Magic stones

LEGO is also embracing AI, but there’s no screen involved.

Earlier this year, the Danish company LEGO launched the LEGO SMART Play System. The manufacturer promises a touch of extra play magic, as the bricks actively take part in the game.

The system comprises three components, all of which fit onto standard LEGO bricks. A small brick, the SMART Brick, acts as the brain; it consists of a silicone chip with sensors for light and colour recognition, a magnetic distance sensor, a ‘microphone’, Bluetooth, a synthesiser and a speaker. An accelerometer tells the brick how it is moving, allowing it to react accordingly. If the brick is shaken, tilted, touched or moved through the air, it responds with appropriate lights and sounds. The cube can be charged wirelessly on the bright yellow charging station supplied.

Then there are the smart tiles, known as SMART Tags, which determine what kind of object the structure is. If you’re building a car, you place a ‘car tag’ inside it. The Brick then knows what sounds to make for different movements. So one moment the Brick functions as a vehicle or a spaceship, the next as a building, and then as an animal.

Each little figure, or SMART Figurine, has a personality with its own mood and reactions, which the smart Brick recognises. For example, a brave pilot makes different sounds in a spaceship flying upside down than a more modest character.

Twenty patents

LEGO itself describes it as the most significant innovation since the invention of the yellow LEGO minifigures in 1978. The launch was preceded by eight years of development and is said to involve twenty patents.

A bonus for parents: there’s no app or screen involved. The technology is completely hidden within the bricks. The first SMART systems have recently gone on sale and cost between 70 and 160 euros. For the time being, however, they are only available in Germany, France and England.

PHOTO's: LEGO