•Notícia

Children and adolescents spend an increasing amount of their leisure time watching television, surfing the Internet, playing videogames and using a variety of other electronic devices. In an increasingly futuristic market, Modulmax Innova decided to look to the past for inspiration by reviving the classic construction toy.

“I have always been fascinated by geometric constructions, and wanted to see how a single, versatile piece could be combined in different ways to create different shapes and forms”, explains Oriol Batiste, Doctor of Physical Sciences and a lecturer at the School of Telecommunications Engineering of Barcelona. With his brother Xavier, an engineer working for the College of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona, he tested a series of different models and eventually came up with the unique Modulmax building block. The pieces, which have a hole in the middle, can be linked on any side and combined to form simple shapes such as cubes and spheres and complex constructions like chairs and even helicopters. “The basic set comes with 18 pieces in three colors: green, blue and orange. Surprisingly, even with this many blocks you can make more than 30 different figures!”, says Oriol. The more daring can choose the advanced set of 48 pieces.

Once they had perfected the prototype, the Modulmax team contacted the Innova Program at the UPC-Barcelona Tech, which provided assistance with the patent application and helped secure a Gènesis grant from the Center for Innovation and Business Development (CIDEM), a body set up by the Catalan government to support the development of new, innovative companies.

The Modulmax box informs customers that the product is suitable for everyone from 5 to 99 years old, reflecting its creators’ belief that playing is not just for fun and enjoyment but is also a way of stimulating intelligence, dexterity and creativity, which are fundamental to people of all ages. With this in mind, the team wanted to develop a toy that could be both fun and educational, and they explain that, “We are conducting a study with a school because the joint between pieces is very precise, which will help children to develop fine motor skills and to improve their drawing and writing, particularly those children with difficulties in these areas”, Modulmax has produced a special pack for schools and play centers that contains between 200 and 400 pieces.

The possibility of creating a wide range of 3-D figures makes Modulmax an excellent tool for developing geometric awareness skills in a fun and interactive way. This is particularly useful at high-school and college level, where many students will need to understand and model complex structures such as polyhedrons. One example, offered by Batiste, is that of the lecturer Francesc Marqués, of the Department of Applied Physics at the ETSETB, who uses Modulmax as part of his classes on puzzles and math games. The toy is also ideal for working on group dynamics, as students can be assigned complex figures to create with classmates.

“We are particularly interested in marketing the toy for the elderly, as we have seen that they take to it very quickly”, says Oriol Batiste, who explains that Modulmax helps to improve concentration and the attention span, and the challenge of creating specific figures is an effective motivational stimulus. Batiste explains that the quality of Modulmax building blocks also sets it apart from competitors. The pieces are non-toxic, unbreakable and comply with all European safety directives.

For now, the team is aiming to establish a firm foothold in the Spanish market. The product will then be sold in countries where this type of toy has traditionally proved popular, such as France, Denmark and Germany.