alt Hacker NewsLego announces Smart Brick, the 'most significant evolution' in 50 years, no AI
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Unfortunately Lego kind of went backwards, evolution-wise, in the last 20 years or so. I had quite some Lego blocks in my youth and the best part was free assembly rather than those overpriced build-xyz-mega-sets one sees today now. I get it that they cater to another market, e. g. also collecters, but the creativity part really went down. And that was a deliberate decision made by Lego.
Does this mean that my son's Spike Prime set (with Scratch/Python programming and motors) is now obsolete, like Mindstorms EV3, Mindstorms NXT, PowerFunctions, WeDo, Coding Express, StoryStarter, BuildToExpress, and Lego Education Spike Legacy that came before it?
I'm sure we'll keep playing with the Spike - the Scratch and Python environments are great - but it's a shame to see all this continued fragmentation in the Lego ecosystem.
Some analysis of the technical details from the patents here: https://www.heise.de/en/background/Lego-Smart-Play-Patent-ap...
A predecessor that I had as a child: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Mindstorms
>> the 'most significant evolution' in 50 years
this is an insult to Lego Mindstorms
They should bring back the Light & Sound bricks from the 1980s, those were great with their electric-circuit-enabled standard plates: https://bricksfanz.com/a-look-at-lego-light-sound/
It seems like it will be mildly fun for a few minutes, but not all that revolutionary. Does it leverage what makes Lego great and why people buy it for their kids and themselves? I don’t think so. Triggering your imagination and seeing limitless possibilities in what you can build or pretend is one of the keystones of Lego, in my opinion. Creating a brick that offers a few presets for specific types of models and play seems limiting.
But who knows, I’m almost 40, and I’ve been out of the target demographic for a long long time. My favorite sets were from the Space Police era.
I had the "LEGO Control Center" when I was a teenager - turns out that was released in 1990! And it was amazing:
http://www.technicopedia.com/8094.html
You could build a 2D pen plotter with it (and a few other great models) and program in a sequence of motor movements!
It was the forerunner to LEGO Mindstorms.
Lego unveils tech-filled Smart Bricks - to play experts' unease
“They’re wirelessly charged, with a pad that can charge multiple bricks at a time.."
Did LEGO solve this problem and Apple didn’t? The Apple AirPower is what I’m referring to and it was a matter of physics that was the mighty hurdle Apple had to contend with. But they were also trying to pump out ~15w per device. These bricks will be measured in milliwatts per brick. But I’m curious if there is any additional information about this? How many bricks can be charged at a time? Can they be placed anywhere on the pad? (I hope so.) It would be great if specs were released. I would buy the pad alone just for charging other IoT devices.
https://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/incoming/tech-news-apple-s-a...
Edit: It will not be usable by anything other than Lego Smart Bricks. It will use a proprietary or highly customized inductive standard designed specifically for the new Lego Smart Bricks.
This looks awesome and I can’t imagine just how many possibilities there are if they can pull it off by integrating with other larger components and some sort of software platform running a high level language.
I’d love to build a 3d LEGO Final Fantasy Tactics style strategy “board” game where lego figurines do battle with some touch screen interfaces to play out the battles with skill points. Have GMs run large games with players each bringing their LEGO sets to create a large environment. Spawn minster figurines and all that.
One can dream but if these NFCs tiles are cheap enough, it’d be possible to cover each playable square with them and have smart figurines that can comunicate where they are.
This seems like a nice toy for kids; no programming required. But I wonder if it would be possible to make your own NFC tags to program it, or if it's proprietary?
I think it's kind of hard to understand what these are without more experience with them, but imagine lego bricks as a mesh network of smart devices... it's not just "brick plays a sound when you press it" but can almost start to be like a block programming language... if x block is near some minifig then y block makes a sound
if this catches on it can have a big unlocking effect for novel creation, kind of like redstone and switches did in minecraft
One of the best things about Lego is that they are practically indestructible. Bricks from the 70s are still perfectly useable. I would be interested in seeing how many decades these smart bricks survive.
Cool, do they have good lighting options now though? Like Lumibricks, where the wires are hidden and the floors/multiple buildings are connected with special connector bricks?
So... how long until the accompanying "Lego is spying on your children" article?
How we made the Lego SMART Play system
I wouldn’t call this enshittification. But the number of grown ups excitedly buying Lego sets to build things that gather dust makes me wonder if there are any adults in the room left.
See also discussion here and non-paywalled link: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46503733
The announcement video I saw was bizarre.
It spent a bunch of time showing the very classic, simple lego blocks being used to make imaginative things kids make like dinosaurs and trains and planes. It was heartfelt and got me thinking warmly about how Lego has always been this tool for your imagination to become tangible. I spent countless hours with my brother on the basement carpet floor playing Lego. And I've been doing the same with my kids and it's been an enormous facilitator of joy for us.
And then they revealed a brick that shits all over that fundamental concept. A brick that significantly narrows the imagination space by focusing on pre-defined motion behaviours that trigger pre-recorded sound effects from all your favourite intellectual properties.
Does a child exist who thinks, "damn... I wish I didn't have to make all these sounds myself"?!
They're trying to compete with your imagination because your imagination is a factory from which free, unmerchandizable, non-franchise creations emerge.