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Groovik's Cube at Liberty Science Center

Bob

Premium Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2006
Messages
1,473
Location
Kearny, NJ, USA
WCA
2003BURT01
Hey!

As many of you know, I have a working relationship with Liberty Science Center. Currently, they are working on an exhibit slated to open in April 2014. Part of that exhibit is the Groovik's Cube, a giant Rubik's Cube that can be controlled from the web. Here is the site for the project, containing a video from CEO Paul Hoffman with more information about the cube. Check it out! You can also donate to the project in exchange for perks such as posters and T-shirts.

http://www.lsc.org/grooviks

BTW, Tim Sun looks very concentrated solving those cubes in the background!
 

Mikel

Premium Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2011
Messages
1,327
Location
Iowa, USA
WCA
2011MIKE01
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I love the part that this will be able to be visible seen for miles around in New York. I would definitely have to visit to check it out. I wonder how people will take turns getting to control the cube. Would it just be you have to pay a certain amount of money and you will be scheduled a time that you can play with it? It would be nice to see how many times it will be solved in how much time and moves, etc.
 

miketyka

Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2010
Messages
4
Location
Seattle
Hi all,

We're the art group in Seattle that's actually designing and building this. We first built Groovik's Cube Version 1 in 2009 and brought it to Burning Man.
It was built on a shoestring budget of $20K with cardboard out of a dumpster and recycled power supplies. We put in about 7000 man hours of volounteer labour
by us and our friends - a true labor of love. It was a huge success but it also was only designed to live for 1 week.

To make it travel-able around the world it needs to be robust and waterproof - turns out that's some very tricky engineering when your object is 30ft tall and full of sensitive
electronics and LEDs. Transport is also incredibly expensive - the thing weighs thousands of pounds. So hence our IndieGoGo campaign to help raise the money.

If you're interested in the longer story of how we got here and what the fututre has in store read more here:

Please spread the word on twitter, facebook, etc and help us bring this iconic piece of Burning Man Art to cities around the world!

Thanks!

Mike

Btw - here's a video of Kevin Hays and others playing Groovik's Cube in Seattle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qOVOou13mY
 

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miketyka

Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2010
Messages
4
Location
Seattle
Hi Mikel,

Groovik's Cube has an evil twist: we split the controls into three stations that are about 30-50 ft apart from each other. From each station you can only control *one axis* of the cube. Thus to solve fast you need two friends and a strategy on how to communicate. The first successful solves at Burning Man took about an hour. More recently Kevin Hays and a bunch of his friends managed to get it down to 5 minutes or so with prior state inspection and ~8-10 minutes without.

Mike
 
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duxiaoan

Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2013
Messages
24
Location
Brazil, MG
Beyond Rubik's Cube

Groovik's Cube, the world's largest working Rubik's Cube, will be re-created as the centerpiece of Beyond Rubik's Cube. This new exhibit launches in 2014 to pay tribute to the invention of the Rubik's Cube on its 40th anniversary. Thanks to our generous exhibition funders, we'll transform the Burning Man art festival original Groovik's Cube into a robust, globe-trotting version. To all those who generously supported our campaign, be on the lookout for your perks!


TAKE A LOOK: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/thank-you-to-all-the-groovik-s-cube-supporters
 
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