Ink screen-based intelligent chessboard control method and device, equipment and medium

Abstract

The application discloses an intelligent chessboard control method and device based on an ink screen, equipment and a medium, and relates to the fields of electronic display technology and chess game equipment. The method comprises the following steps: detecting a chess game state change event, determining a logical grid with a state change; calculating a minimum bounding rectangle based on the mapping relationship between the logical grid and the pixel; expanding the minimum bounding rectangle into a final refresh rectangle containing the affected logical grid according to a preset chess rule; dynamically configuring driving waveform parameters according to the area ratio of the final refresh rectangle; and performing a local refresh operation only on the display area corresponding to the final refresh rectangle. Through rule-aware local refresh and waveform adaptive adjustment, the application significantly reduces refresh delay and screen flicker, prolongs the service life of the equipment, optimizes system power consumption, and improves the user's playing experience.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the fields of electronic display technology and chess game equipment, and in particular to a smart chessboard control method, device, equipment and medium based on an e-ink screen. Background Technology

[0002] Currently, electronic chessboard products primarily use liquid crystal displays (LCDs) or light-emitting diode displays (LEDs) as display media. While these displays offer advantages in color reproduction and response speed, they suffer from two major drawbacks with long-term use: firstly, high power consumption, especially in large-size chessboard applications, where continuous backlighting or pixel activation significantly shortens battery life; secondly, active-emitting or high-contrast displays can easily cause eye strain, affecting the comfort of extended gameplay. To address these issues, some manufacturers have begun exploring the application of e-ink screens in smart chessboards, hoping to overcome these shortcomings by leveraging their bistable, zero static power consumption, and paper-like reading experience.

[0003] However, existing smart chessboard solutions based on e-ink screens still face several technical bottlenecks. First, in terms of refresh control, most solutions still employ a full-screen refresh strategy, meaning the entire screen is updated globally after each move. This not only results in strong screen flicker, interfering with the player's concentration, but also accelerates the electrophoretic aging of the e-ink film, significantly shortening the product's lifespan. Second, regarding visual presentation, e-ink screens typically only support 16 levels of grayscale display, lacking color and sufficient brightness levels. Existing chess piece graphic designs have not been optimized for the physical characteristics of e-ink screens, resulting in pieces lacking three-dimensionality and recognizability, making it difficult to simulate the texture of wooden or jade chess pieces on a real chessboard. Furthermore, the power management of existing systems is relatively crude, failing to fully utilize the bistable characteristic of e-ink screens with zero power consumption during static display. The main control module and touch detection module are often continuously active, causing unnecessary energy waste. Simultaneously, due to the relatively long driving waveform of e-ink screens, achieving a balance between reducing refresh latency and ensuring display quality is also a pressing technical challenge that needs to be addressed. Summary of the Invention

[0004] This invention provides a smart chessboard control method, device, equipment, and medium based on an e-ink screen to solve the technical problems of poor refresh experience and low visual recognition in the prior art.

[0005] In a first aspect, embodiments of the present invention provide a smart chessboard control method based on an e-ink screen, comprising the following steps: Detect chess state change events and identify at least one logical grid where the state change has occurred; Based on the mapping relationship between the logical grid and the display pixels, the pixel change area corresponding to the logical grid is determined, and the minimum outer rectangle that can cover the entire pixel change area is calculated. According to the preset chess rules, the affected logic grids associated with the state change are determined, and the minimum outer rectangle is expanded into a final refresh rectangle that includes the affected logic grids; Based on the display area of ​​the final refresh rectangle or the ratio of that area to the total display area of ​​the e-ink screen, the driving waveform parameters are dynamically selected and configured. The control e-ink screen driver module performs a partial refresh operation only on the display area corresponding to the final refresh rectangle.

[0006] Secondly, embodiments of the present invention also provide a smart chessboard control device based on an e-ink screen, comprising: The main control module includes: The chess game change recognition unit is used to map screen pixel coordinates to logical grid coordinates and recognize changes in the chess game state. A partial refresh decision unit is used to execute the partial refresh steps; The chess piece visual optimization unit is used to perform visual optimization steps; A low-power management unit is used to perform power management steps; An e-ink display module, connected to the main control module, is used to display the chessboard and chess pieces; The user input module is connected to the main control module and is used to collect the coordinates of the piece placement. The power management module, controlled by the low-power management unit, is used to provide different levels of power supply to each module; The storage module, connected to the main control module, is used to store chess game data and program code.

[0007] Thirdly, embodiments of the present invention also provide an intelligent chessboard device, comprising: One or more processors; Memory, used to store one or more programs; E-ink screen, used to display information; Touch sensors are used to detect user actions; When the one or more programs are executed by the one or more processors, the one or more processors implement the above-described intelligent chessboard control method based on e-ink screens.

[0008] Fourthly, embodiments of the present invention also provide a computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, implements the intelligent chessboard control method based on an e-ink screen as described above.

