World's Most Expensive Scrabble Board Unveilved

Playthings Staff -- Gifts and Dec, 11/15/2012 10:24:48 AM

A 21st century Scrabble boardPLYMOUTH, England - Classic board game, Scrabble, just got a technological makeover. The new version cost nearly $40,000 to produce and utilizes a custom built high-tech system that can read the entire Scrabble board in up to 974 milliseconds and transmit the information to online viewers.

The new game, which will be unveiled and used by participants at the upcoming Prague Mind Sports Festival, December 1-4, consists of nine RFID circuit boards that house 225 RFID antennas that can read each individual Scrabble square. Each Scrabble letter tile also has its own uniquely identifiable RFID tag embedded within (100 in total), with an RFID circuit board enclosed in each of the players tile racks to ensure that all information is captured and showcased to the online viewers.

The tournament play software, created by leading UK developers The Site Doctor, extracts the information collected via the RFID readers and relays it on screen in an easy-to-follow, graphical display alongside the HD video footage of each player. Coupled with the online streaming of the tournament, fans of Scrabble will be able to easily track the action live as it unfolds from the venue.

"Our goal was to help bring popular Scrabble tournaments to life, whilst reaching a wider audience by capturing tournament play in a technologically advanced and engaging manner," said Dave Brannan, CEO, Mind Sports (International) and Living it Loving it Ltd. "This allows us to broadcast Scrabble in all its glory, interacting with viewers that share a passion for this iconic game and mind sports as a whole across the world."

In addition to the technology integration, the new aesthetics of the new Scrabble system feature a carbon fibre finish and integrated RGB controlled LED lighting system on the turntable unit in order to bring additional style and complete customisation to the game.

The new system will receive in-depth review from Scrabble experts, including the current World Scrabble Champion, Nigel Richards and Canadian expert, John Chew during the festival.