Lego have announced the release of the Smart Brick and Smart Play ecosystem. This is designed to make playing with Lego feel more interactive. Make it respond to what you are doing, not just being a static object. And honestly, it looks really impressive.
At the core of the innovation is the Smart Brick. This looks just like a normal 2x4 Lego brick, albeit partially transparent. Inside there is…well quite a lot. A speaker, sensors, battery and, the real techy bit, coils. The bricks charge through a coil like a phone on a charge pad or an electric toothbrush. Just put the bricks on the charge pad and you’re set. You can even charge more than one at once. But that's not the real genius of the coils. That part is how they create a positioning system through the use of multiple coils. This means that each brick knows where it, other bricks, smart tags and smart mini figures are in relation to itself. That's right, it's not just the bricks, there are also smart tags and smart mini figures, which essentially communicate with the bricks and tell them how they should be reacting.
Ok, enough of the tech talk, what does this mean in practise? Well it means the brick knows when and how it's being played with. A spaceship being moved through the air, it makes a spaceship whooshing sound. Luke Skywalker nearby, maybe it makes a lightsaber sound. Maybe the tag says it's part of the Harry Potter Mandrake set (we just got this, it's great), so the brick knows to make itself green if it's in the leaves or brown if it's in the pot, and make a screeching sound when the Mandrake is lifted up (they really don't like that).
This adds a whole new level of immersion to Lego sets and I can't wait to see what they come up with. Hopefully it's something custom creators can get involved with eventually as well, given how many custom creations are submitted to Lego and eventually made into sets.
In the meantime time, enjoy those Legos!