[0009] This invention detects changes in the game state and identifies the changed logical grids. Based on the grid-to-pixel mapping, it calculates the minimum bounding rectangle and then expands the refresh area according to the game rules to a final refresh rectangle encompassing all affected logical grids. By dynamically adapting the driving waveform parameters based on the rectangle's area ratio, it performs a local refresh only on this rectangular area. This solution significantly reduces the number of pixels that need to be refreshed after each move, thereby greatly reducing refresh latency and flicker on the e-ink screen and extending its lifespan. Simultaneously, because the refresh area is precisely limited to the logical range affected by the current move and the game rules, it avoids the meaningless power consumption and visual interference of traditional full-screen refreshes, making the display response during gameplay smoother and more natural. Furthermore, adaptively adjusting the driving waveform parameters based on the area ratio further optimizes refresh quality, preventing ghosting during large-area refreshes or excessive power consumption during small-area refreshes. This achieves low-latency, low-power local refresh control while maintaining display clarity, significantly improving the user's gaming experience. Attached Figure Description

[0010] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings used in the following description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced. Obviously, the drawings described below are some embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.

[0011] Figure 1 A flowchart illustrating the intelligent chessboard control method based on an e-ink screen provided in an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of a local refresh area provided in an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram illustrating the visual optimization of chess pieces provided in an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 4 A schematic diagram of an intelligent chessboard control device based on an e-ink screen provided in an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 5 This is a schematic block diagram of an intelligent chessboard device provided in an embodiment of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0012] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some, not all, of the embodiments of the present invention. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative effort are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0013] It should be understood that, when used in this specification and the appended claims, the terms "comprising" and "including" indicate the presence of the described features, integrals, steps, operations, elements and / or components, but do not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integrals, steps, operations, elements, components and / or collections thereof.

[0014] It should also be understood that the terminology used in this specification is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to limit the invention. As used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

[0015] It should also be further understood that the term "and / or" as used in this specification and the appended claims refers to any combination of one or more of the associated listed items and all possible combinations, and includes such combinations.

[0016] As used in this specification and the appended claims, the term "if" may be interpreted, depending on the context, as "when," "once," "in response to determination," or "in response to detection." Similarly, the phrase "if determined" or "if [described condition or event] is detected" may be interpreted, depending on the context, as "once determined," "in response to determination," "once [described condition or event] is detected," or "in response to detection of [described condition or event]."

[0017] Please see Figure 1 This invention provides a smart chessboard control method based on an e-ink screen, which includes the following steps: S1. Detect chess state change events and determine at least one logical grid where a state change has occurred.

[0018] In this step, the chessboard interface is divided into logical grids corresponding one-to-one with the chessboard points. For example, in Go or Gomoku scenarios, the chessboard consists of 19×19 or 15×15 intersections, each intersection being a logical grid. When a player places a piece via touch or button, the user input module collects the physical coordinates of the placed piece, and the game change recognition unit within the main control module maps the screen pixel coordinates to the corresponding logical grid coordinates. For example, after analog-to-digital conversion and coordinate calibration, a touch point is determined to be placed in the logical grid of row 3, column 4. Furthermore, this step also performs a differential comparison between the current game state and the chessboard snapshot stored in the previous step, automatically identifying all logical grids where state changes have occurred. For example, in Go, one player's move might result in the capture of an entire group of the opponent's stones, leaving them with no liberties. In this case, in addition to the logical grid where the current piece was placed, all logical grids containing the captured stones are identified as state change grids. By comparing differences based on logical grid coordinates, only a very small range of changing areas can be precisely located, avoiding the processing latency and additional power consumption caused by full-screen scanning.

[0019] S2. Based on the mapping relationship between the logical grid and the display pixels, determine the pixel change area corresponding to the logical grid, and calculate the minimum outer rectangle that can cover the entire pixel change area.

[0020] In this step, each logical grid occupies a predefined square pixel block on the e-ink screen; for example, each grid corresponds to 20×20 physical pixels. After determining the set of logical grids with changing states, these logical grids are sequentially converted into their corresponding pixel coordinate ranges on the screen, i.e., each grid corresponds to a rectangular area defined by the pixel coordinates of its upper left and lower right corners. Next, the pixel areas of all these changing grids are traversed, and the minimum x-coordinate, minimum y-coordinate, maximum x-coordinate, and maximum y-coordinate are extracted from all coordinates, thus forming a minimum bounding rectangle that completely surrounds all pixel changing areas. Specifically, if the state change occurs in logical grids (3,4) and (2,4), whose corresponding pixel areas are from column 60, row 80 to column 79, row 99, and from column 40, row 80 to column 59, row 99, respectively, then the generated minimum bounding rectangle is a rectangular area with column 40, row 80 as the upper left corner and column 79, row 99 as the lower right corner. The minimum bounding rectangle precisely defines the minimum pixel range that needs to be refreshed, eliminating unnecessary blank areas between simple logical grids. Compared to full-screen or fixed large-block refreshes, it greatly compresses the number of pixels updated each time, reducing the amount of data transported by the display driver module and shortening the driving time of e-ink screen particles, fundamentally reducing refresh latency and flicker.

