The next Generation Bridge Table !

[Commander]

The Next Generation Bridge Table

Thomas Walker 
31 Dec 2024
Copy Right

I have thought of this about 15 years back when the Computer Displays and Touch Functions were evolving

The Table and Chairs set will be almost like the present setup

Five Displays one Square Top and four matching rectangular side Panels which can be folded down for being visible to only that Player.
Improvements can be made to make the side Panels Detachable to br held in hand

On the Top Display Touch enabled Buttons for Deal Creation,Shuffle,Cut,Deal,Bidding Boxes,Storing Bids, Played Cards,Trick Counts etc enabled displayed and oriented according to Bridge Rules and authorised viewership !

Play starts after deals created and displayed on the individual Panels and Biddings done and Opening Leader designated. Also Deals can be created / generated or picked up from the Server all wireless networked and used on the Specific Table/s [Multiple Tables for a Tournament can be networked]
The opening leader clicks on the card he wants to play on his panel which gets removed from his panel and goes and falls in the middle of the table followed by other players in their turn doing so and at the end of the trick the winner is enabled to collect etc as any Bridge or Card Player can Imagine and understand !
All features of BBO can be adopted !!
It’s very SIMPLE !!!

These Tables can be used for Whist and other card games too !

[Commander]

Further Dialogues and discussions on WhatsApp Business

[11:52 am, 1/1/2025] Chai BC: Interesting

[12:10 pm, 1/1/2025] T W: Let not the Chinese be the first to take up my idea and bring out the Product  😊

[12:13 pm, 1/1/2025] T W: TY Chai 🙏

[1:07 pm, 1/1/2025] T W: Another advantage is Robots can be players or substitutes too

[1:38 pm, 1/1/2025] T W: In the case of Rummy a round table will be employed with provision for multiplayers 

 

This can revolutionise the entire Card Games and Tournaments

[4:28 pm, 1/1/2025] Chai BC: Can we build a prototype

[7:58 pm, 1/1/2025] T W: Why not. We can think of that

[7:59 pm, 1/1/2025] T W: I rang up to wish you Happy New Year

[5:55 am, 2/1/2025] Chai BC: Happy New Year to you too!... C u at the bridge room soon

🙏

[8:08 am, 2/1/2025] Mannan: Good morning sir. What is the final objective of this project?

[8:15 am, 2/1/2025] T W: Maybe we can take up the Development in a National Level Researchers' Competition which will bring Bridge in the Lime Light increasing the National Awareness and Research in General and pave way for Indian Team to become world Champions [recently they came 2nd]

[1:57 pm, 1/1/2025] Ramanand Baliga: True, but card players love the feel of cards, arranging them, playing actual card when their turn comes.

Same as BBO versus playing in person with friends

[2:01 pm, 1/1/2025] T W: I understand Yes !

[3:57 pm, 1/1/2025] T W: Give up some Take some

[8:07 am, 2/1/2025] T W: To enhance the Card Playing Feel and Pleasure we can also come out with an RFID based new Generation cards Pack which can be monitored and used for Shuffle Cut and Deal and thereafter played on by Humans holding the cards in their hands and doing what exactly they otherwise do !

This will have Software Tools including AI Tools under the Control of the Server.

 

This can be used standalone eliminating the requirement of Digital Touch display or can be used in conjunction with the Bridge Table appropriately !

👍

 

[8:23 am, 2/1/2025] Ramanand Baliga: Computer won't allow revoke to be committed by a human player.

[8:43 am, 2/1/2025] T W: No it will allow revoke to happen (in case of RFID cards) but record it and take action 

 

Setting can also be allowed to give Warning or Prevent it !

[8:45 am, 2/1/2025] T W: Computer Director can speak to the table too

[9:18 am, 2/1/2025] Ramanand Baliga: Good design.

🙏

 

[1:03 am, 2/1/2025] Pratap: Work on it Walker. Good luck!

[10:35 am, 2/1/2025] T W: TY 🙏

Now that I have broadcast the idea thinking of going for a National level Product Design Competition

 

[2:56 pm, 2/1/2025] Walker… 😎 Amit Walker…: Hi daddy, Happy New Year 2025 again… In this new year why don’t you try developing & implementing some of your ideas… Because ideas will just be ideas till they are implemented… And they can be done your way… Because the best part of when I do something, is I get to do it my way with my own ideas, irrespective of what anyone else’s ideas might be since I will do only what I would like to do when I do… 🙂

[9:23 am, 7/1/2025] T W: TY Amit

Very true but as I have shared the ideas with many I am thinking of instituting a National level or International level of Product Development Competition in which Researchers and Students can participate and we can have a panel to assess them and assist them in the development 

This will also popularise Bridge and generate Awareness

[9:26 am, 7/1/2025] T W: I need some support from Organisations and Individuals 

Maybe you or Ajit too can pitch in

[12:05 pm, 7/1/2025] Walker… 😎 Amit Walker…: Nobody works for free anymore daddy… 🙂 Even if you call it a competition…

 

I have too many ideas of my own, and too little time to spare for them itself, so not sure if I would be of much help…

 

But I will always be able to help by sharing my thoughts and ideas whenever it might be needed…

[toucana]

I used to play Contract Bridge in a competitive Duplicate tournament format while at University (after learning it at school), but have hardly touched the game in almost 40 years. When the global pandemic took hold a few years ago in 2020, and many people turned to online games, I took up Riichi (Japanese Mahjong)  instead. There are some interesting parallels between the two games which may help explain why attempts to promote digital forms of Contract Bridge in particular have not been very successful.

- Both games became highly popular in their respective countries (Japan and USA) in the early  1930s, and again after the war in the 1950s, but both slumped dramatically in popularity towards  the end of the 1970s.

- By the mid-1980s, Riichi Mahjong had become something of a joke in Japan. It was seen as a game that your parents or grandparents used to play, and of no conceivable interest to younger people.

- Much the same was true of Contract Bridge which was by now seen as a dowdy game played by seniors in retirement homes, or social clubs for the elderly - (my nearest Bridge group meets in a local Croquet club).

What changed in the case of Riichi Mahjong in Japan was the advent of networked digital gaming and the internet from the mid-90s onwards, which was boosted by the very rapid growth of highly popular Mahjong themed Manga comic and Anime film brands such as Saki (咲) and Akagi (アカギ). The re-awakening of interest in Riichi  these aroused among younger players in Japan was quite explosive. Nowadays there are said to be about ten times as many Mahjong players as there are Poker players in the world - the vast majority of them in Asia of course -  but with many more beginning to play in Europe and USA too.

One reason for the recent popularity of Riichi Mahjong outside of Asia was the advent of two truly excellent global online Mahjong playing platforms called Tenhou (2000) and Mahjong Soul (2018) respectively.

https://osamuko.com/a-history-of-tenhou/

There aren’t really any comparable platforms for playing Contract Bridge online. Those that do exist such as Bridge Base Online charge money to play, and are quite restrictive too - (Tenhou and Mahjong Soul are free to play, and open to all).

From an engineering  point of view, one large problem is that Contract Bridge is a *partnership* game (Riichi Mahjong is not). There are significant practical dificulties in managing partnership play in any form of digital version of Contract Bridge. One problem is that of random network disconnection. When it happens on Tenhou or Mahjong Soul, automata can intervene to enable the game to continue. You simply can’t do this effectively in a partnership game like Contract Bridge. Then there is the social overhead of practising and timetabling partnership arrangements across timezones. It’s so much simpler and rewarding to play Riichi 😉