Faster than a blink: 4 students set Guinness World Record with Rubik's Cube-solving robot
Imagine a Rubik's Cube being solved faster than the blink of an eye? Unimaginable, right? Four students from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States of America, have achieved this feat using a robot they built. According to NBC News, this student team created a robot to solve a Rubik's cube in just 0.103 seconds, setting a Guinness World Record last month.
Their Rubik's Cube, aptly named 'Purdubik's Cube,' surpassed the previous record set by Mitsubishi Electric engineers in May 2024, whose robot could solve the puzzle in 0.305 seconds. The video shared by Guinness World Records on their Instagram account is going viral due to the lightning speed at which the robot completes the puzzle.
At the beginning of the video, the robot solves the cube at regular speed, making the rapid resolution almost unbelievable. Later in the clip, it is slowed down to reveal the intricate workings of the robot as it solves the cube. The video has garnered 4.8 million views and is posted with the caption, 'Fastest robot to solve a puzzle cube: 0.103 seconds by Matthew Patrohay, Junpei Ota, Aden Hurd, and Alex Berta of @purdue.ece.'
In the comments section, the Guinness World Records account said, 'Blink and you'll miss it!' A student named Matthew Patrohay from Purdue University's Purdubik's Cube team told the GSW, 'We solve it in 103 milliseconds. A human blink takes about 200 to 300 milliseconds. So, before you even realise it's moving, we've already solved it.'
A post shared by Guinness World Records (@guinnessworldrecords)
Responding to the video, one user commented, 'If you actually time a blink the moment it starts, you literally can't see it move. That's amazing, congrats to everyone involved.' Another user wrote, 'Respect for the Rubik's cube for actually getting solved and not disintegrating in a million pieces.' A third user provided insight into the cube's mechanics, saying, 'By the look of it, the robot is aiming for a FMC solving rather than a speedcubing one. Speedcubing consists in resolving it the fastest way possible by using moves that are easier to do with your fingers. FMC is the Fewest Move Challenges. Since a machine isn't limited by fingers' movement, FMC becomes speedcubing. This is quite interesting.'
The robot, located on the Purdue campus in West Lafayette, uses machine vision for colour recognition, custom-solving algorithms optimised for execution time and industrial-grade motion control hardware, according to a Purdue University press release.
The team, consisting of engineering students Junpei Ota, Aden Hurd, Matthew Patrohay, and Alex Berta, initially designed their robot for the Spark Challenge, a design competition held in December 2024 at Purdue's Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. After winning first place, they continued to enhance the robot with sponsorship support from Purdue's Institute for Control, Optimisation, and Networks as reported by NBC News.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
After WhatsApp, Meta may launch Instagram for Apple iPad: What to expect
Meta-owned social media platform Instagram is reportedly developing a dedicated application for Apple iPads. Following the recent launch of WhatsApp for iPads, it now appears likely that Meta could introduce a native version of Instagram for iPad. According to 9to5Mac, Meta is working on an iPadOS-specific version of the app optimised for larger displays. A 9to5Mac report citing Bloomberg's Mark Gurman states that Meta is now 'full steam ahead' in its development of an Instagram application for Apple's tablet. Gurman noted, 'I'm told that employees on the Meta Platforms Inc. campus are actively testing Instagram for the iPad and that development work is full steam ahead. I would expect it to be released this year if all goes to plan.' Instagram for iPad: What to expect Optimised user interface: The app is expected to feature enhanced display scaling tailored for the iPad's larger screen, incorporating a refined layout that makes better use of the tablet's aspect ratio. Improved multitasking support: The native version will likely support iPadOS features such as Split View, facilitating easier navigation and improved interaction while multitasking with other applications. Exclusive layout options: The app may include design elements or interface modes exclusive to iPad, enhancing the overall experience. Upgraded Reels and video browsing: Users may benefit from smoother scrolling and enhanced video playback performance, with a more immersive, cinematic Reels experience in full-screen mode. Currently, iPad users can only access Instagram through the iPhone version of the app, which is not optimised for the tablet interface. This results in a stretched layout and subpar user experience, forcing users to rely on a zoomed-in iPhone app lacking features tailored for larger displays. Although specific details about the upcoming iPad version remain limited, the dedicated app is expected to deliver an interface that better aligns with tablet usage.
