Garden Railway Forum

I can't help thinking that we ought to be able to make use of the new Lego Smart bricks concept. This what is reported on the Beeb:

Lego says its Smart Bricks can sense motion, position and distance, allowing the models to respond in various ways during play.

Measuring 2x4, the brick itself contains sensors, lights, a small sound synthesiser, an accelerometer and a custom-made silicon chip enabling it to detect movement and react to it.

But it is designed to be used with Smart Minifigures and Smart Tags tiles - two additional products making up Lego's Smart Play System.

Similarly adapted from existing Lego components, these possess digital identifiers triggering different sounds or reactions when they detect and interact with each other.

For instance, when tried out by the BBC at CES, a Lego birthday cake recognised when its "candles" were blown out - sounding a cheer and a happy birthday song.

Meanwhile, a Lego helicopter made whooshing sounds when moved or rotated, with its Smart Brick lighting up red upon crashing.

I am intrigued by these - but frustrated by the breathless write-ups from apparently entirely incurious journalists who appear to have swallowed Lego's press release and not asked any questions about how these will actually work in practice (e.g. do they come pre-programmed, or is there some way to determine how they behave in response to different stimuli?) I found a slightly longer piece with some handwringing about the incursion of electronics/digital limiting children's imagination, but without bothering to actually check whether the children will actually be allowed to use their imagination in creating their own effects and scenarios.

Certainly such gubbins as motion sensors and accelerometers in a package that size could be useful to our applications - but until they actually come out in March (and/or until someone hacks their firmware) I'm not sure we're going to find out how.

Totally agree Simon, nevertheless, whatever the basic manufacturers pre0programmed functions may be, the package is surely ripe for hackers to have a go at!

Some more details emerging… “the bricks can accurately track each other’s position at distances of up to roughly 4 to 5 meters (12–16 feet) away.” they can also determine relative orientation. I’m already seeing uses for this…

SimonWood wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 10:37 am Some more details emerging… “the bricks can accurately track each other’s position at distances of up to roughly 4 to 5 meters (12–16 feet) away.” they can also determine relative orientation. I’m already seeing uses for this…

Yes indeed, should be able to tell which way up the loco landed on the floor!