Sony Global Education launched its children learning kit called Koov. The project from Sony's educational platform combines motors, sensors, building blocks and software to form robots that children themselves can make.

Sony explained that the concept of Koov is to let children harness their creativity while learning. The building blocks can be assembled into many shapes and can be combined with electronic parts. On the other hand, a software that runs on PC and mobile devices makes children design their would-be robots.

Children can later refine their designs with LED lights, buzzers and even accelerators. The blocks can also disassemble to form another robot when kids get bored with their original design, Japan Today said.

Sony stressed that the application called Robot Recipe serves as the control for the robots. There is a possibility that controls will utilize Wi-Fi connectivity although infrared could be an option. Robot Recipe gives instructions and a basic learning course that systematically teaches programming and robotics.

Sony Koov is similar to Lego Mindstorms EV3 in terms of design, build and programming. Lego launched the project with stellar results due to variety of designs and robots that children can construct. Mindstorms EV3 sports 17 designs for full-pledged robots that can move, talk and walk.

Comparably, Lego Mindstorms sports a wider array of designs and complexities that targets older kids and young adults. Sony Koov was designed to be more straightforward and simple so that it can accommodate children at an early age. Sony Koov also features portability since it can run on tablets while Lego's version has limited support apart from PC and Mac software.

To date, Sony and Lego are the front runners in what came to be known as the "intelligent brick" industry. Both offer limited robot designs with their respective out-of-the-box models, but there are upgrade kits that expand the complexity for advanced users.