Hi Twisty Puzzles fans,

Polaroid Cube is a twisty puzzle that uses polarizing filters instead of stickers. The use of polarizing filter was suggested by Landon Kryger, inspired by my Hollow Cube. Depending on their orientation, two pieces of polaroid filter let light through or block the light, see Wikipedia Polarizer.

Polaroid Cube is built as a Void 2x2x2. It has thick rims to contain the dovetail mechanism. Each of the eight pieces has three sheets of polarizing filter. The pattern is 1xHHH, 3xHHV, 3xHVV and 1xVVV. The puzzle turns like an ordinary 2x2x2 Rubik's Cube. The goal is to go from "all light" to "all dark" and vice verse.

Watch the YouTube video.
Buy the puzzle from my Shapeways Shop.
Read more at the Shapeways Forum.
Check out the photos below.

Enjoy!

Oskar

cool! but shouldn't you call it the polaroid ball or sphere?

This is very cool!

DJ

*

This is very cool. I love seeing new concepts incorporated in simple ways to make a whole new challenge. I know that the rubiks hat did something similar with colored films, but the polarization aspect adds a whole new level of challenge.

There is other puzzle, Svetnashki, based on polarizing effect.

http://www.svetnashki.ru/

This is a very cool puzzle.

As is your's Oskar. I am always impressed with them. It gives me an idea on combining the 2 different polarizing puzzles.

Great! As always of course...
I think that is very interesting material.

Thank you for making it. I'll buy one once my schedule clears up. I'm a little busy with school trying to finish my thesis and graduate right now.

Nice puzzle. When I saw the title I was expecting to see it knocking out little mini cubes.

Polarised filters had been used in a few other puzzles too,
the most famous being the Rubik's Rabbits (or Rubik's Hat).

The Russian version seems very intriguing too. Is it possible
to find more information for it? (including purchase details)

Now, Oskar's puzzle was the first (to my knowledge) that
is based on 3D layers (i.e. some planes move in different
angles with respect to the other planes). The rest were using
2D layers (i.e. parallel planes).

It is a very nice application of the hollow properties found
in the latest twisty mechanisms.




Pantazis

There's a link to buy on the website. I worked it out to be about £11.

Alex

That looks like a confusing puzzle to solve. But I don't like it when people say it's a void 2x2x2. Surely that would be the centres hollowed out, and not the corners? Because if it technically was a void 2x2x2. I could get on with my designs of the void 4x4x4.

Technically it is a void 2x2x2! That is, if you define "void" as "has no central core". The spokes at the center are there only to hold the polarization filters. The mechanism itself is in the thick rim.

By this definition, Turn Apart would be a bandaged void 2x2x2.

Oskar

OK, but most cubers would refer to 'void' as being without a core, which can be shown through the centers.

I have no words for how great I think this puzzle is.

Hi Twisty Puzzle fans,

Polarization filter is fun material, and not only for puzzles. I used it to build a Vampire Detector a couple of years ago, with the help of Tom Lensch. As you know, vampires cannot see themselves in the mirror. If you look into the mirror through this Vampire Detector from one side, you can see yourself in the mirror. If you turn the filter, you can no longer see yourself in the mirror as the filter seems to turn dark.

Watch the YouTube video to see how it works and check out the photos below.

Vampire Detector is an illustration of a special type of polarization filter. It is a sheet of linear polarization filter that has been coated with a "half-wave" filter on one side. That coating turns linearly polarized light into circular and vice verse.

When the uncoated side is turned towards the mirror, then light comes out of the mirror vertically polarized. The mirror reflects the light, which remains vertically polarized. The returning light passes through the linear polarization filter again.

When the coated side is turned towards the mirror, then the light comes out right-handed circularly polarized. The mirror reflects the light, which effectively changes its handedness into left-handed circularly polarized light. The returning light is consequently blocked by the filter.

Typical applications of polarization filter are pre-Photoshop photography and 3D goggles.

The reason that I know about this stuff is that I wrote my PhD thesis on light going into two directions through through optical fibre. My claim to fame is that I serendipitously discovered the polarization properties of Rayleigh and (stimulated) Brillouin backscattering in optical fibre, and that I subsequently found a physical/mathematical explanation for this. That explanation is directly related to the operation of the vampire detector.

Oskar

Oh nooo!!!

*hides in coffin*




Pantazis

Very nice concept.

I thought of applying polarizing filters to a two-layered 15 puzzle and even built a working prototype about 15 years ago. Of course it was much easier to make because the tiles of a 15 puzzle are flat in any case, but I never thought about applying this idea to a twisty puzzle because (back then) I had always assumed that the cubies must be solid shapes based around a central core, which would make it difficult to position the polarizing filters in an elegant way.

Using a core-less dove-tail mechanism with flat planes has made this idea work very nicely indeed!

for me and pantazis here we just need some mirror material and a frame but not that it means anything well it is pretty cool anyways