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In lugnet.robotics, Robert Fries wrote:
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I searched news, and didn’t see any mention of this ...
PicoCricket
From the website:
“The PicoCricket Kit is similar to the LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ robotics kits.
MINDSTORMS is designed especially for making robots, while the PicoCricket
Kit is designed for making artistic creations with lights, sound, music, and
motion.”
-and-
“The PicoCricket captures the LEGO spirit: it sparks the imagination,
stimulates creative thinking, and engages children in playful learning.”
–Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, Owner and Vice Chairman of The LEGO Company
The kit includes a motor, sound box, colored lights, display, and
resistance/sound/light/touch sensors.
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See their own news page at:
http://www.picocricket.com/press.html
Or a number of entries from Google:
http://www.google.com/search?q=pico-cricket
It’s $250. I’d buy a Nxt and spend ten or twenty bucks at the craft store
instead.
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Dennis Williamson said: "It's $250. I'd buy a Nxt and spend ten or
twenty bucks at the craft store instead."
Yes. But you're an adult and not the target market.
The NXT and PICO cricket are two different products with different
target market segments. Here's some brief comments; I hope to write a
blog entry soon with more details.
My four year granddaughter's attention span for the NXT is about 5
minutes. However, she happily spent all afternoon last Sunday with her
22-year old Aunt building a "playground" with the kit. They had as much
fun playing with the pipe cleaners, cotton balls, etc in building a tree
and slide as they did with the motorized merry-go-round based on Lego
parts.
It has a graphical programming language that is more basic but far
easier to learn for a young child to use than NXT-G.
It also has some features you can't find on the NXT. It has a really
neat user controlled light output; it looks like a tri-color LED with
variable intensity for each color. It has better sound playback -- you
can select from 20 or so different voices (piano, trumpet, bells, horse
(!!), etc).
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