[0021] S3. Based on the preset chess rules, determine the affected logic grid associated with the state change, and expand the minimum outer rectangle into a final refresh rectangle that includes the affected logic grid.

[0022] In this step, in addition to the logical grids whose state has changed, it is also necessary to include logical grids whose state may not have changed under the current operation according to the game rules in the refresh range to prevent display ghosting or loss of interactive information. For example, in Go or Gomoku, after a capture action occurs, the intersection originally occupied by the captured piece must be refreshed back to an empty point or the background color of the board. If only the placement point is refreshed and these capture points are missed, the image of the piece that no longer exists will remain on the screen. Similarly, in Chinese chess, when a piece moves from one position to another, the grids along its movement path and the location of the captured piece also need to be refreshed synchronously. Therefore, this step intelligently expands the refresh area according to the rules of the game being played: when Go or Gomoku is detected, all liberties related to the captured piece and the logical grids corresponding to the capture point are automatically marked as affected logical grids; when Chinese chess or international chess is detected, the middle grids covered by the current piece's movement trajectory and the logical grids of the capture point are marked as affected logical grids. The final refresh rectangle is then recalculated to include both the minimum bounding rectangle and all newly added affected logical grid pixel areas. For example, if the original minimum bounding rectangle only enclosed a portion of the drop point and the capture point, the final refresh rectangle expands outward after adding a capture point grid at the far end, until the capture point is completely contained. This rule-aware area expansion ensures that each local refresh covers all visually potentially changing areas, fundamentally eliminating ghosting, while the refresh area remains much smaller than the full screen, balancing display accuracy and low power consumption. Figure 2 Taking a Go stone capture scenario as an example, this paper demonstrates the complete evolution process from generating the minimum outer rectangle from the state change logic grid to forming the final refresh rectangle through rule expansion.

[0023] S4. Dynamically select and configure the driving waveform parameters based on the display area of ​​the final refresh rectangle or the ratio of that area to the total display area of ​​the e-ink screen.

[0024] In this step, the driving waveform of the e-ink screen consists of a series of pulses with different voltage amplitudes and pulse widths. Different waveform parameters directly affect the display effect, refresh rate, and power consumption. Since the final refresh rectangles vary in size, using the same driving waveform throughout will result in unnecessary energy waste and excessive electric field stress when refreshing small areas, while insufficient driving may cause ghosting when refreshing large areas. Therefore, this step dynamically switches waveform parameters based on the area ratio: when the area of ​​the final refresh rectangle is less than the first preset threshold, it indicates that only a small local area has changed. In this case, a low-voltage, slow waveform parameter set is selected. By appropriately reducing the amplitude of the driving voltage and extending the duration of a single pulse, the stress impact on the microcapsule structure is reduced while ensuring complete particle flipping, thereby suppressing edge ghosting in small areas and significantly reducing instantaneous power consumption. When this ratio is greater than the second preset threshold, it indicates that a larger area needs updating. In this case, a standard waveform parameter set is selected, using a higher voltage and normal pulse timing to ensure uniform particle flipping throughout the area, avoiding uneven display. In one specific implementation, the first preset threshold is set to 5%, and the second preset threshold is set to 30%. When the final refresh rectangle area occupies less than 5%, for example, when only one or two pieces change, a low-voltage, slow waveform is used. This reduces the voltage for refreshing a row of pixels from the standard 15 volts to around 12 volts and extends the drive pulse period by about 20%. This cleanly erases old content and writes new content while reducing flicker intensity and power consumption in that area. When the area occupies more than 30%, for example, when a large number of pieces are captured consecutively, a standard waveform is used to ensure overall refresh consistency. For cases where the area occupies between 5% and 30%, the standard waveform parameter set can continue to be used to achieve a trade-off between display quality and power consumption.

[0025] S5. Control the e-ink screen driver module to perform a partial refresh operation only on the display area corresponding to the final refresh rectangle.

[0026] In this step, after receiving the position and geometric parameters of the final refresh rectangle and the corresponding drive waveform configuration, the e-ink screen driver module generates corresponding timing control commands, applying the voltage waveform only to the pixel array within that rectangle. Outside the rectangle, the driver module does not output any drive pulses. The charged particles in these areas maintain their original positions due to the bistable nature of the e-ink screen, and the corresponding chessboard lines and pieces on the screen continue to display stably without any flickering or grayscale changes. For example, in a Go game, when one player places a piece in the lower right corner and captures two of the opponent's pieces, only a small rectangular area in the lower right corner of the screen with several intersections undergoes a very brief micro-refresh, while the display of the rest of the chessboard remains undisturbed. This refresh strategy, precise down to the local rectangle, makes the screen update process almost imperceptible to the player after placing a piece. The screen maintains the tranquility and reading comfort of a paper chessboard, while significantly reducing power consumption and film aging with each piece movement.

