Hold a Rubik's cube up to the camera and it reads each side on its own, fills in a 3D model as it goes, then walks you to solved in about 20 turns, never more than 22. Made for people who have never solved a cube.

Try it live · Source code

The problem

Most solvers expect you to type in all 54 stickers and already know cube notation like R U R' U'. The goal was a solver for someone who has never solved a cube: show it the cube, then follow the arrows.

Decisions that shaped it

No shutter button. The camera reads colours in the browser about ten times a second and captures a side as soon as the reading holds steady for about 0.3 seconds, in any order and held any way up. Once all six sides are in, the app works out which way up each one was held.

Check the cube before solving it. The app verifies the scanned cube is physically possible.…