When thinking about toys it’s hard to get any more basic than playing with blocks. I’m noticing a theme developing in new takes on this classic — combining the tactile & tangible play of blocks with display technologies and inter-block communication.
For example:
[I had opportunity to meet David Merrill before he completed his PhD. He told me there was at one point an effort to find business and productivity (i.e. serious) applications for his technology though most of the demonstrations I saw were games. It appears the technology landed squarely in the play space. Which I love.]
One observation I have on all these concepts is that they tend to be quite 2D in nature. The individual blocks are all primarily meant to lay flat and relate to one another horizontally. This drives a natural question for me: what would 3D versions of these block concepts look like having volume and shape and the ability to stack & build?
You might make the leap to thinking about adding motion to a 3-dimensional concept of high-tech blocks and arrive at something robotic. I don’t want to go there. Motion violates something essential to the nature of playing with blocks. I’m giving this concept more thought as it’s intriguing and leads to philosophical questions about the nature of blocks and spatial play and what smart blocks could be…