[0027] In a specific embodiment, the step of determining the affected logical grid associated with the state change according to preset chess rules, and expanding the minimum outer rectangle into a final refresh rectangle containing the affected logical grid, specifically includes: S31. When the game is Go or Gomoku, the logic grid where the liberty point or capture point that causes the opponent's piece to be captured is located is determined as the affected logic grid. In this step, taking Go as an example, when a black stone is placed at an intersection, causing all the adjacent liberties of a white group of stones to be occupied, this white group is considered dead and removed from the board. At this point, in addition to the logical grid of the black stone's placement point itself, all logical grids containing the individual stones that make up the captured white group, as well as the empty points between these stones, are considered as affected logical grids. For example, if a string of five white stones is captured, and these five stones are located in logical grids (2,4), (3,4), (3,5), (4,4), and (4,5), then all five coordinates will be recorded. Simultaneously, while the minimum bounding rectangle might only cover three of these points when calculating, rule-aware expansion includes the remaining distant capture points, ensuring that the final refresh rectangle encompasses all positions that need to be reverted to an empty state, preventing any white stone remnants from remaining in these locations.

[0028] S32. When the chess game is Chinese chess or international chess, the logic grid through which the current piece moves and captures pieces is traversed is determined as the affected logic grid. In this step, taking the horse in Chinese chess as an example, if the horse moves from its original position (5,1) to the target position (7,2) via the second-to-third step, and there was an opponent's piece captured at that target position, then the affected logical grids that need to be marked include at least: the starting position (5,1) (which should be displayed as empty), the target position (7,2) (which should be updated to the current horse pattern), and the captured position (7,2) itself. Additionally, if the capture path involves obstructing the identification of other pieces, grids without pieces in the middle of the path will also be included in the refresh range. For example, when performing a cannon capture operation, the cannon moves from the starting point to the target capture point, needing to cross a cannon support piece in between. The state of the cannon support piece itself does not change, but because the cannon's crossing action may briefly trigger visual abnormalities, it is preferable to also mark all grids along the complete straight path of the cannon's movement as affected logical grids to ensure a clean display. With this trajectory-aware extension, even long-distance piece movements will only leave a clean, rectangular refresh trace on the screen, without any trailing or residue.

[0029] S33. Expand the minimum outer rectangle outward until it completely contains all the affected logical grids to generate the final refresh rectangle.

[0030] In this step, the expansion process employs a method of recalculating the extreme values: the boundary coordinates of the minimum outer rectangle calculated in step S2 are combined with the boundary coordinates of the pixel regions corresponding to all newly obtained affected logical grids to recalculate the minimum X, minimum Y, maximum X, and maximum Y, thus forming the expanded final refresh rectangle. For example, if the top-left corner coordinates of the minimum outer rectangle are (40, 80) and the bottom-right corner is (79, 99), and after rule expansion, one of the newly added affected grids is located between (10, 80) and (19, 99), then the left boundary of the new rectangle will expand from 40 to 10, and the final refresh rectangle becomes (10, 80) at the top-left corner and (79, 99) at the bottom-right corner. By expanding step by step and then calculating uniformly, it is ensured that the final rectangle precisely accommodates all the necessary refreshed pixels, without adding or subtracting any, avoiding the timing complexity and waveform conflicts caused by multiple separate refreshes. This allows each local refresh to be completed in engineering implementation with only one rectangle refresh command.

[0031] In a specific embodiment, dynamically selecting and configuring the driving waveform parameters based on the display area of ​​the final refresh rectangle or the ratio of that area to the total display area of ​​the e-ink screen specifically includes: When the area of ​​the final refresh rectangle is less than the proportion of the total display area of ​​the e-ink screen to a first preset threshold, the low-voltage slow waveform parameter set is selected. When the ratio is greater than the second preset threshold, a standard waveform parameter set is selected; Wherein, the first preset threshold is less than the second preset threshold.

[0032] In this embodiment, the first preset threshold is preferably 5%, and the second preset threshold is preferably 30%. When the refresh area accounts for less than 5%, it is usually only a single piece being placed or a small area of ​​pieces being captured. At this time, a low-voltage, slow waveform is selected, reducing the driving voltage from the standard value of 15 volts to 12 volts, while simultaneously increasing the driving pulse width of each phase by about 20% to 30%. This low-voltage, low-speed driving method can, on the one hand, prevent electrophoretic particles in a small area from overshooting under a strong electric field, thereby avoiding the generation of white or black afterimages visible to the naked eye at the boundaries of the pieces; on the other hand, reducing the voltage directly reduces the instantaneous current consumed in this refresh, which helps to extend the battery life after a single charge. When the refresh area accounts for more than 30%, it is often accompanied by a large area of ​​piece capture or the start of a new game. At this time, the standard waveform parameter set is switched to, using full-amplitude voltage and conventional pulse timing to ensure that particles in a large area can obtain enough energy to complete the flip, eliminating possible problems of uneven display or inconsistent shades. In a more comprehensive approach, if the area percentage falls between 5% and 30%, the system can continue to use the standard waveform parameter set, or determine an intermediate waveform parameter set between low-voltage slow speed and the standard waveform based on linear interpolation, in order to achieve a smooth transition and overall optimization.

[0033] In a specific embodiment, the smart chessboard control method based on an e-ink screen further includes a chess piece visual optimization step: A1. When rendering the chess pieces in the area to be refreshed, obtain the chess piece image data including the chess piece body layer.

