Mind. Blown. (Episode 47)

By 6000 | 6000 | April 12, 2012

Here is a robot made of lego and powered by a cellphone.

CubeStormer II solves the Rubik’s Cube puzzle faster than the human world record.

This ARM Powered robot was designed, built and programmed by Mike Dobson and David Gilday, creators respectively of CubeStormer http://youtu.be/eaRcWB3jwMo and Android Speedcuber http://youtu.be/ylFb4pqAUd8.

Ja right? Ja. Right.

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Look, I’m no expert, but it looks to me as if:

The mechanics are constructed entirely from LEGO, including four MINDSTORMS NXT kits, with the addition of a Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone running a custom Android app as the robot’s brain. Both the MINDSTORMS NXT kits and the Samsung Galaxy SII use a variety of ARM –based processors.

The app uses the phone’s camera to capture images of each face of the Rubik’s Cube which it processes to determine the scrambled colours. The solution is found using an advanced two-phase algorithm, originally developed for Speedcuber, enhanced to be multi-threaded to make effective use of the smartphone’s dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 1.2GHz processor. The software finds an efficient solution to the puzzle which is optimised specifically for the capabilities of the four-grip mechanism. The app communicates via Bluetooth with software running on the ARM microprocessors in the LEGO NXT Intelligent Bricks which controls the motors driving the robot. During the physical solve, the app uses OpenGL ES on the phone’s ARM Mali-400 MP GPU to display a graphical version of the cube being solved in real time.

Human speedcubers’ solve times only include the physical manipulation of the cube and don’t include some time which is allowed to “inspect” the cube beforehand. Times recorded by CubeStormer II are for the total solve including: image capture, software solution calculation and physical solve.

Now I just need an Android-powered lego robot to pick my jaw up off the floor.

(thanks Jerm)

Leave a comment | Tagged , , , , | Posted in android, learning curve, positive thoughts, that's a bit mad

Catch up

By 6000 | 6000 | April 12, 2012

A few things to document here today:

1. Last night I did my first run since the Two Oceans Half on Saturday. I’ve never had someone repeatedly beating my calf muscles with a scaffolding pole, but I would imagine that what I felt going up the hill between 3-4 kilometres last night would be pretty similar. Today should have brought with it a whole world of pain, but, concerningly, I’m actually feeling fine.

2. Had another decent night out last night at Societi Brasserie in Tokai (it’s not in Constantia – despite what they tell you). Company was great, food was really good, but the service was pretty disappointing. Still, their Filet au Poivre is rather spectacular and should form the basis of your main course when you’re there next.

3. Two new tumblrs to look out for: http://textfromdog.tumblr.com - as described here, and http://tweetsfromhelen.tumblr.com/ - for local fun-poking at the embattled leader of our opposition.

4. New music from Mike Skinner on The Beats and it’s gorgeous stuff:

After a few years break from running a record label, during which our previous signings sunk without a trace,  me and Mayhem have finally got round to getting another record together. It’s by a guy from Chepstow called Elro who we first heard rapping on the interwebs. It also features a new project of mine and my friend Rob Harvey called The D.O.T.  We’re really excited about this as its the first single on The Beats for a while and the first proper release for The D.O.T. I hope you like it. It’s out now.

You can see the video here.

I’ll be blogging about PamieJane’s 40th birthday idea later today. In the meantime, it being 40th season, many happy returns to the Ex-Haematologist who was the one responsible for introducing Mrs 6k and I all those years ago, one chilly Friday night in a soulless pub in Oxford and also to Jacob Zuma, who is 70 today. I need to find out what moisturiser he uses…

1 Comment | Tagged , , , | Posted in this is south africa

Meanwhile, in Newcastle…

By 6000 | 6000 | April 11, 2012

Yikes. This is turning into a beer ad blog.

OK, not really, but as some of you will know, I spent some of my student years at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Coming from Northern England, I was delighted to find that Newcastle was just like a concentrated version of… well… Northern England. The Geordie people are rightfully and fiercely proud of their city and their culture, yet friendly and welcoming to visitors. They also share the Yorkshire no nonsense attitude. And that last point is why, even if I can’t really believe that this ad is genuine, I can certainly believe that it could be:

Yes, I think this looks like it’s actually set “Over the Pond”, where they are wholly unaware of the term “Bollocks”, so there’s a chance that this could be real. And now I’m left craving a bottle of Dog. Ah luv a bitta Broon, lake.

Anyone know where I can get some in Cape Town, and relive some memories of younger, wilder days at The Strawberry?

UPDATE: More from Sky. I could have written this. In fact, I almost did.

 

3 Comments | Tagged , | Posted in this is south africa

Turtley important

By 6000 | 6000 | April 10, 2012

The 2 Oceans Aquarium today reissued its annual warning about what to do with stranded baby turtles you may find on local beaches.

Not only does this give me a great excuse for a 2 Oceans Aquarium themed quota photo:

Bigger on black here.

It also reminds me that I did my own take on that stranded turtle post last year.

Leave a comment | Tagged , , | Posted in flickr, learning curve, positive thoughts, quota photo, this is south africa

They climbed the Shard!

By 6000 | 6000 | April 9, 2012

SilentUK are at it again and Brian Micklethwait will love this one:

This time they’re going up the 72 floors (plus the crane on the top) of The Shard in London – and they’ve got another bunch of spectacularly beautiful photos from the top.

Go see. Go see now.

Leave a comment | Tagged , | Posted in quota photo, recommended site, uk
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