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I made a Rubik's Cube for blind people1,403 views |
| mR. id - 2/17/08, 9:22 am |
| Or for people with the ability of sight who want to solve Rubik's Cubes discreetly under a dinner
table without looking. This is my prototype. I make little tiles to glue on each of the different
sides at the MIT Fab Lab from the CNC laser cutter. I used a sheet of clear acrylic and rastered
down the material about halfway through the thickness, which left raised shapes. I was initially going to use squares, circles and triangles but after some thought during my initial planning stages I quickly realized that the triangle would not work on account that the shapes I used had to be radially symmetrical in 90 degree increments so that the centers would never be turned the wrong way. Anyway, here's my prototype cube. As you can see, the laser leaves a kinda rough surface where it rasters because it uses fast pulses instead of a steady beam. IMAGE REMOVED - CLICK TO VIEW IMAGE REMOVED - CLICK TO VIEW Here's a closeup of a couple shapes: IMAGE REMOVED - CLICK TO VIEW Here's all the shapes: Hollow stars: IMAGE REMOVED - CLICK TO VIEW Filled stars on the opposite side: IMAGE REMOVED - CLICK TO VIEW Hollow circles: IMAGE REMOVED - CLICK TO VIEW Filled circles on the opposite side: IMAGE REMOVED - CLICK TO VIEW And lastly, hollow squares: IMAGE REMOVED - CLICK TO VIEW And filled squares on the opposite side: IMAGE REMOVED - CLICK TO VIEW I think that my final version will be thinner tiles and I'll either be using the CNC milling machine or I'll mill a master piece and then use two part casting plastic to make all the tiles. That way I could make as many as I wanted relatively quickly. Maybe I'll even mill down the actual sides of the cube. Or maybe I'll mill down square recesses in each piece to slide a tile into. Ideally I'd like to have the shapes and the cube pieces be seamless and the same color. That'd be hot. Love, Danny |
| sugarbee - 2/17/08, 9:23 am |
| danny. this is AWESOME. you need to take care of this right away so no one steals the idea and takes your millions. |
| foot - 2/17/08, 9:24 am |
| nice... I maintain the laser cutter at the media lab, which lab on campus did you do that on? |
| PistachioPie - 2/17/08, 9:24 am |
| this is awesome. |
| cripes - 2/17/08, 9:25 am |
| yea you should patent this asap this is so so so cool |
| moxie - 2/17/08, 9:26 am |
| PistachioPie - 02/17/08 at 04:24 pm (76.19.107.210) this is awesome. |
| mR. id - 2/17/08, 9:28 am |
| Hey foot, I frequent the Fab Lab down in the South End. |
| unfuckwithable - 2/17/08, 9:30 am |
| THis is fucking awesome! |
| evanparker - 2/17/08, 9:31 am |
| if you need any help with getting the mold made let me know |
| georgia - 2/17/08, 9:31 am |
| holy shit, danny. |
| steve_ca - 2/17/08, 9:33 am |
| Nice. |
| tea - 2/17/08, 9:35 am |
| this is totally awesome. good job! |
| scott - 2/17/08, 9:41 am |
| moxie - 02/17/08 at 04:26 pm (24.147.189.52) PistachioPie - 02/17/08 at 04:24 pm (76.19.107.210) this is awesome. |
| cutandpaste - 2/17/08, 9:43 am |
| This rules. Also tell me next time you are going to the Fab Lab, I want to come. |
| silentbamboo - 2/17/08, 9:54 am |
| this is amazing |
| neogonzo - 2/17/08, 9:58 am |
| holy fucking shit dude! this is wonderful! |
| dace - 2/17/08, 9:58 am |
| come over so i can solve ittt |
| crackonacracker - 2/17/08, 9:58 am |
| so cool! |
| yelle - 2/17/08, 10:01 am |
| So cool. |
| Shannon - 2/17/08, 10:02 am |
| danny this is great!!!!! ! |
| feltsuit - 2/17/08, 10:02 am |
| INTENSE |
| sarahd - 2/17/08, 10:02 am |
| danny, you rule. |
| truthserum - 2/17/08, 10:11 am |
| probably what you need to do is license it to rubics cube...make money every day. this is awesome. make a bunch and get it over to the school for the blind in brookline... |
| blah - 2/17/08, 10:14 am |
| this is basically incredible. take me to the fab lab. i cant believe i still havent gone. |
| ssg - 2/17/08, 10:28 am |
| Two things: 1) You rule. You totally rule. 2) Can you make me a mold that would be food-grade? |
| mR. id - 2/17/08, 10:29 am |
| Hey guys, thanks for the kind words. As far as patenting, I'm pretty sure this has been done before so I'm not really breaking any new ground. I did, however, solve it and that was really hard and fun. |
| peterbing - 2/17/08, 10:31 am |
| WHAHAHWOIWOWOWOWOED WOWE OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOOWO |
| megret - 2/17/08, 10:31 am |
| thats so neat! |
| truthserum - 2/17/08, 10:33 am |
| jello rubiks cube!!! similar to my friend liz's sf in jello IMAGE REMOVED - CLICK TO VIEW http://www.lizhickok.com/01city.html#photo |
