Lego looks to get kids interested in coding with the new Lego Boost

By Lulu Chang Published January 11, 2017

Image used with permission by copyright holder

They’ve inspired generations of children to become architects and engineers, and now, Lego is taking its educational prowess to a new industry: Tech. Meet Lego Boost, described as a “supercharged building and coding set that lets children bring their Lego creations to life by adding movement, sound, and personality.” Hoping to encourage children to not only build structures, but add some digital pizzazz as well, Lego Boost may just be the toy of choice for Christmas 2017.

Lego Boost takes its familiar blocks and combines them with a variety of movement and sound capabilities powered by an easy-to-use, app-based coding environment designed for children. The free app contains instructions, guidelines, and tutorials on simple coding commands that allows players to bring their creations to life. Indeed, building in the app mirrors building in the physical realm — children must link digital coding blocks in a horizontal layout, much as they would link Legos. And Boost will even let kids add their own voice recordings to their finished products. By exposing youngsters to the world of technology at an earlier age, Lego hopes to inspire interest and expertise later in life.

Recommended Videos

“We know that children dream of bringing their Lego creations to life, and our chief ambition for Lego Boost is to fulfill that wish. Once children build a Lego creation, we give them simple coding tools to ‘boost’ their models by adding personality,” said Simon Kent, design lead for the Lego Group. “We want children to first and foremost have a fun and limitless play experience; adding the coding opportunity is the means to get there.”

The creative toy set is slated for release in the second half of 2017, and will retail at $160. Included in the kit will be the Lego Move Hub (a Lego stud-covered brick with built-in tilt sensor upon which children can add blocks), a combination color and distance sensor, and an interactive motor.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…

Cars

Range Rover’s first electric SUV has 48,000 pre-orders

Land Rover Range Rover Velar SVAutobiography Dynamic Edition

Range Rover, the brand made famous for its British-styled, luxury, all-terrain SUVs, is keen to show it means business about going electric.

And, according to the most recent investor presentation by parent company JLR, that’s all because Range Rover fans are showing the way. Not only was demand for Range Rover’s hybrid vehicles up 29% in the last six months, but customers are buying hybrids “as a stepping stone towards battery electric vehicles,” the company says.

Cars

BYD’s cheap EVs might remain out of Canada too

BYD Han

With Chinese-made electric vehicles facing stiff tariffs in both Europe and America, a stirring question for EV drivers has started to arise: Can the race to make EVs more affordable continue if the world leader is kept out of the race?

China’s BYD, recognized as a global leader in terms of affordability, had to backtrack on plans to reach the U.S. market after the Biden administration in May imposed 100% tariffs on EVs made in China.

Cars

Tesla posts exaggerate self-driving capacity, safety regulators say

Beta of Tesla's FSD in a car.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is concerned that Tesla’s use of social media and its website makes false promises about the automaker’s full-self driving (FSD) software.
The warning dates back from May, but was made public in an email to Tesla released on November 8.
The NHTSA opened an investigation in October into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with the FSD software, following three reported collisions and a fatal crash. The investigation centers on FSD’s ability to perform in “relatively common” reduced visibility conditions, such as sun glare, fog, and airborne dust.
In these instances, it appears that “the driver may not be aware that he or she is responsible” to make appropriate operational selections, or “fully understand” the nuances of the system, NHTSA said.
Meanwhile, “Tesla’s X (Twitter) account has reposted or endorsed postings that exhibit disengaged driver behavior,” Gregory Magno, the NHTSA’s vehicle defects chief investigator, wrote to Tesla in an email.
The postings, which included reposted YouTube videos, may encourage viewers to see FSD-supervised as a “Robotaxi” instead of a partially automated, driver-assist system that requires “persistent attention and intermittent intervention by the driver,” Magno said.
In one of a number of Tesla posts on X, the social media platform owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a driver was seen using FSD to reach a hospital while undergoing a heart attack. In another post, a driver said he had used FSD for a 50-minute ride home. Meanwhile, third-party comments on the posts promoted the advantages of using FSD while under the influence of alcohol or when tired, NHTSA said.
Tesla’s official website also promotes conflicting messaging on the capabilities of the FSD software, the regulator said.
NHTSA has requested that Tesla revisit its communications to ensure its messaging remains consistent with FSD’s approved instructions, namely that the software provides only a driver assist/support system requiring drivers to remain vigilant and maintain constant readiness to intervene in driving.
Tesla last month unveiled the Cybercab, an autonomous-driving EV with no steering wheel or pedals. The vehicle has been promoted as a robotaxi, a self-driving vehicle operated as part of a ride-paying service, such as the one already offered by Alphabet-owned Waymo.
But Tesla’s self-driving technology has remained under the scrutiny of regulators. FSD relies on multiple onboard cameras to feed machine-learning models that, in turn, help the car make decisions based on what it sees.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s technology relies on premapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar, and lidar (a laser-light radar), which might be very costly, but has met the approval of safety regulators.