“Lego for the iPad Generation”
Ayah Bdeir has created an awesome new toy for children to play with. Her talk starts off with how Lego took the idea of a building block to create an “automatic binding brick” for kids to play around with and build their own structures. She spoke about what Lego did was ingenious, it allowed children and adults to build their own structures, buildings, bridges, whatever they wanted from imagination. Lego’s automatic binding brick was fostering innovation. Since Lego first started producing their automatic binding bricks, 400 billion bricks have been produced since then which exemplifies Lego’s success.
Around the same time that Lego was launched, another important invention had been created – the transistor. The transistor allowed one to build much larger, more complex circuits, one block at a time. However, until now, the transistor had only been for experts – i.e. only those with a basic engineering background knew how to create a circuit. Ayah wanted to change this – she created littleBits. She didn’t believe that transistors and building circuits should only be accessible to experts but that anyone of any age should be able to create a circuit and use transistors intuitively because it would really foster creation, innovation, and invention. littleBits is the toy of the iPad generation.
Ayah’s littleBits are a set of electronic modules, each with their own specific function. They are pre-engineered to be either light, sound, motors, or sensors and one uses magnets to attach them to one another. The best part about the magnets are that you’ll always know which one’s will attract one another! The bricks on each electronic module are colour coded to either represent input, output, power, or wire. One can use littleBits to create their own larger circuits which can emit light, dim lights, blinkers, buzzers, and other noise. You can now see the idea – littleBits have added a new dimension to invention! One can make more complex structures intuitively allowing one’s creative juices to flow more easily and not be limited to the fact that you can’t create a circuit.
Ayah’s idea for the future of littleBits is to create a growing library of electronic modules for innovators of any age to play with, but specifically more so for children. In a world where global problems are becoming larger and solutions are harder to come by, it is especially important to have young and energetic engineers. By having children play with a toy such as littleBits exposes them to engineering concepts at a much younger age hopefully fostering an interest earlier and also to capitalize on their limitless creativity at a younger age. In this day and age where children are exposed to iPads, video games, and other equally complex electronic devices, they will have no trouble figuring out how to use littleBits. Furthermore, having children prototype at a younger age to foster design thinking while they are still developing sounds extremely beneficial. Ayah’s littleBits is yet another way to bring more ideas into our world and is another step forward to support creators, inventors, and contributors.
Here is the link if you’d like to check it out: http://www.ted.com/talks/ayah_bdeir_building_blocks_that_blink_beep_and_teach.html