Intercleaving spatially dichotomized polyhedral building blocks and extensions

• US 20020058456A1
• Filed: 01/15/2002
• Published: 05/16/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: George R. Miller
• Original Assignee: George R. Miller
• Inventors: Miller, George R.
• Granted Patent: US 6,921,314 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 446/85
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 33/084 with grooves dovetails A63H33/082

Abstract

The invention is a system and set of intercleaving (interfitting and adhering/clinging) toy or real construction elements which may be implemented either directly in a physical form or indirectly in a virtual reality which is physically provided for by the hardware of a general purpose or dedicated computer system. These construction elements may be used, as structural elements, construction components, building blocks, modeling elements, or the like. Each of these discrete structural elements (10, 20, 70) is comprised of a plurality of pyramids (12, 22), or other polyhedral members, clustered around at least one central point in such a manner that the resulting cluster or clusters form a discrete structural element. The polyhedral members may be joined at least partially along coincident edges (18, 28) for maintaining the structural stability of the element (10, 20, 70). A portion of the joining coincident edges (18, 28) of the polyhedral members are slotted or not completely joined (“difurcated”) on the outer half of the joining edge to facilitate interfitting of a first element (10, 20, 70) with a second element (10, 20, 70). Accordingly, each element (10, 20, 70) of the invention has the ability to be interfitted with other complimentary elements (10, 20, 70) in a mutually interfitting and adhering manner along the coincident edges (18, 28) of sets of diagonally adjacent polyhedral members which have been difurcated along an outermost portion of their coincident edges which radiate from their coincident central point. These generally polyhedral construction elements may also be projected/truncated into the form of spheres or other ellipsoidal construction elements while retaining their intercleaving properties and individual characteristics as defined by their underlying polyhedron-based definitions.

Claims

1. Generally polyhedral construction elements comprising a polyhedral body, within which

a plurality of diagonally adjacent facet-based pyramidal recesses are formed, further forming

a plurality of diagonally adjacent facet-based pyramidal members, and

a plurality of difurcated edge sets, where said difurcated edge sets each comprise

a plurality of coincident edges of diagonally adjacent facet-based pyramidal members,

a plurality of coincident edges of diagonally adjacent facet-based pyramidal recesses interspersed among said diagonally adjacent pyramidal members, and

a cleft implemented along an outermost portion of said coincident edges of said diagonally adjacent members, separating a corresponding portion of at least one of said members from the remaining diagonally adjacent member(s), and where

each of said difurcated edge sets enables the interfitting of a first said construction element along said edge set with at least a second said construction element having a substantially complementarily formed and difurcated edge set;

whereby

the body of said first construction element penetrates into the body of said second construction element and the body of said second construction element simultaneously penetrates into the body of said first construction element in a mutually intercleaving, mutually interpenetrating manner.

2. Generally polyhedral construction elements of claim 1 where each of the recesses in at least one set of said diagonally adjacent facet-based pyramidal recesses is a full-facet-based pyramidal recess each an effected recession of one of the facets of said polyhedral body inward toward a central point of the construction element, where

said polyhedral body'"'"'s facet and said central point serves as the base and apex, respectively, of said facet-based pyramidal recess, and where

each of the members in at least one set of said diagonally adjacent facet-based pyramidal members is a full-facet-based pyramidal member each an effected extension of one of the facets of said polyhedral body inward toward a central point of the construction element, where

said polyhedral body'"'"'s facet and said central point serves as the base and apex, respectively, of said facet-based pyramidal member.

3. Generally polyhedral construction elements of claim 1 where each of the recesses in at least one set of said diagonally adjacent facet-based pyramidal recesses is a half-facet-based pyramidal recess each an effected recession of one of the facets of said polyhedral body inward toward a central point of the construction element, where

said polyhedral body'"'"'s facet and said central point serves as the base and apex, respectively, of said facet-based pyramidal recess, and where

each of the members in at least one set of said diagonally adjacent facet-based pyramidal members is a half-facet-based pyramidal member each an effected extension of one of the facets of said polyhedral body inward toward a central point of the construction element, where

said polyhedral body'"'"'s facet and said central point serves as the base and apex, respectively, of said facet-based pyramidal member.

