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LEGO out of the box

LEGO had the whish to visualize the content of their boxes in a new and innovative way. In the retail stores is it a challenge to present the good LEGO experience to the children

LEGO had the whish to visualize the content of their boxes in a new and innovative way. In the retail stores is it a challenge to present the good LEGO experience to the children. Presentation videos may give inspiration but it is without interacting with the children, and with the play tables with LEGO it is often that the LEGO disappears. This resulted in a cooperation with CAVI and Alexandra Instittutet which started in 2006 with a design workshop. This ended up with the proto type: Digital Box. When a box with a LEGO Bionicle figure is placed on the glass plate, the computer reads trough a camera and by the use of the Reactivision technology, a unique pattern, fiduals, which can be regarded as a kind of 2D barcode. The model’s identity and location is recognized and thereby is the Bionicle model shown on the screen in a true Bionicle univers. If the box is moved, the Bionicle figure will walk or fly along with the movement. If the boxes are moved close to each other the Bionicle figures will interact – if they are a pair, they will in a very LEGO like way be built together, if they are enemies they will fight. The computer generated animations are based on the 3D models of every LEGO brick which LEGO uses in the marketing and promotion if the products. CAVI had a contact with the shopping mall Salling located on ”Strøget” in Aarhus , and Digital Box was set up in six weeks around in spring 2008. Here the prototype was tested on a real, live and honest audience – the children. The collaboration has given CAVI a new technological knowledge, which has led to that some of the technology, which was used in the prototype, has been used in new and different projects, and the developed prototype and concept is the direct foundation for a similar system that LEGO uses in 67 LEGO brand stores world wide.