It is one of mankind’s biggest riddles that has consumed countless hours, frustrated many people, and has been abandoned many more – until now. Augmented reality (AR) has now been used to solve the Rubik’s cube by a Czech tech student.
Although this sounds like an advanced mechanic, it is still only in its early stages. The AR program was developed by Martin Španěl, a Czech student, and is called “Mistr kostky” – Czech for “master cubes” – as part of his bachelor thesis project at Charles University in Prague. The AR technology can detect exactly where each colour is and figure out how to solve the cube in next to no time.
The procedure that takes place in order for the struggles to fade away is split into two phases. The first registers how the cube is jumbled, and the user can show the faces to a camera in any way they please so that it can work out how to unjumble the puzzle. The tech doesn’t seem to hang around as it can then calculate how to solve the puzzle in 20 turns or less, navigating the user through each move by showing which section to flip around.
The video below shows exactly how these phases are completed, with a percentage bar at the beginning to show how much of the cube has been registered. As the cube is moved round and changed, the AR tech tracks and still knows where each square has moved to, giving an accurate set of instructions all the way through the solving of the puzzle. The Rubik’s cube is then solved in a little over one minute.
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