4. Generally polyhedral construction elements of claim 1 further limited to construction elements wherein

at least one of said plurality of recesses is a continuum of facet-based pyramidal recess, and

at least one of said plurality of members is a continuum of facet-based pyramidal member.

5. The construction elements cited in claim 1 wherein at least one of said at least one difurcated edge sets radiates inward from a vertex of said polyhedral body.

6. The construction elements cited in claim 1 wherein at least one of said difurcated edge sets is obliquely noncoplanar with and nonparallel to at least one co-planar pair of said difurcated edge sets.

7. The construction elements cited in claim 1 wherein said polyhedral members of said sets of diagonally adjacent polyhedral members are interconnected along an innermost portion of the length of said formed edge sets by webbing, and where said polyhedral members of at least one set of said interconnected diagonally adjacent polyhedral members are difurcated along an outermost portion of the length of said formed edge set by at least one slot, thereby forming at least one difurcated edge set.

8. The construction elements cited in claim 1 wherein said polyhedral members of said sets of diagonally adjacent polyhedral members are interconnected along an innermost portion of the length of said formed edge sets by webbing, and where said polyhedral members of at least one set of said interconnected diagonally adjacent polyhedral members is provided with a provisional difurcation along an outermost portion of the length of said formed edge set.

9. The construction elements cited in claim 1 wherein said polyhedral members of at least one of said at least one set of diagonally adjacent polyhedral members are interconnected along an innermost portion of the length of said formed edge set by webbing, and where said polyhedral members of said at least one set of interconnected diagonally adjacent polyhedral members is provided with a provisional difurcation along an outermost portion of the length of said formed edge set, thereby forming at least one provisionally difurcated edge set, where said at least one provisional difurcation is implemented as noticeably thinner webbing, whereby at least one slot may be, at a later time, readily implemented between at least one pair of said diagonally adjacent polyhedral members, whereby said at least one difurcated edge set is facilitated, and thereby indirectly and/or cooperatively implemented.

10. The construction elements cited in claim 1 where said generally polyhedral base is further limited to a convex polyhedral base/body.

11. The construction elements cited in claim 1 where said generally polyhedral base is further limited to a spherically symmetrical polyhedral base/body.

12. The construction elements cited in claim 1 where said generally polyhedral base is further limited to a generally nonprismatic polyhedral base/body.

13. The construction elements of claim 1 wherein said construction elements have a generally polyhedral base/body chosen from the set consisting of cuboids, octahedrons, dodecahedrons (including rhombic dodecahedrons), quindecahedrons, and icosahedrons.

14. The construction elements cited in claim 1 further defined by an effected projection of at least a portion of the peripheral points and surfaces of said construction elements to the surface(s) of a second geometric form.

15. The construction elements cited in claim 1 further defined by an effected projection of at least a portion of the peripheral points and surfaces of said construction elements to the form of a convex polyhedron.

16. The construction elements cited in claim 1 further defined by an effected projection of at least a portion of the peripheral points and surfaces of said construction elements to the form of an ellipsoid, where ellipsoids are inclusive of spheres and other spheroids.

18. The construction elements cited in claim 17 wherein at least one of said at least one difurcated edge sets radiates inward from a vertex of said polyhedral body.

19. The construction elements cited in claim 17 wherein at least one of said difurcated edge sets is obliquely noncoplanar with and nonparallel to at least one co-planar pair of said difurcated edge sets.

20. The construction elements cited in claim 17 wherein said polyhedral members of said sets of diagonally adjacent polyhedral members are interconnected along an innermost portion of the length of said formed edge sets by webbing, and where said polyhedral members of at least one set of said interconnected diagonally adjacent polyhedral members are difurcated along an outermost portion of the length of said formed edge set by at least one slot, thereby forming at least one difurcated edge set.

21. The construction elements cited in claim 17 wherein said polyhedral members of said sets of diagonally adjacent polyhedral members are interconnected along an innermost portion of the length of said formed edge sets by webbing, and where said polyhedral members of at least one set of said interconnected diagonally adjacent polyhedral members is provided with a provisional difurcation along an outermost portion of the length of said formed edge set.

