Lego Fusion Sets Combine Physical Blocks and Virtual Worlds
Lego is launching a new line of building block kits this summer that enable 7-to-12-year-old children to build a physical building and then see that building become a part of a virtual world in the corresponding smartphone app. The budding builder would construct a facade out of the 200-piece Lego Fusion set, and then use the app’s camera function to capture the creation and turn it into a building within the app’s game, such as a tycoon game or a racing game.
The new Fusion kits are $35 while the apps are available for free. The apps come with a few demo games, but because each building must be made by real blocks before it will appear in the game, the apps require the corresponding Lego set.
Researchers at Lego developed the concept of the Fusion platform because they found that children do not differentiate physical and virtual play. “For kids, it’s really just one world,” said Ditte Bruun Pedersen, senior design manager at Lego’s Future Lab, as reported in The Wall Street Journal. “It’s all about the play for them.”
See the full story here: http://blogs.wsj.com/personal-technology/2014/06/19/legos-fusion-games-merge-real-bricks-and-touch-screen-play/