Samsung Galaxy S II robot solves Rubik's Cube in seconds
(CBS) - We are fascinated by creepy robots, especially when the machines in question are built entirely from LEGOS and powered by a smartphone. Oh, and it can solve a Rubik's Cube in seconds.
Mike Dobson and David Gilday teamed up to create the CubeStormer II for the semiconductor conference ARM TechCon 2011. This wasn't their first take at Rubik's Cube-solving robots. Dobson previously created the original CubeStormer and Gilday built the Android Speedcuber.
They combined their knowledge to create a robot that beats the human record for solving a Rubik's Cube. You must watch the video to feel completely inadequate, but here's a clue as to how the CubeStormer II works.
The machine was created using LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT kits, ARM processors, the Samsung Galaxy S II and an Android app.
According to the semiconductor company ARM, the CubeStormer II uses the smartphones's camera to:
"capture images of each face of the Rubik's Cube which it processes to determine the scrambled [colors]. The solution is found using an advanced two-phase algorithm, originally developed for Speedcuber, enhanced to be multi-threaded to make effective use of the smartphone's dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 1.2GHz processor. The software finds an efficient solution to the puzzle which is [optimized] specifically for the capabilities of the four-grip mechanism. The app communicates via Bluetooth with software running on the ARM microprocessors in the LEGO NXT Intelligent Bricks which controls the motors driving the robot. During the physical solve, the app uses OpenGL ES on the phone's ARM Mali-400 MP GPU to display a graphical version of the cube being solved in real time."
Sort of blew our mind, too. Enjoy feeling like a neanderthal.
