CES 2026: Lego debuts tech-packed brick

Lego has unveiled the Smart Brick, described by the company as the highest-tech (and most magical) Lego piece yet. The brick reacts to movement, interaction and proximity, bringing physical creations to life through sound.

Revealed at CES 2026 in Las Vegas last week, the Smart Brick forms the foundation of a new system called Lego Smart Play. By responding directly to how it is moved, positioned and combined with other Smart elements, the system enables builds to generate behaviour and audio through physical play. Lego says the result is a brick that can “play back”, extending traditional building into a new interactive dimension.

According to Lego, Smart Play is positioned as a long-term platform rather than a short product cycle, with the Smart Brick intended to serve as the foundation for future play experiences over many years. The Smart Brick will launch this year.

Lego Smart Brick technology

Early experiments explored using cameras and smart devices to trigger reactions, but these approaches were dropped due to concerns that screens would distract from hands-on play. Instead, Lego challenged itself to embed intelligence directly into the bricks.

This led to extensive prototyping, with hundreds of concepts tested across Lego’s portfolio. Engineers and designers worked closely to explore how interactivity could be added while keeping the technology invisible and the focus firmly on creativity.

A key breakthrough came through the development of a new positioning system. Smart Bricks charge wirelessly through internal coils, similar to those found in electric toothbrushes. Those same coils are used to detect Smart Tags. By using multiple coils, each Smart Brick can determine the position, orientation and movement of nearby Smart Bricks, Smart Tags and Smart Minifigures. This allows bricks to react to twisting, swinging, throwing and changes in direction with precision.

At the heart of the Smart Brick is a bespoke silicon ASIC chip developed specifically for Lego Smart Play. Rather than relying on existing components, Lego opted to design a custom chip small enough to fit within the constraints of a standard Lego element, while still handling the demands of sensing, processing and sound.

The arrival of the first custom chips marked a turning point for the project. The team assembled a fully working Smart Brick overnight, complete with functional audio, creating the first complete version of the product.

Sound is a defining feature of Smart Play. Smart Minifigures have distinct moods and reactions, while Smart Tags instruct the Smart Brick to reproduce sounds associated with vehicles, spaceships, animals and other effects. The sounds change depending on how the brick is moved or rotated. Instead of relying on large audio libraries, Lego developed a synthetic soundscape system that modifies a small set of core sounds by adjusting frequency and amplitude, enabling a potentially limitless range of effects.

Launching with Lego Star Wars

Lego has chosen Star Wars as the first setting for Smart Play, citing the familiarity of the franchise for children. Testing showed that recognisable characters and sounds helped children engage more quickly with the new system, allowing them to focus on exploring Smart Play rather than learning an unfamiliar world.

Battle play was one of the key experiences explored during testing. Early versions were more scripted, but Lego found that simplifying these interactions and leaving more room for imagination resulted in longer and more creative play sessions. This insight helped define the final Smart Play philosophy, which prioritises open-ended exploration over rigid scenarios.

Lego has filed 25 patents related to the system, and at peak output the Smart Brick production line stretched the length of seven school buses, incorporating around 160 workstations. Lego says Smart Play is the beginning of a much longer journey, positioning the Smart Brick as a step towards defining the future of physical play.

From research to rethinking play

The origins of Lego Smart Play stretch back nearly a decade. Research conducted by Lego in 2017 revealed that children were looking for toys that supported social play with friends, responded meaningfully to their actions, and evolved over time based on how they were used. These insights shaped the direction of the project from its earliest stages.

To address these expectations, Lego assembled a multidisciplinary team spanning video gaming, electronic engineering, industrial design, user experience, computing, sound and architecture. The goal was not to replace what made Lego play successful, but to extend it into a new form that remained rooted in physical building.

A recurring idea emerged throughout development: bringing Lego creations to life. The ambition was for brick-built models to recognise characters around them, respond to interaction and react accurately to movement, all while remaining compatible with the existing Lego ecosystem.