Udi Dor doesn’t shy away from engineering challenges. One night when out with a group of friends the subject of Rubik’s cube solving came up and ideas started bouncing around for an app that could simulate a cube in front of the user and allow interactions with people from around the world. He was “immediately hooked by the extremely challenging engineering questions” that come with the ideation of a completely new product. After researching the idea he found that many people had thought about a worldwide network of cube solvers but it hadn’t yet been implemented. After a few months of testing and prototyping the group developed the GoCube, a system they’re branding as “The Classic Puzzle Reinvented.”
GoCube is running a Kickstarter campaign for its first production run, as a Rubik’s cube and app system for users to learn the solving algorithms, hone their skills, and compete against other cubers online. Minigames are also included in the app that turn the cube into a controller.
The cube uses sensors to track the cube’s rotations and orientations and then monitor and display those positions and orientation on the app screen. The cube is a standard 60x60x60 millimeter unit, with a USB charging module and a charge that lasts somewhere between three and thirty hours depending on how the cube is used – lights, Bluetooth connection, and the inertial measurement units are all flagged as features that will drain the battery faster.
Udi Dor answered a few questions for us about the development of the GoCube – he said that design challenges appeared when trying to optimize the areas of mechanical engineering, electronics, wireless communication, ultra low power, and cloud computing. Working on fifty four tiles with small space available but requiring electronics insertion and then movement was tough. Currently the project team has built several fully functional prototypes and the production runs will begin at the end of the Kickstarter campaign.
Like many hobbies the people who love to solve Rubik’s cubes really, truly and completely love to solve Rubik’s cubes. After a day the Kickstarter campaign is full of comments and questions from potential users and a hefty FAQ has also been built. It’s always interesting to me when a project that seems so laser focused in its purpose appeals to an incredibly wide crowd. The GoCube campaign ends on August 9 and first units are currently scheduled to ship in March 2019.