Whether you are a building-block game lover, a creative maker or even an expert, feel the power of distributed programming
Modular and interactive
The Blinky Blocks system is a modular distributed execution environment composed of centimeter-size blocks that are attached to each other using magnets. Each block, roughly a 40mm cube, has sufficient processing, communication (serial link with up to 6 neighbors), and storage capabilities to implement a wide variety of distributed tasks.
Overview
Each module has its own computational power, as well as sensors and actuators such as RGB leds, that can glow in different colors according to the programmer’s will. Blocks can detect their current orientation and impulses such as shaking or tapping. They are also able to play and capture sounds.
All the blocks of a system run the same program. They are attached to each other using magnets. A block can have up to 6 neighbors with which he can communicate through serial links on the block faces (neighbor-to-neighbor communication model). Only one block needs to be connected to a power supply to a power the whole ensemble. Power is distributed through the system using dedicated pins.
Ensembles of Blinky Blocks are manually reconfigurable at will: users can plug and unplug units during runtime to enable changes in behavior based on new physical groupings.
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Micro-controller
ARM Cortex M0 32-bit
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Sensors
Sound detection (microphone)
Orientation detection (gyroscope)
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Actuators
18 permanent rare-earth magnets
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Communication
6 USART with 6 Mbps speed
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Power transfer
Dedicated block with power input
12 V @ 5A external power supply
6 x 12 VDC connecting pins
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Visual & audio
2 RGB LEDs
1 Speaker (3 W)
Want to buy or rent Blinky Blocks for your event, training session, or research group?
Take control over the air
Hands on software
Engineers and researchers at Programmable Matter have developed SysBlocks ™, a custom firmware distributed among each module, alongside a welcome pack of applications allowing the user to quickly interact with its own assembly of Blinky Blocks.
REGULAR USER
You can easily interact with your blocks without writing a single line of code thanks to our user friendly Blinky Graphical User Interface ™ cross platform application compatible Bluetooth 5.1 available for download below.
ADVANCED USER
Angela is library developed using the C programming language. It allows you to easily code your own application, then upload and run it on your Blinky Blocks with the Blinky App.
RGB led feedback
Color change is the primary mode of feedback to the user. Each block has several powerful RGB LEDs so that it can glow with any color and brightness level and be visible in normal office lighting conditions.
Packed with sensors
The blocks can detect their current orientation, as well as changes in orientation and sudden impulses such as shaking or tapping.
Speaker, microphone, storage
They are also able to play sounds through their speaker, from simple beeps to complex waveforms streamed off their internal storage. Capturing sound is possible with the onboard microphone.
Packed with sensors
The blocks can detect their current orientation, as well as changes in orientation and sudden impulses such as shaking or tapping.
Reactive matter
Art Exhibitions
Rhizome 001 is a sculptural and interactive work that behaves like a living organism.
Like a root, this creation takes shape and unfolds in space to better perceive and feel its environment. This hybrid electronic ecosystem is composed of more than 120 robotic cellular structures, independent but placed side by side.
Voxels structure 002 is a sculptural and interactive work composed of 450 independent cellular robotic structures that are linked together. The bricks of the structure are like voxels with artificial intelligence in a real physical space.
The sculpture reacts like a living organism.
Arborescence 003 is a sculptural and interactive work composed of 450 independent cellular robotic structures that are linked together. The bricks of the structure are like voxels with artificial intelligence in a real physical space.
Each electronic cell perceives sounds and reacts accordingly to the intonations of the voices and the duration of the vocalizations. Each of the 1000 electronic cells is retroactive. The artwork surface is made of 1000 micro-controllers, 1000 independent micro-speakers, 1000 light sources, and 6000 serial connections.
Reactive matter
Behavioral and interactive sound and light artwork
Programmable matter and claytronics
Scenocosme : Grégory Lasserre & Anaïs met den Ancxt
www.scenocosme.com
The largest autonomous light block structure consists of 1824 blocks and was achieved by Julien Bourgeois, Benoit Piranda, Rémy Tribhout, Grégory Lasserre and Frédéric Lassabe (all France), in Montbeliard, Bourgogne Franche-Comte, France, on 27 August 2021.