A slight digression, on the topic of Lego. Here is a Lego-compliant Braille block, called the "Tack-Tile" This is a manipulative tool used in teaching Braille to children. It interfaces to wide Lego base tiles so kids can move them about and spell words. I have yet to think of a specific three-dimensional application for this, but I suspect there is one somewhere.
Back to the the programmable brick -- right now it is simply an embedded computer node which can be inserted as a static element into a Lego structure. True, it has motors, but the structure is self-mobile at a higher level of modularity than what I have in mind.
What I have in mind is packing all this capability -- processing, memory, sense, motor and communication -- into a single brick to achieve a self-assembling Lego structure.
My idea is based on the idea of a cog railway, in which the railroad cars, themselves, have sections of track on their surfaces. And the track interfaces are latchable, so that the cars can move in directions 90 degrees from each other, in three dimensions.
Copyright 1999 (c)