Scan Your LEGO With This App to Figure Out What to Build

VD August 08 2021

Lego is a superb toy for all ages, and for many users, it is a big box that contains a pile of random bricks, and there are chances that each of these belongs to the structures that we have dismantled a long time ago. It feels like a daunting task to build anything more than just a simple house because instruction manuals are long gone. Imagine a relief if you could scan the random pieces and then get guidance about what you can make with these?

The team's dream behind Brickit was to build better bricks, as it is a new app launched to inspire kids and adults to create something new from their old Lego pieces. Brickit has made the process intuitively easy. All you need to lay the bricks, point your camera towards it, and let the app do the rest for you. 

What is Brickit?

Over the past few years, Lego has been working very closely with Apple through experiments with iOS tech that was not released and demoing it by launching events like WWDC. With the help of the ARKit platform, Lego has integrated various playsets by offering digital experiences to the physical toys.

Brickit is an app that popped up in the market to offer several ideas and tools for new creations to build with Lego bricks. All you have to do is tell Brickit about the bricks you have, find the brick sets, and mark them, and it will be helping you to know the bricks owned by you. 

Brickit also helps you with fresh ideas of things you can build with Lego and guides you about what to make with your existing bricks. The app also helps you with assembling the bricks step by step.

How Brickit works?

A common issue that most people encounter with Lego is storing the sets after finishing construction. The bricks are swept in the storage, and your creation gets dusty on a shelf. The situation becomes overwhelming with the growing pile of stocks, especially if the collection is sorted out into subsets for different projects. Here are several ways where Brickit helps you through iPhone.

Enter the Brickit app

Brickit is a free app developed by fans to build better Lego bricks. For iOS, it is a handy solution for a situation where you have many bricks, but you are not sure what you can do with them. With the help of the rear camera and computer vision, the app guides you with the pieces that you need for the project and where you can find them in a pile.

You will find this tool to be helpful in several ways to build with Lego by offering different things to the builders to construct using the brick collection that they have. The build time is also reduced because you know the location of every piece, thus saving your search time through the pile.

Brickit app is divided into two sections, Build and Collect. The build is the section that you spend more time with.

Build section

When the app is initiated for the first time, a tutorial greets you by explaining how the app actually works and what it is capable of doing for you to build better bricks. In the first step, the bricks need to be prepared for scanning. For this, you have to lay the pile of bricks on the surface, remove the big items, and then level it to become a thick layer of one brick.

The idea is to make sure that the camera can see the individual bricks in a pile. If the bricks are not leveled and are covered by others, then the camera would not be able to see them, and because of this, the app may not know that the brick exists.

You have to keep in mind that the app has some limitations, as it is in the beginning phase. Although it cannot see each brick, it is good in identifying what it can see. In order to build with Lego, around 150 bricks are recommended by the app to be scanned to suggest something for you to make.

Collect section

If you are fully aware of the Lego sets you have in hand, then the Collect section can benefit you. In this section, you can tell the app about the sets you own, and therefore, it is not necessary to scan them. 

Brickit may not be helping you with building the set that you already own, but it will guide you with other things that can be created. This way, you will be told about the bricks within the set, including their different categories.

Bottom Line

Brickit is not affiliated with Lego because it is a fan-made application. However, we can guess that things will soon be changing as there are chances that Lego might be interested in snapping up this unique AI camera technology to build better bricks. The users can follow along with this particular project through the website and also Instagram. At present, the availability of this app is for iOS through the Apple App Store, but by the fall of 2021, its Android version is scheduled to be launched too.

FAQs

How can you get build ideas with an AI-based app?

Sometimes Lego bricks are a problem as these plastic blocks accumulate, and the person has no idea what to build. In order to rapidly scan the huge pile of bricks, Brickit uses an AI-powered camera and suggests different things to build better bricks.

When was the Brickit app launched?

Brickit has started recently, and a group of Lego fans has developed the app. In very little time, the app has been able to get an overwhelming response because of its simplicity and convenience.

Should Lego buy the Brickit app?

As Brickit can understand hundreds of Lego bricks in a pile within seconds, and Lego is aiming to get more community fandom around the aftermarket creations, there are chances that Lego may soon buy it.