Category: learning curve

Mind. Blown. (Episode 47)

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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.

 

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)

Turtley important

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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.

Just Did It

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I couldn’t have wished for a better race this morning. Aside from the weather, which hit hard as I headed up the infamous Southern Cross Drive, making everyone look like they had literally been dumped in a swimming pool, everything went according to my plan, such as it was. I finished my first (and last) Two Oceans Half Marathon in about  two hours and twenty minutes.

Before the rain hit, I was lucky enough to have some awesome support from my wife and kids at the top of Edinburgh Drive. There’s something very reassuring about watching your 5 year old son knocking back sachets of Energade at 6:30 in the morning and knowing that you don’t have to deal with the consequences. Running down the M3 seemed like a breeze compared with that.

My concerns about my dodgy right calf proved unfounded (although I ran with it strapped) and after a very slow start due to 15,999 other idiots out there, I got into a rhythm of between 6 and 6:30 minutes per kilometre and kept it there. The weather was outrageous: we were running through ankle deep water at times and watching bins floating down the gutters on Rhodes Avenue. Even the finishing straight on UCT sports field was covered in puddles and I got there much earlier than a lot of people (who, admittedly, were running a lot further than I was).

My headphones gave up at about 12km, my GPS at exactly 18.2km and me just about at the finish line. Perfectly paced by one out of three anyway.

After the finish, I found that the shuttle buses back to the start were non-existent and so I had to walk 3km back there (fortunately all downhill) and then cycle home from there (another 3.5km, all uphill). That 6.5km is probably why I’m feeling so broken right now. I got home at about 9:30, very cold, very wet and very cold.

After a quick shower and some breakfast, we headed up to watch the Insurance Guy come through Kirstenbosch in equally appalling conditions to finish his tenth Ultra (56km), putting my sense of achievement firmly in perspective.

But I’m contented enough. And I don’t ever have to do that again.

Happy days.

6000 is now on Instagram

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Instagram has finally been released for Android [QR] and I’m giving it a go.

You can see my photos, follow me and whatever else you do with Instagram (I’m still learning) here.

     

I’m just going to see how it goes initially, but already it seems more mobile friendly than Vignette and Flickr for sharing photos. I think that that combination still has its place for longer term photo sharing though. Instagram is definitely more… instant.

Some Science

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That “getting towards the end of summer feeling” is upon Cape Town. It actually rained last week and the night time temperatures are regularly dropping into the depths of the mid-teens. With this period of mild moistness comes the plague of mosquitoes. Not billions of them, necessarily, but just one or two all up in ur bedroomz, dizturbin ur sleepz and drinkin ur bloodz. I’ve mentioned before that I am the primary victim in our household and this hasn’t changed. What has changed is the my body’s reaction to these bites. Each one now produces an erythemic reaction anything up to 4cm in diameter. And the itching. The itching…

Previously, I had always thought that this was down to Immunoglobulin E and the degranulation of Mast cells, but the reason given on this infographic I found seems far more plausible.

Presumably, you’re scratching like I am now.
And that’s a good thing, because sharing is caring.