# Reducing information while memorising xcenters



## abunickabhi (Mar 15, 2021)

I came up with this method 2 years back, to reduce 5BLD xcenter memorisation by half. I will not be that effective for 4BLD as there are more solved centers if we pick up a nice orientation and the scramble is good.

We can memorize two targets by just using one letter. So we just have to memorise half of the information we were memorising previously.

In this way, we can have say 20 targets (assuming 4 targets being solved), encoded in 10 letters, or just 5 letter pairs or just 3 memory elements (two letter quads and one letter pair)

Assuming we get mastery over tracing and encoding via repetitive practice, the memorization+review will only take 10 seconds for the x-centers and it can even be stored in our long term memory. We will also have to remember the structuring elements well otherwise we do not know where the solved centers were.






Do you think it is feasible? I have not done that many 5BLD attempts in the last 2 years, and currently when I use this technique, it does take a bit of my brainpower and focus, and my memo slows down a bit even though there is less info to be memorised.


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## Cubing Forever (Mar 15, 2021)

(I have never solved a 5x5 sighted, let alone BLD so take this with a pinch of salt)

I like the idea of this. It's like using lists or arrays instead of declaring individual variables. However, the problem with this technique is memo time and (probably) recall. Since you are assigning 2 targets to a letter, memorizing 2 targets at once and recalling them during execution might be a bit of a hassle.

(I might be wrong so pls correct me if so)


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## abunickabhi (Mar 15, 2021)

Cubing Forever said:


> (I have never solved a 5x5 sighted, let alone BLD so take this with a pinch of salt)
> 
> I like the idea of this. It's like using lists or arrays instead of declaring individual variables. However, the problem with this technique is memo time and (probably) recall. Since you are assigning 2 targets to a letter, memorizing 2 targets at once and recalling them during execution might be a bit of a hassle.
> 
> (I might be wrong so pls correct me if so)


I do agree it is a new way of dealing with tracing, 2 targets=1 letter, so it will be confusing and tough to get comfortable at first. But I think this method is the way to go, the only drawback I see is the extra brainpower I have to use in visually remembering the structural elements and the target stickers to be shot to out of the 4 on each face.


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## Cubing Forever (Mar 15, 2021)

This could also be useful for 6BLD, 7BLD, 8BLD etc. and for MBLD. What are your thoughts, sigalig?


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## Cubing Forever (Mar 15, 2021)

DNF_Cuber said:


> @sigalig


@abunickabhi PM'd me not to do that.


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## DNF_Cuber (Mar 15, 2021)

Cubing Forever said:


> @abunickabhi PM'd me not to do that.


now I'm very confused


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## abunickabhi (Mar 15, 2021)

DNF_Cuber said:


> now I'm very confused



Top BLDers are after optimizing stuff that is already known, and do not want to spend time with new stuff that may or may not work, or is just creative but at the end of the day takes too much brainpower. Experimental stuff wastes a lot of time and is of no concern for top solvers, so pinging them is kinda irritating for them.


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## sigalig (Mar 19, 2021)

Honestly I'm having a pretty hard time understanding the video. Probably partially an accent thing but also because you sped the video up for some reason.

If you could maybe just outline the steps for the method in text I think I'd have a been chance of understanding


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## abunickabhi (Mar 20, 2021)

sigalig said:


> Honestly I'm having a pretty hard time understanding the video. Probably partially an accent thing but also because you sped the video up for some reason.
> 
> If you could maybe just outline the steps for the method in text I think I'd have a been chance of understanding


Sorry about not being able to explain in a more global accent. The video was sped idk why (uploaded it 2 years back), I think it was maybe because I wanted to keep the video as 10 minutes long, and it was 13 minutes.

The outline of this technique is in this google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16H65mwUz1v00UOs54B0jMYtWHJmNKwal4IefUVeaCDQ/edit

I will add some more details to this below,

The basic map of lettering (two targets = one letter), from the YO orientation. (described in the document)
The letter scheme I have chosen is according to my 3x3 lettering scheme of edges, so the scheme might look weird to anyone not using my lettering scheme.

YG - *A*YR - *B*YB - *C*YO - *D*GY - *E* RY - *F*BY - *G*OY - *H* OG - *I*GO - *J* GR - *K* RG - *L*RB - *M*BR - *N*BO - *O*OB - *P*GW - *Q*RW - *R*BW - *S*OW - *X*WG - *T*WR - *U* WB - *V*WO - *D*OR - *W* RO - *Y*GB - *ga*BG - *ba*YW - *ʧ*WY - *Z*
where 
Y denote Yellow face, O denote Orange face, B denote Blue face, G denote Green face, R denote Red face, W denote White face.


To make sense of this map, I will take the 9 cubers 1 scramble video, and walkthrough of the xcenter memo I used the classical way, and then using the technique shown in the video.

Scramble:

L2 R Dw B' F2 Fw2 Lw' Bw2 L' Dw' Fw L' B U Rw2 L' Bw' U' B R Bw' L' Lw Bw' U' B L2 Bw' Rw' Bw R U L Rw2 Dw' F2 L2 D' Lw2 Bw' Rw D2 Fw2 U2 B' F2 Dw F' Fw2 Dw D' R2 Fw' Bw Rw' Bw2 Fw' Rw D' Fw

Ubr x-center trace on this scramble: 
Ubr-Ufl-Bur-Lbu-Ufl , float Ubl-Fur-Dbl-Bdl-Ufr-Ruf-Bdr-Ldf-Fdr-Rbu-Dbr-Rdb-Fdl-Rdf-Lbd-Dfr-Ubr

The sentence that I had with (one target = one letter) normal is (eiga ltpa kqnv jurm woxa) Eigenvalues letter paper kayynav jurm by woza
*eiga* - Ubr-Ufl-Bur-Lbu-Ufl
*ltpa* - Ubl-Fur-Dbl-Bdl-Ufr
*kqnv* - Ubl-Ruf-Bdr-Ldf-Fdr
*jurm* - Ubl-Rbu-Dbr-Rdb-Fdl
*woxa* - Ubl-Rdf-Lbd-Dfr-Ubr

Now, coming to the method described in the video,
Xcenter trace from the Ubr buffer, using this two targets = one letter scheme,
Structuring element memo (solved pieces): FHT (LFu,Bul,Dbl)
Memo: wexf njso baZ
Sentence: Fssst, we are exceptional with using ninja soap named baza.
*we* - Ubr-Ufl-Bur-Lbu-Ufl
*xf* - Ubl-Fur-Dbl-Bdl-Ufr
*nj *- Ubl-Ruf-Bdr-Ldf-Fdr
*so* - Ubl-Rbu-Dbr-Rdb-Fdl
*baZ* - Ubl-Rdf-Lbd-Dfr-Ubr

Today reduction in memo,
eiga ltpa kqnv jurm woxa = (visual fht) wexf njso bz 
So the original memo of, 5 letter quads becomes 2 letter quads and one letter pair, reduction of half in memo. The only downside is the increased ambiguity with the new method and the extra brainpower we have to use to make sure we traced the two targets = one letter memo properly.

If the method is still not understandable after this, I will try to make a follow-up video to my 2-year old, with more sharper and easier explanation, also adding up the few improvements that I have found over the last 2 years.


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## abunickabhi (Aug 28, 2022)

Update:

Been trying to make peace with this technique for bigBLD. It is not super fruitful. It uses waaay too much brainpower to just reduce a few letters in the memo. It is not worth it sadly


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