Can you solve the Rubik Cube? As an 80s child, I can, but I can’t do it in anywhere near as fast as a robot. David Gilday and Mike Dobson’s Cubestormer 3 can take the puzzle from haphazard mess to ADD-friendly uniformity in just 3.253 seconds, powered by the brain of an Android phone.

That’s clearly impressive, but even more impressive is the human record which stands at a satisfyingly repetitive 5.55 seconds. I remember that back in the 1980s schoolyard we used to grease the internals of our cubes with vaseline to make them spin easier, and I once managed a sub twenty-second time (actually around thirteen seconds iirc). My technique is based on making certain set moves depending on the current state of the cube, though, which is effective but not that fast – that is, my 13-sec time was as much luck as skill.

The Cubestormer 3 uses a Samsung Galaxy S4 connected to Lego Mindstorms bricks and four robot hands to twist the special speedcube that lets you twist the layers before the rest of the cube is aligned.

The press release says nothing about vaseline.

• SourceBusinessWire
• ViaGizmodo