So there was a post earlier about “digital dice” (as in a phone app) and it got me thinking.
How cool would a set of physical dice with digital screens to make them fully customizable be? I checked it out and the only product I can find is Dice+ which seems very limited and honestly doesn’t function too well (or at all) based on the Amazon reviews.
I’m not sure if the technology is even there to make this possible at a reasonable price point, but my ideal product would be: Each die is a standard 6-sided cube, with a screen on each side. The standard display on the screens would be a static number so that the die is a D6, but using a phone app and Bluetooth or some other wireless communication protocol you could set the dice to have randomly rotating numbers to effectively give them higher or lower D-values, or a set of pre-loaded game-specific symbols. Obviously the dice would need to include screens, a wireless chip, battery, and accelerometers with whatever other bits of tech are necessary to recognize which face is up after it is thrown. Charging would ideally be wireless, and you could even have a wireless charging mat as the dice tray so they never run out of battery while playing. And somehow all of this would need to be done without making the dice weighted in any way.
It’s a pipe dream, but it would be damned cool. If anyone wants to develop it and cut me in for some royalties I wouldn’t say no!
I think that the issue here is that, with all the technological additions, you may as well go to entirely digital dice.
As soon as you have a 6 sided die which has randomly changing numbers on all 6 sides to make it a d8, you may as well not roll it and only use the screen that points up.
Now, having a 6-sided dice which has numerical displays on all 6 faces which are then tied into a random number generator which triggers when you roll the dice would be an option - and would allow any range of numbers to be rolled, EG a D100-132 could be rolled. you could probably have a sensor so only the top screen displays anything. Whilst this is quite cool, I'm struggling to see any real application where it isn't out-competed by traditional dice - they aren't bulky, or heavy, nor are there so many types that you can't carry them all. People could feasibly have a full set of D4-100 on their persons at all times without significant impact; it would take up similar space to a mobile phone.
So there was a post earlier about “digital dice” (as in a phone app) and it got me thinking.
How cool would a set of physical dice with digital screens to make them fully customizable be? I checked it out and the only product I can find is Dice+ which seems very limited and honestly doesn’t function too well (or at all) based on the Amazon reviews.
I’m not sure if the technology is even there to make this possible at a reasonable price point, but my ideal product would be: Each die is a standard 6-sided cube, with a screen on each side. The standard display on the screens would be a static number so that the die is a D6, but using a phone app and Bluetooth or some other wireless communication protocol you could set the dice to have randomly rotating numbers to effectively give them higher or lower D-values, or a set of pre-loaded game-specific symbols. Obviously the dice would need to include screens, a wireless chip, battery, and accelerometers with whatever other bits of tech are necessary to recognize which face is up after it is thrown. Charging would ideally be wireless, and you could even have a wireless charging mat as the dice tray so they never run out of battery while playing. And somehow all of this would need to be done without making the dice weighted in any way.
It’s a pipe dream, but it would be damned cool. If anyone wants to develop it and cut me in for some royalties I wouldn’t say no!
I think that the issue here is that, with all the technological additions, you may as well go to entirely digital dice.
As soon as you have a 6 sided die which has randomly changing numbers on all 6 sides to make it a d8, you may as well not roll it and only use the screen that points up.
Now, having a 6-sided dice which has numerical displays on all 6 faces which are then tied into a random number generator which triggers when you roll the dice would be an option - and would allow any range of numbers to be rolled, EG a D100-132 could be rolled. you could probably have a sensor so only the top screen displays anything. Whilst this is quite cool, I'm struggling to see any real application where it isn't out-competed by traditional dice - they aren't bulky, or heavy, nor are there so many types that you can't carry them all. People could feasibly have a full set of D4-100 on their persons at all times without significant impact; it would take up similar space to a mobile phone.
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