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Lego Mindstorms NXT Robotics Announced
Denver_80203 writes "Just when you thought Lego Mindstorms was grinding its last gear, comes the announcement of Lego Mindstorms NXT Robotics Toolset, with sleek servo motors, an ultrasonic sensor which allows robots to 'see' by responding to movement, a sound sensor which enables robots to react to sound commands (including sound pattern and tone recognition) improved touch and light sensors, and a and a programmable brick with at least 7 or 8 RJ11 type jacks. Robot fun! Out in August 2006, and in true Lego style will cost $249." Wired has a preview of the cover story about the new kit on their site.
If you look at the high-resolution image, you can see that it has 7 RJ11 jacks and one USB port (top right corner).
The top three RJ11 ports look like servo outputs, the bottom four look like sensor inputs (though the fourth port is unnumbered; wonder why).
Nice, but most people here love RCX because we grew up with legos. RCX lets you get into the game without some crazy robotics boards / motors / computing stuff. Middle school kids can handle it.
BTW, for everyone with small kids, Lego now has super big quatro legos, double the size of duplo legos which are double normal size. Quatro runs from 1-3, duplo usually starts at age 2+...
It's got Bluetooth, and they say it will be controllable from a host machine, be it a computer, a PDA, or a mobile phone. What more could you ask for?