| Mothra - 2/17/08, 10:36 am |
| SO AWESOME |
| thedeathofsid - 2/17/08, 10:45 am |
| you should seriously submit this for a patent or something. |
| DeanStockwell - 2/17/08, 11:16 am |
| you should at least check to see if it's been patented. |
| mexicangold - 2/17/08, 11:17 am |
| so freakin cool dude!! |
| eatingout - 2/17/08, 11:21 am |
| I have seen one with braille, but not one with shapes! Very cool indeed. |
| asemisldkfj - 2/17/08, 11:42 am |
| I'm glad you made this finally. this rules. I want to play with it. |
| wh - 2/17/08, 12:08 pm |
| When is the fab lab again? I also haven't been yet. |
| diana - 2/17/08, 12:39 pm |
| danny you are such a mad genius |
| rockbottom - 2/17/08, 12:52 pm |
| holy shit, that is awesome. |
| foot - 2/17/08, 12:56 pm |
| mR. id - 02/17/08 at 04:28 pm (65.78.24.77) Hey foot, I frequent the Fab Lab down in the South End. Nice! SetC... that place is the brainchild of my boss, Neil Gershenfeld. I'm ashamed to admit, but I've never visited yet |
| ellehcim - 2/17/08, 12:59 pm |
| oh wow! that's so awesome! |
| StudioShibli - 2/17/08, 1:17 pm |
| Wow, who's more tactile now, right? Danny, you and me, this week... Do it! This is beyond spectacular. |
| mR. id - 2/17/08, 1:35 pm |
| The Fab Lab is such a wonderful place, I love it there. It's open to the public on Thursdays from 5
to 8:30 and Saturday from 1 to 4. I think I'm at the point now where I am advanced enough to be
allowed to go there whenever I want. As for the cube, it is REALLY fun to play with. Such a mind fuck. Steve, what exactly would you want a mold of? The little tiles? |
| jen - 2/17/08, 2:55 pm |
| dude you are awesome. |
| ssg - 2/17/08, 3:10 pm |
| No, I really want a mold for chocolate bars with my symbol (the double-S / double helix shape that's the background on my website) raised on the bottom so that it would be impressed in the bars. |
| mR. id - 2/17/08, 3:20 pm |
| I can definitely mill you the master positive but we'll have to look into some rubber, food grade molding compound to see what we can use without killing your guests. |
| ssg - 2/17/08, 3:21 pm |
| Silicone would be ideal, if I got to choose. I am taking this to PMs. |
| mR. id - 2/17/08, 3:21 pm |
| Steve, we can design some insane candy bars shapes if you want. I'm into that. |
| pat_odea - 2/17/08, 3:34 pm |
| This is great. It's not the first, but that doesn't take anything away from it. I was just reading an Instructables post on how to make one, but they didn't use CNC. (Note: they weren't the first to make one either.) |
| tjs - 2/17/08, 3:36 pm |
| this rules and so does that jello city someone posted a picture of. i need to go to this mit fab lab soon |
| gobeartrap - 2/17/08, 3:41 pm |
| <i>thedeathofsid - 02/17/08 at 05:45 pm (168.122.251.93) you should seriously submit this for a patent or something. DeanStockwell - 02/17/08 at 06:16 pm (24.91.137.175) you should at least check to see if it's been patented.<i/> my first thoughts. i've spoken with patent peoples and found that you can patent just about anything. and that's regardless if it's been made or could conceivably work, which this certainly can. |
| mR. id - 2/17/08, 3:43 pm |
| Steve, I think there's some silicone mold making compound at the Fab Lab. I'll look into it next time I go. Look into this stuff called Alumilite. |
| SkunkEye - 2/17/08, 3:43 pm |
| The name "fab lab" is kind of misleading. |
| mR. id - 2/17/08, 3:44 pm |
| Fabrication Laboratory. |
| gobeartrap - 2/17/08, 3:44 pm |
| how so? |
| SkunkEye - 2/17/08, 3:45 pm |
| I know what it stands for, mR. id. It just makes me think they're creating some sort of super-tranny. |
| SkunkEye - 2/17/08, 3:46 pm |
| PS - this is cool. |
| mR. id - 2/17/08, 3:46 pm |
| Super tranny? |
| mR. id - 2/17/08, 3:46 pm |
| Thanks! |
| SkunkEye - 2/17/08, 3:46 pm |
| Never mind, it was a poorly executed joke. |
| eatingout - 2/17/08, 3:50 pm |
| If you are going to make food-grade (Steve-grade) molds... you should come up with a truffle mold
design, so your double helix can be on all of your chocolates. Danny - would it be possible to put LED lights behind the clear squares? (defeats the "for the blind" purpose, but it would look really cool... but maybe it would have to be a stationary thing) |
| gobeartrap - 2/17/08, 4:00 pm |
| yeah, you've really opened up the market for creating already existing games for the blind community. i'm going to tackle the game of Perfection. |
| warrantchief - 2/17/08, 4:01 pm |
| Just something I've noticed in the past: When developing products for the disabled or
differently-abled (I do not recommend referring to a person who was born without the ability to hear