Hans India
an hour ago
- Hans India
Instagram for iPad in Progress, Meta Gears Up for Late 2024 Launch
After years of anticipation, Meta appears to be finally answering the call of iPad users. Reports indicate that a native Instagram app tailored for the iPad is under active development, with a public release expected by the end of 2024. The news comes on the heels of Meta's recent launch of WhatsApp for iPad, surprising fans and fueling hopes for more tablet-optimised experiences. Now, Instagram seems to be the next major Meta-owned platform to make the leap, according to industry insiders. This development was first hinted at in April by The Information's Kaya Yurieff and Kalley Huang. More recently, Bloomberg's tech correspondent Mark Gurman confirmed that Meta employees are internally testing the iPad version. Gurman added, 'Unless there are major setbacks, it should be available to the public before the end of 2024.' Instagram's absence on the iPad has long puzzled users, especially given the platform's visual nature—designed for sharing photos, videos, and stories that are arguably best experienced on larger screens. For over a decade, iPad users have been left with the zoomed-in iPhone version of Instagram, which fails to fully utilise the iPad's expansive display. So, what took Meta so long? Experts point to both technical challenges and underlying tensions between Meta and Apple. Initially, Instagram was built around lower-resolution images, which often appeared pixelated on iPad's high-resolution display. But beyond the tech limitations, a frosty relationship between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple's Tim Cook may have also played a role. For years, the two tech giants have clashed publicly over issues like user privacy and App Store policies. Some believe that Meta's delay in releasing Instagram for iPad was, in part, a subtle form of pushback against Apple. That said, the tide now appears to be turning. With WhatsApp now officially on iPad, and Instagram supporting high-resolution media, widescreen videos, and long-form content, Meta seems ready to prioritise the user experience over past rivalries. Competition may also be a driving factor. Platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts already offer robust tablet support and continue to capture the attention of younger users. Meta likely sees the Instagram iPad app as essential for retaining engagement and expanding its user base. Internal efforts are reportedly in full swing. 'Meta employees are going full steam ahead,' says Gurman. The launch timeline remains subject to change, but the outlook appears optimistic. There's no confirmation yet on whether Meta's Threads app will also come to iPad, but for now, the promise of a native Instagram experience is big news for creators, casual users, and everyone who prefers editing or browsing on a bigger screen.
Indian Express
2 hours ago
- Indian Express
India's rapid AI adoption, China's open source lead in focus in Mary Meeker report
'Unprecedented' – that's the word frequently used by venture capitalist Mary Meeker—once known as the 'Queen of the Internet'—in her latest trends report on artificial intelligence (AI) development and adoption. The 340-page report, titled 'Trends — Artificial Intelligence,' charts out the speed at which costs of usage are dropping, and how its adoption curve is unlike any tech disruption of the past. 'The pace and scope of change related to the artificial intelligence technology evolution is indeed unprecedented…' Meeker writes in her report, her first major trends report since 2019. While largely upbeat about AI's disruptive promise, the report also outlines cautions against well-known pitfalls including hallucinations, biases, misinformation and slow moving regulation. It also said that while AI platforms have racked up the user-base, revenue per user is still quite low for most of them, with a median of $23. The adoption of AI platforms has been unlike anything that has come before it, the report said. For instance, it took the likes of Instagram, WhatsApp, and YouTube between 2-4 years to reach 100 million users, but for ChatGPT, it took less than 3 months. The report also speculated, based on data from Morgan Stanley, that while it took between 6-12 years for 50% households in the US to have access to mobile and desktop internet, it will take only 3 years for the same number of households to become users of AI platforms. Owing to its large demography and internet penetration, India has been a key user-base market for AI companies, the report said. It is the second largest market for ChatGPT, and contributes the highest percentage of its mobile app users (13.5%), ahead of countries like the US (8.9%), and Germany (3%). India is also the third-largest user base (6.9%) for China's homegrown platform DeepSeek, and is behind only China (33.9%) and Russia (9.2%). However, the thing to note here is that ChatGPT, one of DeepSeek's main rivals, is banned in both China and Russia. Indians therefore contribute a substantial user base to DeepSeek, despite the availability of its Western rivals. The report said that two different philosophies in shipping AI models are playing out in parallel – closed and open source. Closed models follow a centralised, capital-intensive arc. These models – like OpenAI's GPT-4 or Anthropic's Claude – are trained within proprietary systems on massive proprietary datasets, requiring months of compute time and millions in spending, it said. They often deliver more capable performance and easier usability, and thus are preferred by enterprises and consumers, and – increasingly – governments. However, the tradeoff is opacity: no access to weights, training data, or fine-tuning methods, the report added. Meanwhile, platforms like Hugging Face have made it frictionless to download open source models like Meta's Llama or Mistral's Mixtral, giving startups, academics, and governments access to frontier-level AI without billion-dollar budgets. 'And China (as of Q2:25) – based on the number of large-scale AI models released – is leading the open-source race, with three large-scale models released in 2025 – DeepSeek-R1, Alibaba Qwen-32B and Baidu Ernie 4.5,' it said. 'The split has consequences. Open-source is fueling sovereign AI initiatives, local language models, and community-led innovation. Closed models, meanwhile, are dominating consumer market share and large enterprise adoption. We're watching two philosophies unfold in parallel – freedom vs. control, speed vs. safety, openness vs. optimization – each shaping not just how AI works, but who gets to wield it,' Meeker said in her report.
