Universal puzzle piece with customizable surface

Abstract

A universally shaped puzzle piece is provided that may mate with any side of a puzzle piece having the same universal shape. Instead of placing a portion of an overall puzzle image on the universally shaped puzzle piece, indicia related to a theme are placed on one side. The other side of the puzzle piece may be customizable to a user such that an infinite number of the universally shaped puzzle pieces may be customized and fit together to form a puzzle with a unique image. Thus, puzzle pieces may be distributed to individuals at a public event so that a puzzle is created that represents the overall theme of the event.

1 . A system for creating a virtual puzzle piece comprising:
 customization tools to customize the virtual puzzle piece; and   a webserver configured to publish the virtual puzzle piece to a webpage.   
   
   
       2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the virtual puzzle piece has a universal shape. 
   
   
       3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the virtual puzzle piece has a unique identification number. 
   
   
       4 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of user profiles, wherein the virtual puzzle piece is associated with a particular user profile of the plurality of user profiles. 
   
   
       5 . The system of  claim 4 , further comprising a login feature for accessing the particular user profile. 
   
   
       6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the customization tools comprises one or more of a color palette, cut function, paste function, copy function, brush size function, erase function, paint function, or zoom function. 
   
   
       7 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a virtual puzzle; and   placement tools to place the virtual puzzle piece in a particular location of the virtual puzzle.   
   
   
       8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the customization tool comprises an import tool that allows an image to be imported from a storage device onto the virtual puzzle piece. 
   
   
       9 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a remote database configured to store the virtual puzzle piece. 
   
   
       10 . The system of  claim 9 , further comprising a virtual puzzle, and wherein the remote database is further configured to store a particular location of the virtual puzzle piece in the virtual puzzle. 
   
   
       11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the webserver is further configured to publish the virtual puzzle to the webpage. 
   
   
       12 . A machine-readable medium encoded with machine-readable instructions for:
 providing a virtual puzzle piece; and   providing tools to customize the virtual puzzle piece.   
   
   
       13 . The machine-readable medium of  claim 12 , further comprising machine-readable instructions for publishing the virtual puzzle piece on the Internet. 
   
   
       14 . The machine-readable medium of  claim 12 , wherein the virtual puzzle piece has a universal shape. 
   
   
       15 . The machine-readable medium of  claim 12 , further comprising machine-readable instructions for instructing a printer to print the virtual puzzle piece. 
   
   
       16 . The machine-readable medium of  claim 12 , further comprising machine-readable instructions for placing the virtual puzzle piece in particular location of a virtual puzzle, wherein the virtual puzzle comprises a plurality of virtual puzzle pieces. 
   
   
       17 . The machine-readable medium of  claim 16 , further comprising machine-readable instructions for instructing a printer to print the virtual puzzle. 
   
   
       18 . The machine-readable medium of  claim 12 , further comprising machine-readable instructions for creating a plurality of user profiles, wherein the virtual puzzle piece is associated with a particular user profile of the plurality of user profiles. 
   
   
       19 . The machine-readable medium of  claim 18 , further comprising machine-readable instructions for creating a login feature for accessing the particular user profile. 
   
   
       20 . The machine-readable medium of  claim 12 , further comprising machine-readable instructions for:
 storing a first password;   prompting a user to enter a password; and   providing the tools to customize the virtual puzzle piece if the user-entered password matches the first password.