Motorola Droid solves Lego-encased Rubik's Cube in 24 mind-melting seconds (video)
By Darren Murph 
posted May 8th 2010 11:12PM
posted May 8th 2010 11:12PM
Update: Whoops -- had the wrong image in there somehow. Fixed now!
Update II: Drats -- the video owner removed the clip. We'll keep it embedded should it return.
Update III: It's back! Check it after the break.
Sweet!
Now tell us more about Wii Mote and the N1 =]
@SPENone Win, or fail?
@Shakeandblake
Well the picture is WIN, but that rubik's video is MEGA WIN.
@SPENone yeah, what's with the wiimote picture?
@SPENone You got that right :D
@SPENone The technique used is called God's Algorithm, btw.
@SPENone I think that screenshot is a mistake and was planned for an upcoming article. *wink*
@SPENone This Looks like the work of SkyNet,,,,
Someone needs to cut their fingernails. Disgusting.
@htd The guy that made the WiiMote Android demo that they wrote about before made a way to use the Wiimote as a controller for games. It's in the marketplace... for $3...
"Oh sure, you've seen your disgustingly hairy cousin solve a Rubik's Cube in 3 minutes and 13.4 seconds."
EPIC. WIN.
@SPENone
I have to say this is pretty amazing, the way they are using the camera to get the color combinations and also controlling the lego machine..must have taken quite a bit of time to put this together.
Is it open source? :D
@WhitecollarcriminalFinancial Less than a second? Probably less than a millisecond. The clever technology here is mainly the Lego robot, although camera integration is sort of neat too.
If they get to make things like that all day, I totally want to work for ARM now. :)
@WhitecollarcriminalFinancial Exactly. If you take pics of all 6 faces of the cube all variables are known and the equation is solved, it doesn't even take a second for a CPU to do that.
What's with the Nexus and the wiimote?
@n8equalsd Can someone tellme which emulator is the best for nexus one.
PD: seems that engadget is crazier every day
o m g
@DooMskis
one of the coolest things ive ever seen.. i
hard core. Rubiks for the win... oh wait im supposed to clap for the droid.
Droid Does...Solve Lego-encased Rubik's Cube in 24 mind-melting seconds.
@Stevenk And who said it wasn't that good?
@Stevenk
droid does..... use it's lego arms to molest me in my sleep... didn't even wine or dine me...
I always find those little LEGO rigs interesting.
@SomEngangVar Exactly. How did they make it work? Especially connect it to the Droid?
Droid does... Puzzles for fun
what about an i7?
@Ignoramus
What about a discrete GPU?
Can your iPhone do that?
@AlienSix
I'm a Droid man myself, but the iPone has a camera and a processor, so I'm guessing it could.
@AlienSix There's an app for that.
@AlienSix
The iPhone could do it, but first it would have to hide the cube, build up tons of hype, have engadget post 'is this the iPhone Rubrik's cube?', then wait 4 months and just show off a Rubik's cube.
@AlienSix
When there is no limit to what droid gets, there is NO limit to what droid does!!!!
@anothermurph And then ATT would deny the feature because their network couldn't support it
Japanese babies do it faster. haha
@jellotime91
Yah, but the Droid is cheaper.
@NeoJew Well I don't know where you're buying your Japanese babies then... haha
@jellotime91 Are you sure? You'd need to learn up to 78 algorithms and fast fingertricks and have big hands, and that will get you only around 20-40 seconds.
The speed seems much more dependent on the physical world of the LEGOs. I'm sure the ARM processor in the droid figured out the moves it had to make almost instantly. Then it was a matter of the motors actually spinning it to the right spots.
@krische
i was waiting for somebody to say that
@krische
so true
@krische "I'm sure the ARM processor in the droid figured out the moves it had to make almost instantly."
True, but it doesn't count. :)
@krische yep. i've seen similar solvers before, and they way they work is that the thing rotates the cube around so that the camera sees all six sides, and then the phone (or whatever is doing the main processing) calculates all the moves needed to to solve it. the rest is just the executing those moves.
@krische
Quad core processor + Power crane = Fire cube
@krische
Fast turning helps, but more efficient coding and less turns helps a lot more.
droid does...n't wipe my ass yet. not buying
@imatreehugga You wipe your ass with an iPhone?
@The Madman You don't?
Needed that 30 years ago
great for all those lego-owning grown ups out there looking to solve a puzzle nobody buys NEmore? i guess...
if wanted to be cool shoulda hooked it up to a 3D printer or something
I think the best part is the Android skateboarding in the top right corner lol