Michael Rosenblatt says:

Wanted to tell you about my latest project, ATOMS - plug and play functionality for kids and Makers. No programming or electronics experience necessary to get started. You just plug sensors into actuators, and stuff starts working. We even have a Bluetooth 4.0 brick, so you can control and read ATOMS from an iOS device.

Check out this quick vid that we made, showing Amie (11) using our IR Transmitter, and IR Receiver ATOMS, and an exploding ATOM on the receiving end - added to her IRON MAN costume to blow up the bad guys. This took just 5 minutes for her to build.

Kinda neat, and we're heading toward building a big library - for kids and makers. (I'm also using ATOMS to add some features to my real Land Rover Defender. Hope to show that at Maker Faire.)

Read more in Family at Boing Boing

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

TAGS: family

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http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith

I am still waiting for Fractal Robots.
Ramone

These are a great design model. I’ll be checking it out.
noah django

neat-o!
Clement Gonzalez

with an ios device… ??? Only ? …
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1134833187 Kimber Spradlin
  
  Not required, and Android to come later if they get the funding. See my reply to Randy below.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Randy-Treibel/600212180 Randy Treibel

I’m skeptical about this. The reason is that this is supposed to bring out your creativity while being exclusive to a closed system(iOS) marketed to the lowest common denominator(iOS users). It means they’ll be dumbing down the product from it’s peak potential.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1134833187 Kimber Spradlin
  
  iOS for now and its not required (they are still in development mode) – you can make things happen based on light sensors, gravity sensors, audio sensors, and probably a few other things. They’ve got some funny videos of a kid asking his sister to take a pic of his lego house and the flash makes it explode, or a voice recording going off when someone opens a box of chocolates at the office. Not tied exclusively to Legos either – you can attach them to pretty much anything.
  
  The whole family is looking forward to playing with a bunch of prototypes tomorrow in Boulder.
- http://twitter.com/mccoySG Shannon McCoy
  
  Hey Randy and Clement,
  
  My name’s Shannon, and I’m part of the ATOMS team. While one of our modules is a Bluetooth control brick, you can combine other ATOMS to create systems based on input that work independently from your smartphone.
  
  We chose to first develop for iOS because the platform supports Bluetooth 4.0. Google recently announced native support for Bluetooth 4.0 in Jellybean 4.2, but it’ll most likely be months before the update makes it through manufacturers, carriers, and into people’s hands.
  
  We most definitely have plans to roll out an Android version, once it supports our technology.
  
  I appreciate your point regarding the dumbing down of the product. We want to be mindful of our path to development, considering all possibilities while focusing on those that provide support for the step that we’re on now. Entrenched in that goal is the hope that we can continue to receive intelligent input to help us stay on track.
  
  Thanks for your thoughts,
  - The ATOMS Team
  - http://billmcgonigle.com bill_mcgonigle
    
    So the product won’t operate with devices that only implement Bluetooth 2.1?
VonWatters

This looks quite similar to Logiblocs, which I used to enjoy about 10 years ago (though I don’t know if they now have connectivity with apps etc).

I was particularly fond of them because I wrote to the company suggesting an angle-brick which goes round corners, and they sent me back a couple that they’d just produced.
http://profiles.google.com/tamingthetiger Betsy Dornbusch

My 10 year old daughter was a tester for this product and we both can attest to the major fun she had motorizing a garage door. One of the highlights of her year. She really wants to come back and make a car with a remote control opener…
Marc45

Isn’t this like Lego Mindstorms? They have sensors, motors and a bluetooth control unit that uses a pretty friendly programming language.
This kind of stuff has been around for ages. The bottom line is that any sort of advanced programming takes…time and effort. If you just want to turn on a light or motor, then it’s been done before.

Atoms - smart bricks for kids to build interactive projects

Read more in Family at Boing Boing

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