Building RFID-Based Augmented Dice with Perfect Recognition Rates

We report on the construction of real-world dice equipped with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology that support the automated readout and processing of rolled results. Such augmented dice help to build “smart” tabletop games that are able to unobtrusively detect the players’ actions, allowing them to better focus on the gameplay and the social interaction with other players. Since the technology is completely integrated into the play environment, the look and feel of the dice is unaltered. This article provides an overview of the challenges in building augmented dice and describes the various prototypes that we built. Our latest model resembles a regular die of about 16mm side length and achieves a perfect recognition rate of 100%.