[0034] In this step, the chess piece image data can be pre-stored in the storage module, categorized and indexed by chess type and piece type. The piece's body layer is a circular or nearly circular grayscale base, with its central area containing high-density pixel values ​​representing the piece's primary color tone; for example, black pieces correspond to grayscale levels 1 to 3 (approaching pure black), and white pieces correspond to grayscale levels 13 to 15 (approaching light white). This body layer is an independent layer, facilitating the subsequent overlay of edge gradients, shadows, and texture effects. When it is determined that a piece needs to be refreshed, the original pixel data of that piece's body layer is retrieved from the corresponding location, ready to enter the rendering pipeline.

[0035] A2. Perform grayscale step rendering on the edge of the chess piece body layer to form a multi-level grayscale gradient edge that gradually decreases from the inside of the chess piece to the outside.

[0036] In this step, because the e-ink screen only has a limited 16 levels of grayscale, if the edges of the chess pieces abruptly change from a dark color to the background color of the chessboard, it will produce obvious jagged edges or a digital appearance. Therefore, a multi-level grayscale gradient rendering technique is used near the outer edge of the circular boundary of the chess piece's body layer. Specifically, starting from the solid color area inside the chess piece and moving outwards, the first gradient ring uses 12 levels of grayscale, the second ring uses 8 levels, the third ring uses 4 levels, and finally transitions to the grayscale value of the chessboard background. This progressive grayscale gradient of 4, 8, and 12 levels simulates the halftone edge softening effect of traditional printed materials. When viewed on the e-ink screen, the edges of the chess pieces appear rounded and smooth, greatly eliminating visual jagged edges and making the entire chess piece look more natural and refined.

[0037] A3. Based on the preset light source direction, generate an asymmetric offset shadow layer below the chess piece body layer.

[0038] In this step, to give the chess pieces a three-dimensional feel as if they are floating above the chessboard surface, the preset light source direction is downward at a 45-degree angle from the upper left corner of the piece. On the side opposite to the light source direction, namely the right and lower sides of the piece, an offset shadow layer is generated. The grayscale design of this shadow layer is as follows: a darker grayscale of 12 to 14 levels is used near the edge of the piece to simulate the heavy shadow produced by the piece blocking the light, and then the grayscale value gradually decreases stepwise to 2 levels towards the right and lower sides away from the piece, until it is almost transparent. On the left and upper edges facing the light source, a high brightness grayscale value of 4 to 6 levels is set to simulate a slight brightening of the lit surface. Through this asymmetrical grayscale distribution, even on a monochrome display, a strong contrast between light and dark and directional shadows can be produced, giving the chess pieces a sense of thickness similar to real chess pieces.

[0039] A4. Combine the chess piece body layer with the asymmetric offset shadow layer to generate the final chess piece display data with a stereoscopic visual effect.

[0040] In this step, the compositing process involves layer overlay calculations: the piece itself layer is placed at the top, and the shadow layer is placed at the bottom and offset by a certain number of pixels. The two layers are blended by grayscale in the overlapping area, with the grayscale value of the shadow layer enhancing the overall darkness of the corresponding pixel. In the final composite image data, the piece retains a bright edge in the upper right direction and a soft shadow in the lower left direction, presenting an overall three-dimensional visual effect of slightly rising from the board surface. Furthermore, to further optimize the visual recognition of different chess types, an internal texture layer corresponding to the chess type can be overlaid on the piece itself layer. For example, for Chinese chess pieces, a micro-engraved texture simulating wood fibers is superimposed on the surface, maintaining a high-contrast pure color in the writing areas, giving the piece a wood-grain-like texture. For Go pieces, black pieces are rendered with a gradient of ink color, keeping the center at the darkest level 1 gray and gradually increasing to level 3 gray towards the outside, creating a translucent, jade-like effect, while white pieces have an extremely fine dark line added to the inner edge to enhance their outline and three-dimensionality. For international chess pieces, a brushed metallic texture is generated using 16 levels of gray alternating, simulating the alternating effect of metallic highlights and matte finishes. These texture superimpositions are all synthesized using preset pattern data, giving the final display of different chess pieces a distinct visual texture, greatly enhancing recognizability and visual appeal. Figure 3 The visual differences between the chess pieces before and after optimization are shown in a magnified comparison. The improved three-dimensionality and recognizability brought about by multi-layered edge gradients, asymmetrical shadows, and enhanced internal textures are clearly visible.

[0041] In a specific embodiment, the smart chessboard control method based on an e-ink screen further includes a hierarchical power management step: B1. During the game interaction, the main control module and the touch detection module are in an active state, and the e-ink screen remains displayed, which is defined as the S0 state. In this step, when both players are engaged in an active game, the system is in its highest performance state, S0. At this time, the main control module runs at full speed, the touch detection module captures finger or stylus input in real time at a scanning frequency of, for example, 60 Hz, and the e-ink display driver module maintains the screen display based on the current frame content. System power consumption is at a normal, active level. This state ensures zero-latency response to every move the user makes, providing a smooth gaming experience.

