Rubik's cube solvers are awesome!

A Hackaday.com search reveals some of the more clunky cube solvers.

http://hackaday.com/?s=rubik's+cube

CUBESTORMER 3 is my favorite. (Lego Mindstorm)

“The ARM-Powered CUBESTORMER 3 robot has smashed the Guinness World Record for solving a Rubik's cube, recording a time of 3.253 seconds at the Big Bang Fair in Birmingham, UK.”

I have been following CUBESTORMER 2 since 2012. They have had world record times for years. The time includes scanning which is done by the smartphone at 30fps.

If you know how to solve one, you know the hardest part isn't the solution, it's mixing it up deep enough for a more challenging run. Sometimes I hand it to my wife, who has no patients for learning it, but has a knack for messing it up really well. I have no desire to build a solver, or even a mechanical “un-solver” right now.

The Bad Idea: LED illuminated sides.

Separate mechanical sections with embedded RGB LEDs and translucent faces to instantly change it to a random (but solvable) state. That would require stuffing three LEDs, a wireless controller and a battery into each corner section that is already less than 18mm. Just charging and controlling the 26 sections would be challenging. There are too many non-mechanical touch screen like versions of this to mention here. All of them seem awful.

The Other Idea: Rubik's Cube for the blind.

I was first inspired by doing parts of the solve with my eyes closed, and fantasized about teaching a blind person to solve one. (Thanks UHF)

I have been thinking of a braille cube idea for years, but it looks like there are so many versions that beat me to it. Too many to mention here.

http://hackaday.com/2012/09/27/rubiks-cube-for-the-blind/

https://rubiks.com/store/cubes/rubiks-touch-cube

This one is exactly what I was thinking of:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Braille-rubiks-cube/

By Instructables user liquidhandwash:

http://www.instructables.com/member/liquidhandwash/

I will try to see if I can duplicate that, then see what happens from there.