Lego showed up at CES for the first time as a tech company and unveiled a smart brick that brings constructions to life.
Inside a standard 2x4 brick they packed a chip, gyroscope, accelerometer, speaker, and battery with wireless charging. If you build an X-Wing with this brick inside, when you do barrel rolls the ship hums with turbines and reacts to every movement. And when you bring a second starship close, they "see" each other and start a firefight on their own! Laser sounds, light flashes, full synchronization.
How the Technology Works
The system runs on two mechanics:
Context (RFID tags): the brick itself is just hardware. For it to know it's part of a starship, a part with an embedded passive tag (Smart Tag) is placed nearby. The brick reads it and loads the right sound profile.
Interaction (BrickNet): a proprietary protocol based on Bluetooth Low Energy. Parts sense each other in space.
The result: the toy gives real-time feedback for the first time. You do a barrel roll — the brick reads the tilt via gyroscope and changes the engine sound. You place a minifigure in the cockpit (it also has a chip) — it "greets" you with the character's voice.
Downsides: price (40-60% more expensive than regular sets) and inability to bring old sets to life since they lack identifier tags.
But the most interesting part begins after the March 1 release. The hardware inside is standard. Enthusiasts (like the Pybricks project) will likely crack the protocol — opening the door to DIY scenarios with cheap NFC tags from AliExpress.