disabled) it's usually worth asking them for input and advice. Do this waaaaay before you show up at the Perkin's School with a bunch of them. |
| mR. id - 2/17/08, 4:04 pm |
| To be honest, this wasn't at all developed for blind people. It was developed for me to play with
with my eyes closed, or in bed with the lights off before falling asleep. But I'm not opposed to
developing it further for people who cannot see. Also, eatingout, check THIS out. |
| Aviatrix - 2/17/08, 4:08 pm |
| wow, this is so cool |
| blah - 2/17/08, 4:31 pm |
| danny, what is your CNC proficiency at this point? i want to cut/engrave some mother of pearl inlay so bad, but don't know how to engrave myself. i know instrument makers who do insane stuff with the CNC router, and i would really like to see what can be done. |
| Theta - 2/17/08, 5:08 pm |
| I will add the chorus saying "patent this NOW." Also that this is an awesome idea all around. Excellent work! |
| warrantchief - 2/17/08, 5:27 pm |
mR. id - 02/17/08 at 11:04 pm (98.216.111.154) To be honest, this wasn't at all developed for blind people. It was developed for me to play with with my eyes closed, or in bed with the lights off before falling asleep. But I'm not opposed to developing it further for people who cannot see. Also, eatingout, check THIS out. Thats cool, and *it* is cool! I just wanted to provide a little caution about assumptions. It happens all the time because the differences are so stark. People get a little sensitive at times. I have a pretty funny story about a kid's much lauded (by the hearingful) science project around sign language, but it's long and maybe only funny to me. |
| mR. id - 2/17/08, 8:55 pm |
| I'd love to hear the story. |
| mR. id - 2/17/08, 9:49 pm |
| Jay, I'm okay at it. I would probably be able to work with you on some cool inlay stuff, the only problem is that the CNC milling machine is pretty small, like 5" by 7" about. They do, however, have a CNC router which is like 6' by 8' and it apparently has SUPER fine resolution but I've never used it. I'll inquire about it next time I go and maybe we can work something out. |
| ManxomeFoe - 2/17/08, 10:11 pm |
| hi danny. this is cool. especially with a 100.3 degree fever. |
| appletree - 2/17/08, 10:30 pm |
| et tu, manx? |
| eatingout - 2/18/08, 2:28 pm |
| cool linkage |
| mR. id - 2/22/08, 3:24 am |
| Yo, how do I submit stuff to Make blog? Or do they just chose stuff themselves? |
| demitriswan - 2/22/08, 3:36 am |
| Does anyone have a solved or unsolved rubix cube they don't want anymore? I've been itching to take a crack at this puzzle as of late. I hear that solving it has to do with algorithims? Either way, it seems tough. Up to the challenge. |
| mR. id - 2/22/08, 3:40 am |
| Yo, peep my Cube Crew thread! It's really long and might be boring depending on how much you care, but there are a bunch of links to where you can buy cubes. Also, the new ones that just come in toy stores are pretty decent! They're like 11 dollars. |
| elizabeth - 2/22/08, 3:53 am |
| danny this is the stupidest thing i have ever seen. jk. you rule. |
| bonnie - 2/22/08, 3:53 am |
| this is really fucking awesome, danny. |
| mR. id - 2/22/08, 3:58 am |
| Thanks, guys! |
| mR. id - 3/7/08, 6:31 pm |
| Hello MAKE Bloggers! |
| sgintz - 3/7/08, 6:36 pm |
| danny, you totally deserve publicity for this, as well as your other numerous interesting efforts/endeavors |
| DR_PEEBZ - 3/8/08, 2:46 am |
| mR. id - 03/08/08 at 01:31 am (76.232.8.74) Hello nubile MAKE Bloggers! |
| ender - 3/8/08, 4:01 am |
| i tried to solve this thing once and made a critical mistake on 1st level that i didn't realize until 3rd level. aghhh!! |
| jhnystvns - 3/8/08, 4:05 am |
| wow holy shit this is awesome! congrats!!!!!! |
| burgess - 3/8/08, 4:22 am |
| cool i never saw this! |
| tylerforpants - 3/8/08, 4:41 am |
| so cool, danny. i don't know how i missed this thread. i would reccomend trying this on blind dudes before doing the final version. although, eyes closed is probabaly good enough. |
| ender - 3/8/08, 4:45 am |
| it works, tyler. my post above was about trying to solve it with my eyes closed... i just made a mistake! |
| patrix - 3/8/08, 4:54 am |
| dunny, you rule |
| mR. id - 3/8/08, 4:41 pm |
| Just solved this in 2:41.xx. |
| joelDupree - 3/8/08, 4:44 pm |
| is there anything like a chess ranking for a rubics cuber? |
| mR. id - 3/8/08, 4:55 pm |
| http://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/regions.php |
| swindle - 3/9/08, 1:09 am |
| next stop make art with em! very cool... IMAGE REMOVED - CLICK TO VIEW IMAGE REMOVED - CLICK TO VIEW |
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