22. The construction elements cited in claim 17 wherein said polyhedral members of at least one of said at least one set of diagonally adjacent polyhedral members are interconnected along an innermost portion of the length of said formed edge set by webbing, and where said polyhedral members of said at least one set of interconnected diagonally adjacent polyhedral members is provided with a provisional difurcation along an outermost portion of the length of said formed edge set, thereby forming at least one provisionally difurcated edge set, where said at least one provisional difurcation is implemented as noticeably thinner webbing, whereby at least one slot may be, at a later time, readily implemented between at least one pair of said diagonally adjacent polyhedral members, whereby said at least one difurcated edge set is facilitated, and thereby indirectly and/or cooperatively implemented.

23. The construction elements cited in claim 17 where said generally polyhedral base is further limited to a convex polyhedral base/body.

24. The construction elements cited in claim 17 where said generally polyhedral base is further limited to a spherically symmetrical polyhedral base/body.

25. The construction elements cited in claim 17 where said generally polyhedral base is further limited to a generally nonprismatic polyhedral base/body.

26. The construction elements of claim 17 wherein said construction elements have a generally polyhedral base/body chosen from the set consisting of cuboids, octahedrons, dodecahedrons (including rhombic dodecahedrons), quindecahedrons, and icosahedrons.

27. The construction elements cited in claim 17 further defined by an effected projection of at least a portion of the peripheral points and surfaces of said construction elements to the surface(s) of a second geometric form.

28. The construction elements cited in claim 17 further defined by an effected projection of at least a portion of the peripheral points and surfaces of said construction elements to the form of a convex polyhedron.

29. The construction elements cited in claim 17 further defined by an effected projection of at least a portion of the peripheral points and surfaces of said construction elements to the form of an ellipsoid, where ellipsoids are inclusive of spheres and other spheroids.

30. The construction elements of any one of the claims 1 wherein said pyramidal members are limited to physical pyramidal members.

31. The construction elements of any one of the claims 1 wherein said pyramidal members are limited to physical pyramidal members.

32. Construction elements comprising a fused and/or blended plurality of the construction elements of claim 1.

33. Construction elements of claim 1 comprising the functional equivalent of a fused plurality of interfitted construction elements, where

each of said plurality of construction elements is individually a construction element as defined in claim 1 based in a convex polyhedral base, and where

at least one of said plurality of elements forms a generally convex protrusion, where each of said protrusions comprises at least one of said difurcated edge sets radiating inward from a vertex of said protrusion.

34. The construction elements of claim 33 wherein at least one of said plurality of construction elements has been further defined by the effected projection of at least a portion of its peripheral points and surfaces into the form of a section of a spheroid.

35. The construction elements of any one of claims 1 further limited to construction elements produced in a virtual reality provided by a virtual medium for computer manipulation and display, where

said virtual medium is physically provided in the form of a general purpose computer hardware system running computer software comprising

at least one software module designed to provide and control the objects within virtual realities, such as said virtual reality, whereby

said manipulation and display of elements of said virtual reality, such as said construction elements, by a computer operator, are facilitated, and where

the specifications of said claims are effected in a standard form in a standard storage medium, where

said polyhedral members of said construction elements are formed as virtual matter in accordance with the specifications of said claims, and wherein

said polyhedral voids are interspersed among and defined by said virtual matter within said base/body.

36. The construction elements of claim 35 where said computer hardware system had been specifically designed to provide and control virtual realities, such as said virtual reality.

37. The construction elements of claim 35 where said computer hardware system comprises at least one operator-to-computer interface, at least one central processing unit, at least one data storage medium, and at least one computer-to-operator interface device, where said computer-to-operator interfaces are inclusive of a computer monitor.

38. The construction elements of claim 35 where said at least one computer-to-operator interface device comprises at least one stereo viewing system.

39. The construction elements of any one of claims 35 where the manner in which said construction elements may be aligned, interfitted, and assembled into larger structures is further restricted by at least one software module which restricts the occupancy of any portion of said virtual reality by more than one portion of defined virtual matter.

