Programmable Crickets, known commercially as PicoCrickets, are robotic toys in the form of programmable bricks. They are used to construct artistic projects.

Crickets were developed at MIT Media Lab

MIT Media Lab

The MIT Media Lab is a laboratory of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Devoted to research projects at the convergence of design, multimedia and technology, the Media Lab has been widely popularized since the 1990s by business and technology publications such as Wired and Red Herring for a...

, and were launched commercially in Montreal in 2006.

Playful Invention Company (PICO) was formed with financial support from Lego Group

Lego Group

The LEGO Group is a family-owned company based in Billund, Denmark, and best known for the manufacture of Lego-brand toys.The company was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen...

, the Danish construction toy manufacturer, to commercialize the toy.
, PICO also markets a toy for use with the Scratch programming language

Scratch programming language

Scratch is an educational programming language that allows people of any experience, background and age to experiment with the concepts of fully versatile computer programming by snapping together visual programming blocks to control images, music and sound...

, another MIT Media Lab development.

External links

• PicoCricket commercial site
• Crickets at Lifelong Kindergarten, MIT Media Lab research group
• MIT Spectrum, Winter 1998 "Smart Toys - Mitch Resnick builds a toy chest of learning tools".