Build Upons Light Up Bricks by Alicia Gibb |
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| DESIGN NAME: Build Upons PRIMARY FUNCTION: Light Up Bricks INSPIRATION: In 2010 Alicia created a 256 LED Arduino driven LEGO array as a physical manifestation for instructions. In 2012 LEGO’s form factor patent expired and there was an opportunity to create light up bricks for every LEGO® enthusiast. This opportunity allowed a derivative of the 256 LED array to be invented into a playable toy called Build Upons. UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Build Upons are light up bricks that are compatible with LEGO®. The Build Upons system has three types of bricks: an LED brick, a power brick, and a bridge brick. Build Upons have a 1x1 LED brick to enable the user to create elegant designs. With Build Upons the user is able to place the LED bricks anywhere throughout their design for ultimate flexibility! You don't need to know electronics to use these bricks, you simply build, just like you've always done and you will learn along the way. OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: With Build Upons anyone can light up bricks to build upon their existing LEGO creations. Light up your robot, house, or spaceship. The bridge bricks allow for flexibility within the design. The bridge bricks route power from the battery pack to the LED bricks, wherever the LED bricks happen to be. PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: The project was started in NYC in 2010 it has transported itself to Boulder, CO and is being fabricated in Montreal, CAN and Denver, CO FITS BEST INTO CATEGORY: Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design |
PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: This product combines the physical manifestation of designing a circuit while playing with LEGO-compatible blocks. Our productization is a threefold process. We are fabricating PCBs, die casting metal, and insert molding plastic. While prototyping we wrote up a technique to embed a circuit board in a 3D print. Our production process uses EDM to create the molds, and innovative methods to overmold a populated circuit board using ABS. SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: LED Brick 7.8mmx7.8mmx11.45mm Bridge Brick 15.8mmx7.8mmx11.45mm Power Brick 23.7mmx7.8mmx11.45mm TAGS: World's Tiniest Light Up Bricks, STEAM Toy, LED Bricks, Build Upons, Building Blocks, Toys RESEARCH ABSTRACT: Alicia's background of user-centered design has paved the road for research with focus groups of kids and parents playing with Build Upons while collecting qualitative data on feature preferences. We have researched several steps of the manufacturing process as well. We experimented with heat tolerances of injection molding and through materials research; we observed light properties through several types of plastic lenses, using only plastics that are safe for children to play with. CHALLENGE: Our process uses conformal coating to hold the components in place while the circuit board is insert molded, which is an experimental technique. Designing pieces that can be integrated into a 1x1 brick was challenging, and we needed to move to precision molding to hold our tolerances of fractions of a millimeter. Our design teaches basic circuitry and the ease at which LEDs can be lit from a power source; however, a societal challenge is that building electronics is not yet general knowledge, though we hope to change that. ADDED DATE: 2015-09-28 20:32:48 TEAM MEMBERS (2) : Alicia Gibb, Inventor of Build Upons and founder of Lunchbox Electronics and Jason Brownstein, Mechanical Engineer of Lunchbox Electronics IMAGE CREDITS: CC-BY-SA Lunchbox Electronics all photos PATENTS/COPYRIGHTS: We believe that innovation will move forward faster if we share. Therefore all of our work will be release as open source hardware, abiding by the open source hardware definition. This way people can build off our work, innovating and sharing their creations as well. |
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| Visit the following page to learn more: http://bit.ly/1FG1dEH | |||||
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NAME: Lunchbox Electronics PROFILE: Lunchbox Electronics (LBE) creates innovative new products with imagination and the passion for open source hardware. We combine the art and engineering of an R&D Lab with playful products. At LBE we believe that learning should be intuitive and fun, many of our products do just that. |
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Build Upons Light Up Bricks by Alicia Gibb is Runner-up for A' Design Award in Toys, Games and Hobby Products Design Category, 2015 - 2016.· Press Members: Login or Register to request an exclusive interview with Alicia Gibb. · Click here to register inorder to view the profile and other works by Alicia Gibb. |
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