17. Construction elements comprising a plurality of generally polyhedral members formed and arranged fully within the confines of, and generally conforming to the shape of, a polyhedral base in a manner whereby:

at least one set of at least two diagonally adjacent polyhedral members is formed, where

at least one facet of at least one member of at least one of said at least one set of diagonally adjacent polyhedral members is coplanar with, and coincident with at least a portion of one of the facets of said polyhedral base, and where

at least one vertex of said facet of at least one of said member is coincident with a vertex of said facet of said polyhedral base, wherein

an edge set is formed along the coincident edges of said diagonally adjacent polyhedral members of each of said at least one set of diagonally adjacent polyhedral members, and wherein

a plurality of polyhedral voids are formed by and interspersed among said polyhedral members in a manner whereby

at least two diagonally adjacent polyhedral voids are formed about each edge set formed by said at least one set of diagonally adjacent polyhedral members, and wherein

said polyhedral members of at least one of said at least one set of diagonally adjacent polyhedral members are interconnected along an innermost portion of the length of said formed edge set and where

said polyhedral members of said at least one set of interconnected diagonally adjacent polyhedral members are difurcated along an outermost portion of the length of said formed edge set, thereby

forming at least one difurcated edge set, where

at least one of said at least one difurcated edge set radiates inward from a point along an edge of said polyhedral base, where

said edge of said polyhedral base is inclusive of the two vertices of said polyhedral base which define said edge, whereby

said at least one difurcated edge set enables the interfitting of a first said construction element along said edge set with at least a second said construction element having a substantially complementarily formed and difurcated edge set;

whereby

the body of said first construction element penetrates into the body of said second construction element and the body of said second construction element simultaneously penetrates into the body of said first construction element in a mutually intercleaving, mutually interpenetrating, and mutually supporting manner, whereby

the construction of intercleaving assemblages of said construction elements is facilitated, and

where said polyhedral base is said to provide the basis of a generally polyhedral body for said construction element, and

where said interfitting of said complimentary construction elements is enabled by the aforementioned formations fully implemented within the confines of said polyhedral body,

said interfitting is thereby fully enabled without an attachment of appendages to said polyhedral body.

40. Sheet material blanks for folding into the form of a spatially dichotomized cuboctahedron, where

said spatially dichotomized cuboctahedron comprises six material pentahedral pyramids which in turn form eight spatial tetrahedrons and twelve edge sets, and where

said blanks comprise

a continuum of six (6) generally square panels and

twenty-four (24) generally equilateral triangular panels

further provided with a plurality of securing/gluing tabs for securing the panels in position once folded.

41. The sheet material blanks of claim 40 further provided with a plurality of slits/slots, where

said slits/slots are located in a manner which provides said dichotomized cuboctahedron with a plurality of difurcated edge sets, thereby

forming an intercleaving spatially dichotomized cuboctahedral construction element.

42. Sheet material blanks for folding into the form of a spatially dichotomized cuboctahedron, where

said spatially dichotomized cuboctahedron comprises eight material tetrahedral pyramids which in turn form six spatial pentahedral pyramids and twelve edge sets, and where

said blanks comprise

a continuum of thirty-two (32) generally equilateral triangular panels further provided with a plurality of securing/gluing tabs for securing the panels in position, once folded.

43. The sheet material blank of claim 42 further provided with a plurality of slits/slots, where

said slits/slots are located in a manner which provides said dichotomized cuboctahedron with a plurality of difurcated edge sets,

forming an intercleaving spatially dichotomized cuboctahedral construction element.

44. A sheet material blank for folding into the form of a spatially dichotomized noncuboctahedral quadecahedron, where

said spatially dichotomized noncuboctahedral quadecahedron comprises three material pentahedral pyramids and four material tetrahedral pyramids which in turn form four spatial tetrahedral pyramids, three spatial pentahedral pyramids, and twelve edge sets, where said blank comprises

a continuum of three (3) generally square panels and

twenty-eight (28) generally equilateral triangular panels further provided with a plurality of securing/gluing tabs for securing the panels in position, once folded.

45. The sheet material blank of claim 44 further provided with a plurality of slits/slots, where

said slits/slots provides said dichotomized noncuboctahedral quadecahedron with a plurality of difurcated edge sets,

forming an interleaving spatially dichotomized noncuboctahedral quadecahedron construction element.