LEGO was one of the last refuges of analog play. You have just opened the door to sensors, lights and sound in your bricks

LEGO has flirted with electronics before, but its most stable promise was always something else: that the classic brick needed nothing to become anything. For decades, this principle maintained an almost intact refuge from the digitalization of children’s play, without screens or sensors, with imagination as the only driving force. That is why the step that the company has just taken is not minor. Introducing motion, light and sound detection into the brick itself strikes at the heart of the system. The announcement occurred at CES 2026, in Las Vegas, where LEGO officially presented its new SMART Play System. The company explained that it is a platform that introduces new electronic components into its construction system so that the creations react with lights and sounds in response to movement and interaction. It was not presented as a prototype, but as a product with a launch date and with a platform vocation. The system, by pieces. The SMART Play System is based on three elements that work together. The core is the so-called SMART Brick, a 2×4 brick that acts as a response center. Around it, the SMART Tags come into play, pieces that indicate to the brick what type of object or scenario it represents, and the SMART Minifigures, figures capable of activating different behaviors. LEGO insists that they are not independent accessories, but parts of the same system designed to fit with the rest of the traditional pieces. Sensors, lights and sound. Unlike previous approaches based on recognizable modules, here the electronics live within the brick itself. The SMART Brick integrates motion detection using an accelerometer, lights capable of reacting to the environment and a sound system that is activated according to physical interaction. There are no external screens or controls – it’s all down to how you turn, pan or tap the build. In its official description, LEGO also talks about a color recognition scanner and a game engine that generates reactions with lights and sounds. The CES demos show a birthday cake capable of recognizing when its candles go out and reacting with an audible celebration, as well as a helicopter that responds to movement with flight effects and changes behavior when turning or falling. In these cases, the interaction does not start from a button or a screen, but from a physical gesture. Release date. The commercial deployment of the system already has a first date set. The premiere will arrive in the United States in March, with a set based on Star Wars as the spearhead. The choice does not seem accidental: starting with such a recognizable license allows you to immediately show the possibilities of the system and see how it fits into real use before taking new steps. It’s not the first time. Although the SMART Play System introduces electronics to a place hitherto untouchable, LEGO has been exploring hybrid formulas for years. From robotics kits with sensors, like LEGO Mindstormsuntil augmented reality experiencesthe company has been testing how to combine physical construction and digital responses. The difference now is one of focus: the technology stops being a recognizable addition and becomes integrated into the language of the parts system itself. What some experts say. The announcement has not been received with unanimous enthusiasm. Josh Golin, CEO of Fairplay Group, warned the BBC that Smart Bricks “undermine what was once great about Legos” by shifting initiative from the child to the sensors. Along the same lines, Professor Andrew Manches, from the University of Edinburgh, recalled that the historical value of the brand has been in “the freedom to create, recreate and adapt simple blocks to create infinite stories.”, and warned that technology can condition how it is played if it is not designed carefully. Faced with these criticisms, LEGO defends that technology does not replace physical play, but rather expands it. Julia Goldin, head of product and marketing, explained to the British media that they do not see the digital world as a threat, but as an opportunity to “expand physical play and physical construction.” An important nuance. The SMART Play System does not mean that all LEGO sets will incorporate electronics from now on. For now, the company has presented a concrete proposal, with a first launch without announcing an immediate expansion to the rest of its catalog. What path this technology will have and in what lines it will end up appearing is something that is not yet defined. For now, this is a limited deployment that will serve to test how far this approach fits within the traditional game system. Images | LEGO In Xataka | What happened to Technicolor: evolution and death of the company that changed cinema and was overwhelmed by its ambition

We have found the “Kriptonite” of the youth of generation Z: analog watches

A scene from the Academy of Operation Triunfo 2025 It has gone viral With more than one million views, but did not do it for the vocal talent of the participants: several contestants between 19 and 20 years did not know how to read What marked the needles of a clock Wall “I will have to pretend that I know how to read that,” said one of the participants. “Literal, I still” replied another of the participants. How curious it may seem, none of those present during breakfast time at the OT academy knew exactly What was the hand of the hours and which of the minutes. “The little girl is the one who marks the time and this is the one who marks the minutes. So it will be 10 because here is 11 and here is 12,” said Salma, 19 years old. “How do you know that? I don’t know that, “Olivia replied, with the same age. Noemí Galerathe head of the formation of the contestants of this edition of the reality musical sponsored by Prime Videohe had to make an appearance and, not without some narcotics, explain how that strange gadget with needles that hung from the wall worked. The generational gap of technology What seemed an anecdote is, in fact, a sign of how The lack of exposure To elements that the previous generations consider common, causes that Familiarity is lost With them. Be unable to Read the time on an analog clock It’s just an example of this. The most curious thing is that the scene they collected OT cameras They are not an increasingly younger case around the world are unable to read the time if it is not in a digital clock, in the same way that they do not understand the relationship between A cassette tape and a bic pen. The rise of electronic devices has made it much easier Find digital watches What analogical You have them on the mobile screen, on the smartwatches, On the computeron televisions, in public transport and even in the marques of the street. On the other hand, doing an exercise exercise, would you know how to say how many times have you read the time on an analog clock today? In fact, this exposure has been reduced so much that even Academic trials have been published of the Complutense University, the University of Alcalá and the Metropolitan University of Education Sciences in which it is questioned if the teaching staff should make a greater school effort in the teaching of the Concept of time and including reading analog watches. Science puts numbers A study Developed by Israel neurologists, he asked young people from generation Z (born after 1997) to draw a clock marking a specific hour that they indicated, in a usual test in the cognitive assessments called test of the clock drawing or CDT (CLOCK DRAWING TEST). Although most successfully got it, the average score was 8.1 out of 10 and the youngest of the group were the ones who made the most mistakes. The authors suggest that the lack of practice could be behind that lower ease when representing something that, in theory it is so basic for anyone over 30 years. Reading the time on an analog clock requires identifying two hands, interpreting its position and translating it into a number. However simple it seems is a Small cognitive and mathematical challenge. On the other hand, look at a mobile and read “14:37” does not require any viso -spatial process or its conversion to a numerical format as an analog watches require. With the format of digital clockthe brain obtains the data without intermediate calculations, which explains why digital watches are easier to use and intuitive for those who use it daily and does not require a certain cognitive training to read it and interpret it fluently. Outside the academy they don’t know the time either This situation is not exclusive to the participants of this 2025 edition of Operation Triunfo. In the US, A Yougov survey He revealed that 83% of those over 45 can read the time on an analog clock immediately, compared to 43% of young people under 30 who had this ability. 45% of these young people took a few seconds to do so and 12% or were not able to read it or took more than a few seconds to get it. In the United Kingdom the data is not much better. According The published by The Telegraphsome schools were replacing the analog watches with digital in the exam classrooms because the students did not know how much exam time they had left. This does not mean that generation Z “does not know” reading watches, but does it less fluently. The ability does not disappear, but it becomes something accessory, little practiced and less present in your daily life. The scene lived in the Academy of Triunfo more reflects a cultural and generational change than an individual failure. The loss of ease with needle watches is the logical result of digitalization: we use what we see more. And today, what we see more is The time on screens. In Xataka | The second -hand luxury watches market was in crisis. The US tariffs are reviving it Image | Amazon / Unspash (Malvestida, Rodolfo Barretto)

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