The 64-year old Hungarian Professor and inventor Erno Rubik is back with a bang with his latest invention ‘Rubik 360’. This brain teasing puzzle will be storming the market in Hamleys on 15th July, 2009. Each 360 will cost £ 18 and is already reported to be the most popular item in the London Toy Store’s website. It’s anticipated that Rubik 360 is going to be the most sought-after puzzle game in this Christmas-holiday season. 

Let’s see what 360 or Rubik 360 is all about…

360 is a transparent plastic ball. Inside this plastic ball there are 3 interlocking sphere. These three interlocking sphere contain 6 balls of different colours. The challenge is to take these balls into the matching colour coded slots in the outer sphere by shaking them through the middle sphere, which has only two holes. Prof Rubik claims that it involves a lot of kinetic and physical challenge because of gravity involved. It took The Times, 5 hrs to roll the first ball to its correct slot. The first Rubik 360 tournament is scheduled to be held in Dusseldorf in October.

Some Interesting facts about Rubik Cube that will influence you to raise your expectations from Rubik 360:

1.  350 million units of Rubik Cube sold after its invention in 1974 by Prof.Erno Rubik in Budapest, Hungary
2.  The world record for completing the cube was 7.08 sec in 2008.
3.  The largest cube weighs 500kgs and is 3 metres tall, is in display in Tennessee.
4.  The 25 move solution, named God’s Algorithm is the shortest solution.
5.  ‘Rubik Cube’ made its place in Oxford English Dictionary just after two years of its launch and is permanently exhibited in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

This is what David Hedley, the senior vice-president of the Rubik brand had to say about Rubik 360 “It can’t be that hard. But it is incredibly complicated — there are some really cunning tricks to it.”

As Rubik 360 hits the market, we will see how many of us grab a 360 and test our patience to solve the puzzle.

Project NATAL : Redefining the gaming experience with Xbox 360!

Microsoft brings to light the much rumoured hands-free and motion-sensing gaming and entertainment. This is a project (code-named Natal) that is still within Microsoft laboratory walls and has a long way to go to come to market.  This small black device, an add on to the Xbox 360 gives a full on real life gaming experience of what is happening in the screen without any controllers and wires attached.  It has the capability of playing with multiple users during a single session.

It has a surprisingly sensitive video camera which can capture and track where your body is and what you are doing. It automatically recognizes if you are a man or a woman. It has a monochrome camera (works with infrared) that reads the depth in our movements like how far away our body is. It also exhibits a super sensitive and multi-array microphone that can not only pick up voice commands but also tells when you are talking, when your friends are talking and when somebody in the game is talking. It is powered with a software that tells Xbox how to find our body’s various joints.(It tracks 48 of them). Isn’t it ultimate?

The project is headed by Don Mattrick, the head of Microsoft’s interactive and entertainment division and the former head of Electronics Art. Any guesses on why is the project named Natal?? Lets see.. This is because Microsoft tends to name its internal projects after cities; Natal is a city in Brazil, where Alex Kipman, one of the key engineers on project Natal comes from.

The other players in market in this field are Nintendo Wii, Sony EyeToy but they come with some kind of swing and swivel device and with not so good movement capture and are in no way close to Project Natal.

However, some say it would be weird to dodge a ball when you actually don’t hold it and it is not meant for hardcore gamers and games like star wars etc.         

Microsoft has denied disclosing the date when Project Natal is going to take its first independent step outside the laboratory. People are eagerly waiting for the day when they can actually see this in market and have the ultimate fun.

Let’s wait and watch how it turns out!!