Google Zeitgeist, London

Tuesday 16 May, Jorgen Vig Knudstrop (CEO and President, LEGO) talked about Game-Changing entertainment at the Google Zeitgeist 2011 event.
Jorgen refers to us the fans that make the brand.


full movie (as shown on Jorgen's phone).



We helped LEGO to show several interesting LEGO MINDSTORMS models, sumobot (by LEGO)

Soccerbots with helmets (by NeXTStorms)


Streetview car (by Mark)


C5 (by university students Kenneth Madsen and Lasse Lauesen).


It was nice to see that many CEO's loved to play with the soccerbots.

Projects

Hello all,
I decided to start posting projects that I made myself.
There will be videos.

LabVIEW for LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT

National Instruments, the Texas-based manufacturer of the official programming environment for the NXT, based on NXT-G, has recently introduced LabVIEW for LEGO® MINDSTORMS.

LabVIEW is the the company’s professional LabVIEW graphical system design software and well established in the industry for controlling machines and robots; the new version for LEGO® MINDSTORMS is focused on the educational sector and is thus meant to be used with the Education version of the NXT set:

"Developed specifically for secondary school students to use with the LEGO Education robotics platform in classrooms or competitions, LabVIEW for LEGO MINDSTORMS is a teaching tool that helps students visually control and program MINDSTORMS NXT robots, while learning the same software used by scientists and engineers"

as the company states.

Consequently, the new programming platform well be sold exclusively  through LEGO Education and its authorised resellers.

Demo at Robo Cup Jr.

Xander Soldaat and Larens Valk did a LEGO NXT demo at the Nemo Science center in Amsterdam. Here's a video that features some of the robots they showed, including two robots from The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Inventor's Guide: The front wheel driven Jeep and the Printer.

Lego Help

Hello all,
I have made a new tab on my blog at the top.
It will help you when you don't know what Lego set your child would like.

Thanks!

WiFi NXT

Xander Soldaat has set up an interesting interface that uses the new Dexter Industries WiFi sensor. The idea is simple: control Xander's NXT from anywhere in the universe that's connected to the internet.

Before I post any spoilers, have a look at his NXT live with this link.

Then, in a different window, send a command to his NXT with the WiFi sensor using this link:
http://xammy.demon.nl:81/MOTA=-99
Replace "-99" with any value between -100 and 100 and see what happens.

New Model from Hitechnic

HiTechnic have released the building instructions for a new model, this time a small go-kart. This go cart is controlled by a Power Functions remote, that sends commands to the HiTechnic IR-Receiver sensor which in turn communicates with the NXT.

It looks quick and I'm sure would be a blast to play with. Also a nice bonus that it can be built with both the 1.0 and 2.0 NXT sets :)

I Love how they get around not needing a differential (you'll have to watch the video to find out!)
More info here - http://www.hitechnic.com/models

Moonbots 2.0

The Lego Group and The Prize X Foundation has released the second annual Moonbots challenge:Moonbots 2.0, A Google Lunar X PRIZE LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Challenge.



Free registration and Phase One of the contest will be open from May 9th through June 13.

Lego in Space

Last Monday, the Space ShuttleEndeavour lifted off to its last journey to Space, and on board she has a very special pay-load: a bunch of LEGO® kits.
These are be the very first LEGO® kits that ever have travelled into space (there have been some pre-glued models so far only) as engineers were scared of loose parts floating around and getting sucked into the Shuttle's ventilation; Astronaut Cady Coleman (well-known for her recent ISS-Earth flute duet with Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson) will build some models from them in a clear glove box on board of the ISS in order to demonstrate to children the effects of zero gravity, both on single parts as well as on some simple LEGO® machines.

I'm looking forward to the videos!

The building instructions for these models will be available for download on LegoSpace.com so we earthlings can create them also on the ground.

 Joe Meno from Brickjournal hinted me to the fact that these are not the first LEGO® kits in space: on board of an earlier mission there were two CITY Space shuttle kits. However, the kits of the mission at hand will still be the first ones ever built in space.
Thanks, Joe!
 The information that all of the pre-built models that have been sent to Space so far have been glued seems to be unconfirmed also. Does any of our readers have additional knowledge about that fact? If so, please tell us.

Programming in Plain English VOTE!!!!

Luke Taylor developed a software to program the NXT in pure English language, and his project has been selected by the Google Science Fair as semi-finalist!

Click here to vote for him!