[0042] B2. When the game action is detected to be paused and the duration exceeds the first duration threshold, the main control module enters a light sleep state and the touch detection module reduces the scanning frequency. The e-ink screen uses the bistable characteristic to maintain the current display content, which is defined as state S1. In this step, the first time threshold can be preset to 30 seconds. When a player enters a long period of thought, or both players temporarily leave their seats and there is no move or operation for more than 30 seconds, the system automatically switches from S0 to S1 state. At this time, the main control module enters a light sleep mode, the kernel clock frequency is reduced, and unnecessary background tasks are suspended; the scanning frequency of the touch detection module is reduced from 60 Hz to about 20 Hz, maintaining only basic touch wake-up detection capability; the e-ink screen continues to display the current game entirely based on its bistable characteristics, without consuming any power. The S1 state can achieve a system power saving of about 30% to 50%, and once the user touches the screen or presses a button again, the main control module can wake up to S0 within milliseconds and continue recording the game, with the user hardly perceptible delay.

[0043] B3. When the duration of no interactive operation is detected to exceed the second duration threshold, the main control module enters a deep sleep state, cuts off the power supply of unnecessary peripherals, and retains only the wake-up source circuit, which is defined as the S2 state. In this step, the second duration threshold can be preset to 5 minutes. When the chessboard remains completely inactive for more than 5 minutes, the system determines that the game may be paused for an extended period and enters the S2 deep sleep state. The main control module's kernel is shut down, the system's main clock stops oscillating, and the power supply to communication peripherals such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi is completely cut off. The touch module further reduces to an interrupt mode that only detects specific wake-up areas or buttons. The e-ink screen continues to display static images. At this point, system power consumption drops to the microamp level, retaining power only for the real-time clock and a few wake-up source circuits, ensuring that battery life can be extended from several days to several weeks. Upon waking, by touching any location or pressing the power button, the system can recover to the S0 state within approximately 100 milliseconds and process any touch events that may have been temporarily stored during sleep.

[0044] B4. When the duration of no interactive operation exceeds the third duration threshold, the current game state data is stored in non-volatile memory, and then the power supply to the main control module, e-ink screen driver module and all unnecessary driver circuits is cut off, which is defined as state S3. Wherein, the third duration threshold is greater than the second duration threshold, and the second duration threshold is greater than the first duration threshold.

[0045] In this step, the third time threshold can be preset to 30 minutes. If no one plays for more than half an hour, the system determines that the user has left or is no longer using the device and will execute the most thorough S3 power-down protection state. Before entering the S3 state, the processor briefly powers on one last time to serialize and store the current complete game state data, including the position of each piece, the number of moves, and timing information, into the Flash non-volatile memory. After storage, the power management module sequentially cuts off the power to the main control module, the e-ink screen driver module, the touch module, and all unnecessary driver circuits, leaving only a very few wake-up sources such as the power button powered on, resulting in near-zero power consumption for the entire device. When the user returns, pressing the power button restarts the system, reads the game state from the Flash and restores it, and the e-ink screen refreshes to the previous game screen. After a brief startup process, the user can continue the unfinished game. Through a four-level progressive power management strategy, the advantages of the e-ink screen's bistable zero-power display are fully utilized. Combined with dynamic power consumption adjustments for different usage scenarios, the smart chessboard's battery life significantly surpasses that of traditional electronic chessboard products.

[0046] like Figure 4 As shown, this embodiment of the invention also provides a smart chessboard control device based on an e-ink screen, comprising: The main control module includes: The chess game change recognition unit is used to map screen pixel coordinates to logical grid coordinates and recognize changes in the chess game state. A partial refresh decision unit is used to execute the partial refresh steps; The chess piece visual optimization unit is used to perform visual optimization steps; A low-power management unit is used to perform power management steps; An e-ink display module, connected to the main control module, is used to display the chessboard and chess pieces; The user input module is connected to the main control module and is used to collect the coordinates of the piece placement. The power management module, controlled by the low-power management unit, is used to provide different levels of power supply to each module; The storage module, connected to the main control module, is used to store chess game data and program code.

[0047] It should be noted that those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the specific implementation process of the above-mentioned intelligent chessboard control device based on e-ink screen and each unit can be referred to the corresponding description in the foregoing method embodiments. For the sake of convenience and brevity, it will not be repeated here.

[0048] The aforementioned smart chessboard control device based on an e-ink screen can be implemented as a computer program, which can be used in various ways, such as... Figure 5 The intelligent chessboard device shown is running on it.

[0049] Please see Figure 5 , Figure 5 This is a schematic block diagram of an intelligent chessboard device provided in an embodiment of this application. (See also...) Figure 5 The intelligent chessboard device 500 includes a processor 502, a memory, and a network interface 505 connected via a system bus 501. The memory may include a non-volatile storage medium 503 and internal memory 504. An e-ink screen is used to display information; a touch sensor is used to detect user actions.

[0050] The non-volatile storage medium 503 can store an operating system 5031 and a computer program 5032. When the computer program 5032 is executed, it enables the processor 502 to execute an intelligent chessboard control method based on an e-ink screen.

