Standard Lego bricks in the usual shapes and sizes (1x1, 1x4, 2x4, etc), but made of translucent plastic and containing an RGB LED. Power and data are fed through contacts in the studs [safety issues need to be considered].
Each brick knows what type it is, and can pass connectivity data on to the bricks it connects with.
A special USB brick funnels data to and from your computer. Run the special LED-Lego program on your computer, and the program builds a 3D model of your Lego model, in real time as you add the bricks.
Then 'paint' video, still images or colour onto the bricks on your computer screen, and the real thing lights up.
Add a battery brick and a bluetooth brick for full wireless connection.-- bumhat, Sep 21 2005 Tiletoy http://www.tiletoy.org/Not quite the same - more than one LED, not lego - but... Yum. [jutta, Dec 06 2005] DIY Lego LED brick http://bloodgate.com/lego/led_bricks.html [jutta, Dec 13 2005] Tamagochi + interconnects + motion sensor http://www.cubeworld.info/ [jutta, Dec 13 2005] //Each brick knows what type it is// Intelligent lego bricks are not what we want for this world.-- hidden truths, Sep 21 2005 I like this... But I think it requires some more thought.
If you're to have specialist (bluetooth/LED/battery) then it implies it requires careful design before-hand to order them (e.g. you'd have to ensure that the power could get from the battery-block to the LED block...).
If, on the other-hand, every brick had some inate ability on top of having its own power, processor, sensor, display (which could be assigned/utilised when the thing was togther) that'd be very tidy.
You could show it a picture, which it could re-display back to you, or transmit to another collection of bricks.
Hmm... It makes me think of 7-of-9 (but then, most things do) - only without the tight fitting leotard... Can I be excused for a moment?-- Dub, Sep 22 2005 The program would be intense also, if I am not missing something.-- Zimmy, Sep 22 2005 [fqhwgads] What, with manufacturing costs nowadays? Nah, it'd be cheap as chips! He he. Seriously, how much do you think it costs to make a mobile phone nowadays? And that's MUCH more complex and fiddly.
[Zimmy] Hmm...Not saying it'd be a one-liner, but...-- Dub, Sep 22 2005 If there's a single USB / bluetooth coms node, then the bricks form a directed acyclic graph with the coms node at the root.
The logic can therefore be divided into two parts : sending identity information towards the root, and sending colour information out from the root (changing the LED colour when the destination address matches the brick's address). In each case, the logic's pretty simple - I don't think you'd need a processor, a small ASIC should do it.
You could always start with duplo-sized blocks to make things easier...-- bumhat, Sep 22 2005 you will need very small bricks with this method in order to have small enough intensity gradients for each of the colors in an RGB set of pieces. Instead, have the pieces know what your making. At first, they all look like either of a pair of "starting pieces" with a respecive image on each face of the lego. if we're building a dinosaur, this piece would be the tip of the tail. After one of these pairs is hooked together in the proper orientation, the other pairs pick up on this via RFID and differentiate into next possible pieces. You can use the manual, but if you just work based off of deductive reasiong, knowing what the final object is, this could be a kick ass puzzle.-- daseva, Sep 22 2005 Each block has 38 positions relative to the block it's connected to (assuming 2~2x4 std male to female connectors). When you get into different size blocks, the possibilities go infinate, I tink.-- Zimmy, Sep 22 2005 with the latest exo-force(they force things out, really lame name) set i got this little brick that had a 3mm red led and a watch battery in it and you attached a piece of fiber optic cable to the end of it and it made a laser gun. i really like it, the only problem is that you cant change the battery.-- sockless, Mar 11 2007 random, halfbakery