Android Phone Solves Rubik's Cube In 12.5 Seconds

DeviceGuru writes "A Lego Mindstorms robotics kit controlled by an HTC Nexus One smartphone successfully untangled a Rubik's Cube puzzle in 12.5 seconds at this weeks ARM technical conference in Silicon Valley. The current 3x3x3 cube-solvers's 15-second average represents a substantial improvement over the 25-second solutions of an earlier version, which was powered by a circa-2006 Nokia N95 smartphone, thanks to a faster (1GHz) CPU, more RAM, and revamped cube-solving algorithms. ARM Engineer David Gilday, who created the robotic cube-solver, claims the current version's algorithms can handle cube complexities up to 100x100x100, assuming he build the mechanics. In terms of racing humans, Gilday says the Lego robotics kits can only manage around 1.5 moves per second, whereas human players can make between 5 and 6 moves per second, amazingly enough." Update: 11/12 03:45 GMT by T : Apologies to creator David Gilday, whose name was earlier misspelled.

Re:so...

[Anonymous Coward]

most humans have arms

Greasing the skids...

[CokoBWare]

"Gilder says the Lego robotics kits can only manage around 1.5 moves per second, whereas human players can make between 5 and 6 moves per second, amazingly enough."

Only if the cubes are greased well, otherwise they're stuck with wrestling the bloody things.

Re:Total Moves Not Moves/second

[Kunnis]

The best solution for a rubix cube is always less then 20 moves (see http://www.cube20.org/ [cube20.org] ) It averages around 18 moves for the best solution. That's 27 seconds to solve on average. Where this 11 second youtube video shows a guy solving a cube.. in less then 11 seconds. I can do it in about 60 seconds and I'm not very good. Also, before using computerized solutions, you have to know your whole solution. The manual solutions you can figure out as you go along... you can figure out your next steps while you're manipulating your current step.

Re:so...

[MichaelKristopeit161]

the precision is limited by the joints in the cube... if you are eliminating the physical act of manipulating the cube, then yes, you could solve in under 1 seconds, but i highly doubt a machine could physically solve a randomized cube in under 1 second including analyzing and computing time. a custom cube with custom bearings and springs might help to get the time lower, but then you're not really solving a rubik's cube.

There is one MUCH faster

[gsgriffin]

If you haven't seen this mind storm version, you may be impressed. It has done it in 2 seconds!

Cube Stormer [youtube.com]

Re:Ah yes...

[Anonymous Coward]

8kHz not 8MHz and that is the sampling frequency since POTS are 300Hz to 3400Hz