[0051] The processor 502 provides computing and control capabilities to support the operation of the entire intelligent chessboard device 500.

[0052] The internal memory 504 provides an environment for the operation of the computer program 5032 in the non-volatile storage medium 503. When the computer program 5032 is executed by the processor 502, the processor 502 can execute an intelligent chessboard control method based on an e-ink screen.

[0053] This network interface 505 is used for network communication with other devices. Those skilled in the art will understand that... Figure 5 The structure shown is merely a block diagram of a portion of the structure related to the present application and does not constitute a limitation on the intelligent chessboard device 500 to which the present application is applied. The specific intelligent chessboard device 500 may include more or fewer components than those shown in the figure, or combine certain components, or have different component arrangements.

[0054] The processor 502 is used to run a computer program 5032 stored in the memory to perform the following steps: S1. Detect chess state change events and determine at least one logical grid where the state change has occurred; S2. Based on the mapping relationship between the logical grid and the display pixels, determine the pixel change area corresponding to the logical grid, and calculate the minimum outer rectangle that can cover the entire pixel change area; S3. According to the preset chess rules, determine the affected logic grid associated with the state change, and expand the minimum outer rectangle into a final refresh rectangle that includes the affected logic grid; S4. Dynamically select and configure the driving waveform parameters based on the display area of ​​the final refresh rectangle or the ratio of that area to the total display area of ​​the e-ink screen; S5. Control the e-ink screen driver module to perform a partial refresh operation only on the display area corresponding to the final refresh rectangle.

[0055] It should be understood that in the embodiments of this application, the processor 502 may be a central processing unit (CPU), or it may be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0056] It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or part of the processes in the methods of the above embodiments can be implemented by a computer program instructing related hardware. The computer program may be stored in a storage medium, which is a computer-readable storage medium. The computer program is executed by at least one processor in the computer system to implement the process steps of the embodiments of the above methods.

[0057] Therefore, the present invention also provides a storage medium. This storage medium can be a computer-readable storage medium. The storage medium stores a computer program. When executed by a processor, the computer program causes the processor to perform the following steps: S1. Detect chess state change events and determine at least one logical grid where the state change has occurred; S2. Based on the mapping relationship between the logical grid and the display pixels, determine the pixel change area corresponding to the logical grid, and calculate the minimum outer rectangle that can cover the entire pixel change area; S3. According to the preset chess rules, determine the affected logic grid associated with the state change, and expand the minimum outer rectangle into a final refresh rectangle that includes the affected logic grid; S4. Dynamically select and configure the driving waveform parameters based on the display area of ​​the final refresh rectangle or the ratio of that area to the total display area of ​​the e-ink screen; S5. Control the e-ink screen driver module to perform a partial refresh operation only on the display area corresponding to the final refresh rectangle.

[0058] The storage medium is a physical, non-transient storage medium, such as a USB flash drive, portable hard drive, read-only memory (ROM), magnetic disk, or optical disk, or any other physical storage medium capable of storing program code.

[0059] Those skilled in the art will recognize that the units and algorithm steps of the various examples described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of both. To clearly illustrate the interchangeability of hardware and software, the components and steps of the various examples have been generally described in terms of functionality in the foregoing description. Whether these functions are implemented in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Those skilled in the art can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementations should not be considered beyond the scope of this invention.

[0060] In the several embodiments provided by this invention, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative. For example, the division of each unit is merely a logical functional division, and there may be other division methods in actual implementation. For example, multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be ignored or not executed.

[0061] The steps in the method of this invention can be adjusted, merged, or reduced in order according to actual needs. The units in the device of this invention can be merged, divided, or reduced according to actual needs. Furthermore, the functional units in the various embodiments of this invention can be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit can exist physically separately, or two or more units can be integrated into one unit.

[0062] If the integrated unit is implemented as a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present invention, in essence, or the part that contributes to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to cause a computer intelligent chessboard device (which may be a personal computer, terminal, or network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present invention.

[0063] In the above embodiments, the descriptions of each embodiment have different focuses. For parts that are not described in detail in a certain embodiment, please refer to the relevant descriptions in other embodiments.

[0064] Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations to this invention without departing from its spirit and scope. Since these modifications and variations fall within the scope of the claims and their equivalents, this invention also intends to include these modifications and variations.

[0065] The above description is merely a specific embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of protection of the present invention is not limited thereto. Any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of various equivalent modifications or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in the present invention, and these modifications or substitutions should all be covered within the scope of protection of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present invention should be determined by the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for controlling an intelligent chessboard based on an e-ink screen, characterized in that, Includes the following steps: Detect chess state change events and identify at least one logical grid where the state change has occurred; Based on the mapping relationship between the logical grid and the display pixels, the pixel change area corresponding to the logical grid is determined, and the minimum outer rectangle that can cover the entire pixel change area is calculated. According to the preset chess rules, the affected logic grids associated with the state change are determined, and the minimum outer rectangle is expanded into a final refresh rectangle that includes the affected logic grids; Based on the display area of ​​the final refresh rectangle or the ratio of that area to the total display area of ​​the e-ink screen, the driving waveform parameters are dynamically selected and configured. The control e-ink screen driver module performs a partial refresh operation only on the display area corresponding to the final refresh rectangle.

