LEGO Robot Solves Any Rubik's Cube In Under 12 Sec (Video)

The Worlds Fastest Lego Mindstorms RCX Speedcubing Robot. Built entirely from lego elements now scanning and solving any 3x3x3 Rubik's cube combination in under 12 seconds.

Man Solves 3 Rubik’s Cubes Faster Than Anchor Can Explain NFL Playoff Scenarios

Universal ‘Rubik’s Cube’ Could Become Pentagon Shapeshifter

• By Noah Shachtman

Even by the standards of the Pentagon fringe science arm, this project sounds far-out: “programmable matter” that can be ordered to “self-assemble or alter their shape, perform a function and then disassemble themselves.” But researchers backed by Darpa are actually making progress on this incredible goal, Henry Kenyon at Signal magazine reports.

One day, that could lead to “morphing aircraft and ground vehicles, uniforms that can alter themselves to be comfortable in any climate, and ’soft’ robots that flow like mercury through small openings to enter caves and bunker complexes.” A soldier could even reach into a can of unformed goop, and order up a custom-made tool or a “universal spare part.”

One team from Harvard is working on a kind of “generalized Rubik’s Cube” that can fold into all kinds of shapes. Another is trying to order large strands of synthetic DNA to bind together in a “molecular Velcro.” An MIT group is building “self-folding origami” machines that “use specialized sheets of material with built-in actuators and data. These machines use cutting-edge mathematical theorems to fold themselves into virtually any three-dimensional object.”

The Programmable Matter project is five months into its second phase, which is supposed to wind up early next Spring. When they’re done, the researchers ought to “assemble four or five three-dimensional solids of a specific size and shape from a set of building blocks.”

Intel, which has done a bunch of programmable matter work on its own, is looking beyond those basic steps. Way, way beyond. The malleable stuff could one day “mimic the shape and appearance of a person or object being imaged in real time, and as the originals moved, so would their replicas,” according to their website. “These 3D models would be physical entities, not holograms. You could touch them and interact with them, just as if the originals were in the room with you. ”

[Illo: Darpa]

Rubik's TouchCube Is The World's First Touchscreen Rubik's Cube

By John Mahoney

Sometimes we don't know what we need, and certain magical companies make that decision for us. I'm afraid Techno Source may have done exactly that with this, the world's first touchscreen Rubik's cube.

The TouchCube works just like its more antiquated brethren, but instead of grinding the actual spinning cogs (manual labor is for suckers!), a simple swipe of the finger in a straight line or an 'L' shape (for rotations) does the trick. There's an accelerometer built in that ensures only the upwards-facing surfaces respond to your touch, so you can still hold the thing.

And it wouldn't be a touchscreen Rubik's cube without a few improvements: namely, the TouchCube can solve itself as you watch, and even teach you, step by step, how to do it. So you can be one of those kids we all marveled at in school (Ben Shepple, this one's for you) who could solve a cube in a matter of seconds. Built-in memory will also save your cube's state if you need to take a break.

Techno Source has spent three years hard at work in their underground puzzle and wonderment factory to bring us the TouchCube, and now, behold, it can be ours. For $150 this fall. We'll try to do some hands-on solving later this week at NYC's massive Toy Fair-be on the lookout for more.

Will Smith solve the rubik's cube

Man takes 26 years to solve Rubik’s Cube

Finally done: Graham Parker with his cube

It has taken most of his life – but, after 26 years, builder Graham Parker has finally solved the puzzle of the Rubik's Cube.

When he bought the toy in 1983, Yuri Andropov was leader of the Soviet Union, breakfast TV was a novelty and music CDs were in the shops for the first time.

'I cannot tell you what a relief it was to finally solve it,' the 45-year-old from Portchester, Hampshire, said. 'It has driven me mad over the years – it felt like it had taken over my life.

'I have missed important events to stay in and solve it and I would lie awake at night thinking about it.

'I have had wrist and back problems from spending hours on it but it was all worth it. When I clicked that last bit into place and each face was a solid colour, I wept.'

Wife Jean, 47, said it had felt like there had been three people in their marriage.

'When I met Graham, he was already obsessed with the cube – spending hours on it every day,' she said. 'I have often thought about getting rid of it but I knew he would not rest until he had solved it.'

A spokesman for the governing body for competitions involving the puzzle, the World Cube Association, said it was 'definitely the longest it has taken' to finish the cube.