Congratulations to the 100 chosen members, who were notified on Friday that they are eligable to purchase the $250 Mindstorms NXT kit.

Lego said participants are divided into three groups: Software/Hardware Development, Inventions and Creations, and Community. Developers have access to a secure Web forum where they communicate with one another, learn more about the project, debate issues, decide on solutions and help shape the community that supports the Lego Mindstorms NXT launch.

Lego Picks 100 Techies For Robotics Toyland [Yahoo]

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With just a few days left before the Lego Mindstorms NXT Developer Program Sign-Ups close forever, we present to you this Q&A with Karen Lynch of Flashpoint, the PR firm helping Lego manage the program. If you haven't signed up and want to know more about the program, read on.

Nextbrick: If you could, just a short explanation about Flashpoint's role in the Mindstorms NXT project.

Karen: Flashpoint PR is a boutique public relations agency; we support all product publicity for LEGO Systems, Inc. and have therefore been involved in the PR programs supporting this exciting new product. Members of our team, in previous lives, contributed to the launch of the original LEGO MINDSTORMS, so this is an exciting project for us.

Nextbrick: We noticed there are lots of questions in the Mindstorms NXT Users Panel (MUP) sign up, but not very many places to offer specific, personal information. What's the best way for an applicant to get noticed?

Karen: MUP members are selected based on their proposed contributions to NXT rollout – be it in software, hardware, community or inventions/models areas.  Some people want to write books, others are looking to help create curriculum or transition guides, others have suggested hacking protocols and amazing creations they’d like to achieve.  We’re less concerned with personal information and more looking for the big ideas.

Nextbrick: Will Lego be granting access to the private forum where the original MUP community helped to develop the NXT project. If so, will the past interactions between Lego and the MUP be retained? It would be interested to read through the threads that lead to NXT's development.

Karen's response and more questions after the jump.

Continue reading "Lego Mindstorms NXT Developer Program Q&A: Karen Lynch" »

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We recently had a brief hands-on with the new Lego Mindstorms NXT pre-production models first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Sadly, it wasn't appropriate for us to pull apart the existing models and start to play around with our own designs.

While our initial impressions were positive—although likely clouded by our excitement at getting to play with the new kits—we were struck by the large size of the provided sensors, especially the head-like ultrasonic unit. We hope that the size was predicated by the need to cram in lots of electronics and not a need for anthropomorphizing the units. Robots don't have to be cute, hard as the notion is to resist. (There is an argument to be made that children may find humanoid robots to be more appealing, but we feel that kids will love robots no matter the machines' appearance.)

We also noticed that the sensor interconnects were six-pin plugs, not four-pin RJ11 as some have reported.

Søren Lund, Director of the Mindstorms project, said that no expansion kits were immediately in the cards, as Lego is focussing on selling the NXT in as complete a form as possible—for now. Lund expressed a clear desire to work on expansion sets and accessories in the future, but reminded us that the launch of the Mindstorms NXT kit is still many months away.

In the meantime, if you haven't read Brendan I. Koerner's captivating piece for Wired about the development of the Mindstorms NXT project, including the hand-picked fans who comprised the Mindstorms User Panel (MUP), then we sincerely suggest giving it a look. It suggests that the ivory tower years of Lego product design may be firmly behind us, to the betterment of both the fans and the company's bottom line.

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