50 pc puzzle tracker-Seeking tiny reader for NFC/RFID- or alternate soln

[feltsg]

Hi,
Imagine this. You have puzzle peices with rf or nfc tags on them. okay thats plausible.
Now imagine you want to have a digital twin for your puzzle. every time you put peices together it there is some signal generated that is utilized to update an image of the current puzzle.

Well putting a tag next to a reader could generate such signal.
HOWEVER
my problem is that that would jsut be one peice adjacent to a reader, or at best a few peices adjacent to a reader, not the true assembly of the puzzle.

But how could you generate signals for all the peices being put together correctly?
Maybe rfid/nfc is not the solution.
maybe hall sensor?

-what if I made a board out of readers?
-what if i put a reader and a tag in every peice? (impractical given size of readers)

any thought?

---

first lead:

Using with LibNFC | Adafruit PN532 RFID/NFC Breakout and Shield | Adafruit Learning System

This is a library for the Adafruit PN532 NFC/RFID breakout boards This library works with the Adafruit NFC breakout:
GitHub - adafruit/Adafruit-PN532: Arduino library for SPI and I2C access to the PN532 RFID/Near Field Communication chip

[Grumpy_Mike]

@feltsg

But how could you generate signals for all the peices being put together correctly?
Maybe rfid/nfc is not the solution.

Yes you are correct in this assumption, and a hall effect sensor is not of any use either.

The closest system I can think of is a system that is like a large drum about a meter high. I have seen one but I can't remember the name of it. basically it works by putting a unique pattern in the underside of each piece. Then a camera at the bottom of the bucket looks up to the skin on top and identifies each piece and where each piece is.

The original device I saw was designed for generating music and musical sequences by placing pieces on the drum skin.

You might be able to duplicate this sort of thing using the HuskyLens intelligent camera.
Huskylens sensor.

Plus some appropriate lighting.

[xfpd]

Put contacts on the "North" and "South" side of the central pieces, "Right Turn" contacts on the "North" edge pieces, "Left Turn" contacts on the "South edge pieces and intra-piece wires connecting contact to contact. Measure continuity.