mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
Every website under the sun is recommending Christmas gifts, but I could find no gadget cooler than one you can’t buy. The Tilted Twister is three times cool just to start with because it’s a robot made of Lego material that solves a Rubik’s cube. Hans Andersson built it from a Lego Mindstorms NXT kit. I am completely humbled by the process of designing the brains that run this thing. First, it “looks” at all the cube sides and records the colors. Then it matter-of-factly goes about repositioning and twisting the cube until the colors match up -in about 60 moves. By contrast, I have never solved a Rubik’s cube in my life, although I have attempted it a few times.
Just watch the cute little thing in action.
The Tilted Twister is self-contained and not connected to a PC. The beauty of it is in its seeming simplicity while it accomplishes such a complex task. You can try to make your own if you like. Andersson has posted building instructions and a downloadable program to get you going. I could sit and watch this thing all day! I might even be able to put one together. now that someone else has done the hard part.
Comments (3)
Comment
- Follow mental_floss
Wow. Just…wow.
posted by 8rustystaples on 12-8-2008 at 10:40 am
As a suggestion, play around with a cube for a few days to get a feel of how to do things like move a square from one corner to another, or to change a face from a middle to a corner.
That being said, after I finished my second or third cube, I became involved with doing Rubik’s cubes quickly, which involves a set of strategies you can read about online. My best cube time is like thirty seconds, which is actually pretty slow in the world of speed rubik’s cubing. The world record for solving a rubik’s cube (last I checked) was 8.80 seconds.
posted by Joel on 12-8-2008 at 11:03 am
aaww, it said thank you.
posted by m on 12-9-2008 at 6:06 pm