my username themelonbread , July 2, 2008 11:57 AM

That's so cool... I wanted to find out more about this Mirona stuff, but nothing shows up on Google...

#9 posted by Sean Grimm , July 2, 2008 12:05 PM

I don't have anyone I play chess with but I still would love to have one of these sets...even if there are more responsible things to spend money on.

#10 posted by jedhed , July 2, 2008 12:53 PM

This reminded me of those cool photo puzzles about Alice that appeared in Games Magazine in the 1980s.

I didn't realize that Walter Wick (the creator) has gone on to have a successful, the "I Spy" and "Can You See What I See?" books

Small scan of one of his Alice puzzles can be seen here on this page of his site:

http://www.walterwick.com/Games.htm

#11 posted by kaiza , July 2, 2008 4:41 PM

@#3 Pixels, in my time, etc., etc.

Plus I'm an Industrial Design student. If I didn't know a crappy glass render from a CAD program when I saw one then I don't deserve to be a designer.

Like I said, I LIKE the concept - i.e. the underlying rationale of the design. But the actual details are sketchy - LightPoints glass has LED's embedded in the glass with what looks like an air gap, then a near-invisible conductive layer. I don't see any embedded LED's in the pieces. I also don't see any contacts for transferring power to the pieces. Sure it could be induction, but the board is a pane of glass....

Moulding the glass pieces as shown would also be problematic, if I understand correctly that they are meant to be hollow. Moulding something like that into the glass without having to glue two sides together is impossible unless you use a lost casting method of some sort, but then the finish becomes an issue.

@#4 take a look at the second link I posted - theres a demo vid on YouTube. The material is nothing special - it's the same as mirroring on sunglasses, camera lenses and shiny gift wrap - you can see through it when the light source on the other side is brighter than the light on your side. Mirona looks like it is simply being marketed specifically for TV screens, which puts it firmly in the "completely useless crap" basket for me.

All I'm saying is that if this were actually made, today, it would look very different to the renders shown above.

#12 posted by Jamie Sue