Lego Smart Bricks bring a whole new way to build — and they don’t require visual aids

Lego announced its new Smart Play System to CES On Monday, I’m adding interactive, interactive Legos to the popular analog franchise.

The Smart Play system includes 2×4 bricks, Smart Tag tiles, and Smart Minifigures. The Smart Bricks and Minifigures can recognize nearby Smart Tags, which are 2×2 studless tiles with unique digital IDs that tell the Bricks and Minifigures what to do.

If the Smart Tag comes in a helicopter building kit, for example, the Smart Brick will light up and make a propeller sound that will help bring the helicopter to life. Its built-in accelerometer can make these lights more sensitive to how you are playing with the helicopter, as the Brick will be able to detect when the helicopter is moving in the air or turning down.

Smart Bricks are powered by a proprietary ASIC chip, which is smaller than the size of a single Lego stud. The chip uses proximity magnets to detect surrounding tags, as well as a small speaker, accelerometer, and LED array. Lego also developed a Bluetooth-based protocol called BrickNet, which allows multiple Brick Nets to recognize each other and work together. The company says BrickNet is protected by encryption and privacy controls (both of which are important, but imagine a world where hacking toys wasn’t a concern!).

There is no setup required to integrate the Smart Play system features, which makes getting kids started easy – and parents will be happy to know that there are no screens involved in the Smart system at all. However, the Lego website says that there will be a Smart Tag for displaying Lego toilets, so…

The first two Lego Smart Play sets – both of which are Star Wars-themed – will be launched on March 1, although pre-orders will open on Friday. The “Luke’s Red Five X-wing” building set will sell for $69.99, while the “Royal Room Duel and A-wing” will cost $159.99. These sets use the Smart Play software to create characters like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, allowing them to interact with Smart Tags, enabling Lightsaber duels to engage in other Star Wars-related activities.