Kico Blok toy blends wooden blocks with augmented reality tech

Augmented reality (AR) technology as seen in Pokémon Go and a growing number of other apps is pretty whizzy. Wooden block toys for young children are… less so. But actually, there’s no reason why these two things can’t work together, and a quite a few people are exploring how.

The latest example is Kico Blok, a project from the US that’s raising money on crowdfunding site Kickstarter, and has surpassed its $5,000 goal with nearly a month still to run on its campaign.

The pitch: “Fun wooden cubes with adorable live AR characters for kids thtere years and up”. In the box you’ll get seven different ‘shape cards’ representing a donut, an apple, a jellyfish, a tree, a fish, a turtle and a crab, as well as a set of wooden blocks with lines on, which can be arranged on top of the cards to make each shape.

The whizzy part: a Kico Blok app can then be used to point a tablet or smartphone at the blocks to make a virtual character jump out of them (on screen!) with buttons for children to control its actions, and take photos of themselves with the character in shot.

Pledging $24 will get you a Kico Blok set this side of Christmas, with higher tiers of pledge if you want more sets to share around.