2. The intelligent chessboard control method based on an e-ink screen according to claim 1, characterized in that, The step of determining the affected logical grids associated with the state change according to preset chess rules, and expanding the minimum outer rectangle into a final refresh rectangle that includes the affected logical grids, specifically includes: When the game is Go or Gomoku, the logic grid where the liberty point or capture point that causes the opponent's piece to be captured is located is determined as the affected logic grid. When the chess game is Chinese chess or international chess, the logical grid through which the current piece moves and captures pieces is traversed is determined as the affected logical grid. The minimum outer rectangle is expanded outward until it completely contains all the affected logical grids, generating the final refresh rectangle.

3. The intelligent chessboard control method based on an e-ink screen according to claim 1, characterized in that, The step of dynamically selecting and configuring drive waveform parameters based on the display area of ​​the final refresh rectangle or the ratio of that area to the total display area of ​​the e-ink screen specifically includes: When the area of ​​the final refresh rectangle is less than the proportion of the total display area of ​​the e-ink screen to a first preset threshold, the low-voltage slow waveform parameter set is selected. When the ratio is greater than the second preset threshold, a standard waveform parameter set is selected; Wherein, the first preset threshold is less than the second preset threshold.

4. The intelligent chessboard control method based on an e-ink screen according to claim 1, characterized in that, It also includes steps for visual optimization of the chess pieces: When rendering the pieces in the area to be refreshed, obtain the piece image data including the piece's body layer; Perform grayscale step rendering on the edge of the chess piece body layer to form a multi-level grayscale gradient edge that gradually decreases from the inside of the chess piece to the outside. Based on the preset light source direction, an asymmetric offset shadow layer is generated below the chess piece body layer; The chess piece body layer and the asymmetric offset shadow layer are combined to generate the final chess piece display data with a stereoscopic visual effect.

5. The intelligent chessboard control method based on an e-ink screen according to claim 4, characterized in that, The generation of an asymmetric offset shadow layer below the chess piece body layer based on a preset light source direction specifically includes: The light source direction is preset to be 45 degrees relative to the upper left corner of the chess piece; The offset shadow layer is generated on the side opposite to the direction of the light source, that is, on the right and bottom side of the chess piece; Specifically, on the right and lower sides, the grayscale value near the edge of the chess piece is 12 to 14 levels, decreasing outwards in a stepped manner to level 2 or transparent; on the left and upper sides of the chess piece, the corresponding high-brightness grayscale value is set to 4 to 6 levels to simulate the light-receiving surface.

6. The intelligent chessboard control method based on an e-ink screen according to claim 4, characterized in that, The grayscale step rendering of the edges of the chess piece body layer specifically includes: Edge gradient rendering is achieved using 4, 8, and 12 grayscale levels.

7. The intelligent chessboard control method based on an e-ink screen according to claim 1, characterized in that, It also includes tiered power management steps: During the game interaction, the main control module and the touch detection module are in an active state, and the e-ink screen remains displayed, which is defined as the S0 state; When a pause in a game is detected and the duration exceeds the first time threshold, the main control module enters a light sleep state and the touch detection module reduces the scanning frequency. The e-ink screen uses its bistable characteristics to maintain the current display content, which is defined as the S1 state. When the duration of no interactive operation is detected to exceed the second duration threshold, the main control module enters a deep sleep state, cuts off the power to unnecessary peripherals, and retains only the wake-up source circuit, which is defined as the S2 state. When the duration of no interactive operation exceeds the third duration threshold, the current game state data is stored in non-volatile memory, and then the power supply to the main control module, e-ink screen driver module and all unnecessary driver circuits is cut off, which is defined as the S3 state. Wherein, the third duration threshold is greater than the second duration threshold, and the second duration threshold is greater than the first duration threshold.

8. A smart chessboard control device based on an e-ink screen, characterized in that, include: The main control module includes: The chess game change recognition unit is used to map screen pixel coordinates to logical grid coordinates and recognize changes in the chess game state. A local refresh decision unit is configured to execute the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 3; A chess piece visual optimization unit, configured to perform the method as described in any one of claims 4 to 6; A low-power management unit is configured to perform the method as described in claim 7; An e-ink display module, connected to the main control module, is used to display the chessboard and chess pieces; The user input module is connected to the main control module and is used to collect the coordinates of the piece placement. The power management module, controlled by the low-power management unit, is used to provide different levels of power supply to each module; The storage module, connected to the main control module, is used to store chess game data and program code.

9. A smart chessboard device, characterized in that, include: One or more processors; Memory, used to store one or more programs; E-ink screen, used to display information; Touch sensors are used to detect user actions; When the one or more programs are executed by the one or more processors, the one or more processors implement the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 7.

10. A computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, characterized in that, When the computer program is executed by a processor, it implements the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 7.

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