The Lego Group has unveiled “Lego Smart Play”, a new platform that integrates digital and physical play, at CES in Las Vegas.
The platform is built around the “Lego Smart Brick,” which allows Lego sets to respond to how they are handled, without requiring screens. Additional components, including Smart Tags and Smart Minifigures, are designed to enable interactive play and storytelling
Lego Smart Play was developed by Lego’s Creative Play Lab in partnership with Cambridge Consultants, the deep-tech unit of Capgemini, which contributed expertise to sensor technology and embedded systems. Manufacturing of the Smart Bricks will be handled by Jabil.
The Lego Group has long introduced digital technologies to its portfolio of play.
Speaking to TechInformed, Lego Group’s chief digital and technology officer, Atul Bhardwaj, has led the digital transformation at Lego since joining in 2020.
He scaled the IT team and pushed tech talent, which he claimed was the largest investment Lego has ever made.
Since he joined, the firm has introduced supply chain technology to keep track of finished products across its global network, started leveraging cloud technologies to handle high-traffic events such as black Friday, and created circular business models through “brick recognition technology” to better reuse materials.
In terms of actual play, he has also led the kick-off of more digital play, created to keep up with the level of digital experiences in children’s lives.
“We know that children, particularly boys and girls aged 9-12, engage in platforms like Fortnite,” he said. “We believed we were uniquely positioned to offer a safe and secure digital experience for children.”
“Physical play is crucial, and we also know that we can augment this with a digital play experience, where physical and digital converge.”