They recently announced the winners of the challenge that Amazon and Lego launched together with the idea of creating skills able to control the Lego Mindstorms robotic set via Alexa. And together with the originality of some ideas and their good implementation, the most striking thing is that we can start the era in which the toys will be integrated with voice assistants.
Alexa, let's play
Lego Mindstorms Voice Challenge is the name of the challenge launched jointly by Amazon and Lego to create interactions between Alexa and its famous robotic kit. A competition in which anyone could participate and which would have as prizes a trip to the Lego headquarters in Denmark and up to $20.000 in Amazon gift cards.
The winners were announced at the end of January and the truth is that they are not only surprising for how the ideas were implemented, but also for showing that the future of toys that integrate with voice assistants is so close that you should get used to it. already.
El winning project This is what you can see in the video above. A kind of Simon, Trivial and Race to the top where Alexa asks questions that the participants have to answer. To do it in an orderly manner, the four push buttons were created with Lego Mindstorm, as well as the entire system that moves the Lego figures that represent each player.
As you can see, the idea is great and it is well implemented. Although the most interesting of all is that this is nothing more than a demonstration of what is to come in terms of games. If you still have doubts, start to clear them up, the toys with integration with the different voice assistants They will become popular in the coming months.
The other projects featured a pet that you can teach to sit, although the favorite for many is the one that makes you waffles just by asking.
The best games for Alexa
Although for now it is not common to see toys with integration with Alexa or Google Assistant, you can play some games with which you can have a good time, both alone or in meetings with friends.
True or false
A game that, as its name indicates, tries to answer the questions that are asked with true or false. You can play it with up to 20 people and it's fun for those gatherings with friends. To activate it on your Amazon Echo you only have to visit this link.
Sink the float
Install this skill and now you can start playing the classic game of sinking the fleet. So, if you love this memory game and you don't have anyone to play with… you know, your Amazon Echo and that's it.
Guess the song
If you think you have a good musical culture, you may like this game for Alexa a lot. The Amazon assistant gives you an action and you must find out what it is. With more than a hundred songs, you'll surely have a good time, and incidentally, who knows if you'll even discover a new title that you didn't know about. Download from here.
The game of statues
Alexa plays music and while it's playing you can move, dance or whatever you want, but when I stop you'll have to stay still like a statue. If not, you lose. To play with the little ones in the house it is very fun. Activate the skill from here.
As you can see, you have different options that you can already try and in the Skills & Tools from Alexa there are many more. It is already a matter of seeing which ones and choosing. And if you want to play with Google Assistant, well you can too. Just say "OK Google, I want to play" and it will show you a list of games available on your mobile device.
And if you have the soul of an inventor, here are the resources that Amazon makes available to developers so they can connect your assistant to toys and other gadgets. Remember that enabling the voice profiles the experience improves.