LEGO MINDSTORMS Voice Challenge offers $20,000 Amazon gift card as grand prize

The LEGO Group and Amazon are collaborating on the LEGO MINDSTORMS Voice Challenge: Powered by Alexa with a grand prize including $20,000 Amazon gift cards and a trip to the LEGO headquarters in Denmark.

A talented coder has the opportunity to win the ultimate prize package in the LEGO MINDSTORMS Voice Challenge: Powered by Alexa, with hundreds of prizes up for grabs. The winner will get $20,000 worth of Amazon gift cards, a bunch of LEGO sets and a trip to the LEGO headquarters in Billund, Denmark. The winning entry will also be on display at LEGO World in Copenhagen.

Using Amazon’s Alexa Gadgets Toolkit, LEGO MINDSTORMS can be controlled with voice commands – so this contest is asking fans to come up with an outside-the-box voice powered experience – examples given are “an elephant that dances to music, an Ev3Storm robot that defends its territory from invaders, or an immersive skill-based world where your R3Ptar snake responds to voice commands and sensor-based triggers.”

To enter, fans will need LEGO 31313 MINDSTORMS EV3 Kit and a compatible Echo device.

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“Since its launch in 2013, LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 has delighted its customers by delivering powerful technology in an accessible way, allowing them to learn and build an endless array of imaginative projects,” says Tom Donaldson, Senior Vice President, LEGO Creative Play Lab. “We feel voice is a natural way to interface with technology, and believe it will be a large part of the world of play in the future. We are excited to collaborate with Amazon and provide our creators with the tools needed to create a whole new set of experiences with our iconic products.”

“It’s still Day One, and we are just scratching the surface when it comes to the delightful experiences developers can create using the Alexa Gadgets Toolkit,” says Miriam Daniel, VP of Alexa and Echo Devices, Amazon. “We feel LEGO and their powerful MINDSTORMS products will allow creators to build interactive experiences that delight, entertain, and inspire us all. We can’t wait to see what is possible with voice in the world of construction and robotics.”

To enter, fans should build a LEGO MINDSTORMS creation that interacts with Alexa via voice using the Alexa Gadgets Toolkit and submit it with a video demonstration and code snippets. Entries will be judged on “voice interaction, innovative LEGO build, and development process.”

All of the details can be found here – with parental permission, those between 13 and 17 years old can enter.

Five runners-up will get $10,000 in Amazon.com Gift Cards and $700 in LEGO models. One 13 to 17 year old winner will receive $5,000 in Amazon.com Gift Cards and $700 in LEGO models. The first 100 people to submit an entry will will receive a $150 Amazon.com gift card

The deadline for the contest is December 31, 2019 at 11:59 pm PST. Winners will be announced on January 17, 2020.

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Author Profile

Graham
Graham was the BrickFanatics.com Editor up until November 2020. He has plenty of experience working on LEGO related projects. He has contributed to various websites and publications on topics including niche hobbies, the toy industry and education.

Follw Graham on Twitter @grahamh100.

Graham

Graham was the BrickFanatics.com Editor up until November 2020. He has plenty of experience working on LEGO related projects. He has contributed to various websites and publications on topics including niche hobbies, the toy industry and education. Follw Graham on Twitter @grahamh100.

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