Lego Should Acquire This iOS Brick Finder App

Lego and Apple's Collaborative History

Lego and Apple have maintained a strong working relationship for a considerable period, exploring cutting-edge, unreleased iOS technologies and showcasing them at events such as WWDC. This collaboration has involved substantial development utilizing the augmented reality platform ARKit, integrating it with several Lego play sets to enhance physical toys with digital experiences.

Introducing Brickit: A Fan-Developed App

A particularly noteworthy integration of iOS technology and physical Lego bricks has recently become available on the App Store. Developed by a team of enthusiasts, the new application, Brickit, aims to surpass even the official Lego Group’s creations.

Brickit employs computer-vision technology to rapidly analyze and categorize a collection of Lego bricks.

How Brickit Works

Users simply need to spread their Lego bricks in a single layer on a flat surface. The app then swiftly analyzes and identifies the bricks present, suggesting building projects for which the user possesses most or all of the necessary components.

The app’s speed is particularly impressive, capable of processing hundreds of bricks in a matter of seconds.

App Performance and User Experience

A colleague at TechCrunch demonstrated the app on iOS, achieving results consistent with the publicly available demo. Some minor loading times were observed between brick identification and project suggestions.

During instruction navigation, the app even directs users to the specific location within the brick pile where a required piece can be found.

The Power of Object Recognition

The Brickit team’s achievement underscores the capabilities of object recognition technology in the latest iOS versions, demonstrating its practical application in a specialized scenario.

Third-Party Status and Potential Acquisition

Currently, the app’s functionality is somewhat constrained by its status as a third-party development. The App Store’s disclaimer clearly states that Brickit is not an official Lego Group application and that its creators are fans, not employees.

It is hoped that this will prevent legal challenges from Lego, but the app’s effective use of Apple hardware suggests that an acquisition by Lego would be a beneficial outcome.

Future Potential and Data Insights

With first-party access, Brickit could be significantly enhanced, particularly through integration with existing Lego instruction libraries.

Lego’s 2019 acquisition of BrickLink demonstrates its commitment to engaging with the fan community surrounding aftermarket creations.

• Building a database of a user’s brick inventory would provide valuable data to Lego.
• This data could offer insights into the sets owned by individual users.

Platform Availability

At present, the Brickit app is exclusive to iOS. However, the company’s website indicates plans to launch an Android version by autumn.

The developers are actively working to expand the app’s reach to a wider audience.