Mindstorms: not just a kid's toy

  • Authors:
  • P. Wallich

  • Affiliations:
  • -

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Spectrum
  • Year:
  • 2001

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Abstract

Robotic roller-coasters, mobile intelligent cat toys, a robotic disk jockey, an autonomous self-propelled video camera and a tiny mobile image scanner that builds up pictures by crawling millimeter by millimeter across a page are just some of the gadgets being produced by an R&D organization that few know even exists. The inventors are not part of a big research university or at some forward-looking computer company, but a loosely knit group of engineers who build gizmos out of Lego bricks. Developed by the Billund-based Danish toy company, some bricks contain microcomputer-controlled sensors and motors, and all are components of a three-year-old product called Lego Mindstorms