The Android Megaminxer is mind-bogglingly elaborate, impressively combining multiple geeky mediums to solve an incredibly complex puzzle. ARM, the genius behind the stunt, uses LEGOs (a Mindstorms NXT kit to be exact) to build a robot responsible for the mechanics; they then employ an Android app as the brain, which solves a Rubik's Cube—oh wait, not a simple Rubik's (that would be too easy), but a Megaminx, which is a dodecahedron with 12 faces, each face containing 5 edges. Like the classic Rubik's Cube, each face can be rotated.
How does the "brain" do its magic? ARM says, "The Android app uses the phone's camera to capture images of each face of the Megaminx which it then processes to determine the colors of the scrambled puzzle. After working out the solution, the app transmits the moves to the NXT controller via bluetooth to instruct it to solve the Magaminx. The software uses an enhanced table-driven algorithm developed from one previously created for solving the standard 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube puzzle." The mechanics of the device also borrow from the robot designs used in the MultiCuber 777.
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1 Comment
I wish I had both the brains to scheme this thing up, and the time to do so. But alas - I do not.
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