LEGO SMART Bricks are at the core of the new LEGO SMART Play platform – but did you know that this has been an ambition within the LEGO Group for 60 years?
The LEGO Group has launched SMART Bricks and SMART Play – a new technology infused range of elements that allow LEGO sets to interact in fun ways, intended to expand children’s playtime. But although the current iteration of the SMART Brick has been 10 years in the making, with creatives and designers secretively working on the project in LEGO Creative Play Lab, the idea of having electronics in bricks has been 60 years in the making.
Electricity was a major focus for the LEGO Group during the early 1960s. Motorising trains was essential to making those products appealing and that goal was achieved in 1966. Alongside that, a second research and development stream sought to seamlessly integrate electricity with the wider LEGO System in Play.
The objective of this system, referred to here as Phase 1, was to create a family of parts that could be incorporated into normal LEGO builds while making functional circuits to power a variety of new electrical elements. The whole vision was clearly laid out in a single illustration that depicts the three classes of elements that would be required – electrical conductors, electrical modulators, and electrical users.
The aim was to minimise or even eliminate wires. The ambition was that power shouldn’t be run to a motor or light via cables, it should be able to travel through the build itself. In Phase 1, LEGO designers envisioned a pair of wires connecting the battery box to a pair of special bricks designed to receive plugs. From there, electricity would be transported through a variety of different conducing components – foils and bricks.
Foils would have been thin, metallic, sheets with holes or raised sections to accommodate studs. Those familiar with Modulex will see significant similarities between these conducting components and the decorative foils manufactured for that product line. It is likely that they would have been made in a similar way.
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Concurrently, the designers envisioned conducting bricks. As if this whole venture wasn’t complicated enough already, two variants of these bricks were planned. The first, and most ambitious, involved creating elements that were conductive over their entire surface. Two methods for accomplishing this were proposed in the patent. One approach would have sprayed a thin metal film onto the surface of standard bricks, while the other would have introduced a conductive powder into the plastic mix at the moulding stage.
This initial Phase 1 patent is the only time the LEGO Group entertained creating fully conductive bricks. Subsequent testing likely revealed that sprays changed the dimensions and tolerances too much, which is alluded to in a later next patent. Introducing conductive material into the moulding formula may have been found changed the plastic’s characteristics too much.
Safeguarding an idea before testing to see if it’s actually viable is a common patent practice worldwide, as filings are made to secure an idea. The specifics of how to accomplish the concept can be determined through experimentation later. That means though that although these concepts were patented, they were not necessarily close to going into production.
The second approach to electrifying standard bricks ended up being developed further. Initially it involved introducing bands that would wrap around existing elements, almost like a shell or case. The problem with that approach is immediately apparent – it would preclude elements from joining and stacking normally. There are indications that this was a backup idea.
Having established how electricity would move across a build through the conductive elements, designers next turned their attention to modulating that current. They suggested using modified versions of standard components with electrical constructs inside of them. Resistors, capacitors and other types of modulating components found on circuit boards were proposed to be housed within elements. It is acknowledged in the text that these would need to be hand soldered.
Read the rest of this feature in Issue 134 of the premium LEGO magazine for fans – available here.
Check back here at the Blocks website to find out more specifics about the functionality of LEGO Smart Play and be sure to read upcoming issues of the LEGO magazine for fans, which will cover the ins and outs of SMART Play in more depth than anywhere else.
In the meantime, you can see answers to five of the biggest questions here, as well as an in-depth look at the upcoming sets here. You can read reactions to the new sets too – whether they are too expensive and what potential SMART Play offers for the future. Blocks has also visited the 5 News studio to talk about this new development.
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