The Vexier ™ - The Concept

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The Quest
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Where does the name 'VEXIER' come from?

Picture puzzles with the task of attaching, detaching or reaasemble pieces to reveal a solution or solve a riddle are also called Vexier games. The word 'VEXIER' means, to tease or to vex somebody.
One kind of Vexier games are ring puzzles, like the Chinese Rings (also known as Cardan's Suspension, Cardano's Rings, Devil's needle or five pillars puzzle). 'Chinese Rings' is a mechanical puzzle featuring a double loop of string which must be disentangled from a sequence of rings on interlinked pillars. The puzzle is thought to have been invented originally in China.

A VEXIER (lat. vexare = vex, joggle) or picture puzzle is

an apparently correct constructed image, where the perspective turns out to be impossible, such as the Penrose triangle.
a search image that does not contain a recognizable figure at first sight.
an image that conveys its special design from different angles and different image content.

The Penrose triangle, also known as the Penrose tribar, is an impossible object. The mathematician, Roger Penrose, devised and popularised it in the 1950s, describing it as "impossibility in its purest form". It is featured prominently in the works of artist M. C. Escher, whose earlier depictions of impossible objects partly inspired it.
The tribar appears to be a solid object, made of three straight beams of square cross-section which meet pairwise at right angles at the vertices of the triangle they form.

Penrose tribar This combination of properties cannot be realized by any 3-dimensional object in ordinary Euclidean space. Such an object can exist in certain Euclidean 3-manifolds.
There also exist 3-dimensional solid shapes each of which, when viewed from a certain angle, appears the same as 'three shades of blue' 2-dimensional depiction of the Penrose triangle on the left.
The term "Penrose triangle" can refer to the 2-dimensional depiction or the impossible object itself.

View the generation of a more complex object ...

Vexier™ - The 500,000.00 USD Next Generation Online Quest

We have hidden an image (Solution layer) behind exactly one million (10,000 blocks of 100 pixels each) mask pixels (Initial mask layer). With the correct interpretation of all the signs and of cracking all the codes, shown on the solution layer, you can find the desired solutions of our hidden riddles.
Since the maximum duration of the game is one year, VEXIER ends on March 31, 2012, 18:00 GMT (Worst Case Scenario).

Mask layer pixels

How does it work?

The first goal of participation is to remove any number of mask pixels, which cover the image with the hidden riddles (Solution layer). This is done through the acquisition (buying) of the desired amount of mask pixel blocks (at least 10 x 10 = 100 pixels), indicating the coordinates of where to erase these pixel blocks. Each pixel block (item) costs just 100 USD, thus, the minimum amount to participate is 100 USD.
Once one of the participants send us the right solution, the online game is over and we do not accept further payments. The winner's ticket-number will be published - or at his own request, with name and address - on the page "Game Over".

How high is the velvet?

The maximum velvet is USD 500,000.00 (if one million mask pixels have been sold). Since one pixel costs 1 USD, the profit rate is thus 50%. If the solution of our quest will be found without selling all the mask pixels, the winning amount will be analogously less. The minimum number of mask pixels required to be erased, in order to solve all the riddles, is approximately 600,000.

Example: The participants have erased (purchased) 784,000 mask pixels, when one is sending us the right solution of the quest. This corresponds to overall stakes of 784,000.00 USD. The winner receives 50% of that amount, which consequently is a velvet of 392,000.00 USD.

Worst Case Scenario

Lets assume, that not all essential Pixel Blocks (items) needed in order to solve the quest have been erased until March 31, 2012. What happens then is, that we unmask the entire Pixel Space (One million pixels). Every registered participant may try to solve the quest and send (as fast as possible) one or more solutions (based on how many registered ticket-numbers he holds) to us. The maximum velvet is 50% (in USD) of the sold mask pixels (in numbers) by this time.

Example: The participants have erased (purchased) 80,000 mask pixels only until March 31, 2012, 18:00 GMT. This corresponds to overall stakes of 80,000.00 USD. The annouced winner receives 50% of that amount, which is a velvet of 40,000.00 USD. The beneficiary (see Game Over page) of our Quest receives 10%, which is 8,000.00 USD.

How high are your chances to win?

The following graph shows the gain probability (in %) as a function of the stake and the maximum velvet:

Probability Function

The Quest is over no later than 14 days after selling the last 100 available mask pixels or in other words, after all of the one million mask pixels have been sold.

Definition: Let's assume, that the last 100 pixels of our 1,000,000 million pixels will be sold on November 5, 2011 at any time, based on Greewich mean time (GMT). To the advantage of the contributors, we start counting our 14 days on November 6 at 18:00 (6pm) GMT. Consequently, the Quest would be finished at November 20, 2011 at 18:00(6:00pm) GMT at the latest.

The total number of allowed submitted solutions is 10,000, since you can submit one proposed solution for each purchased "pixel block" (100 pixels). The solutions can be submitted at any time, but must be submitted before the official end of the quest.
If we don't receive a correct solution within the active period, there will be no winning participator and no velvet. Instead, the sum of 50% of the overall stakes (total sales) will go to an eligible non-profit organization (beneficiary).

What happens with the surplus?

First of all, we would be very happy about the money (just kidding). Online projects like this one - from the first idea to an executable solution - cost quite a lot of time, money and nerves. We do not deny that we want to achieve a profit with this project, but we want to invest a large portion of the net income into new projects, because we love to create & develop new brain joggers for the benefit of everybody.
Last but not least, we want to support an eligible non-profit project, by donating 10% of the overall stakes (total income) to it. Info about who this is, can be found on the page "Game over".

Notice: Firestorm Forces guarantees a proper execution of the quest VEXIER™. The complete solution is deposited at a notary's office. The notary in charge will validate, that only participants are eligible to win, which are not associated with us, and that 10% of the total sales (gains) will be donated to a charity project.

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