Lucas Etter must be kicking himself.
The 14-year-old set the Guinness World Record for becoming the first person ever to break the five-second barrier, solving the Rubik's Cube in a mind-numbing 4.904 seconds this past November.
Just over two months since accomplishing the stunning feat, two bright minds have created a robot that utilizes a special algorithm to solve the Rubik's Cube in under 1.2 seconds. Good lord.
According to The Next Web, Jay Flatland and Paul Rose's robot can repeatedly solve the Rubik's Cube in less than 1.2 seconds, leaning on a combination of motors, 3D-printed components, an Arduino chip and webcams connected to a Linux system to get the job done. The robotic machine uses a Kociemba algorithm, as reported by The Next Web.
Holes were drilled into each of the cube's six sides, allowing the robot to grip and rotate the Rubik's cube with blazing speed.
While the revealing of this robot's ability to consistently solve the Rubik's cube in under 1.2 seconds is bound to steal some of Etter's thunder, he shouldn't be too concerned.
That's because Guinness distinguishes between human and machine records and the latter time to beat is 3.253 seconds. So, that means that once Flatland and Rose officially demonstrate their robot's Rubik's Cube-solving prowess in front of an official Guinness official, they'll leave with the record in tow.
Watch their robot solve the Rubik's Cube. Blink and you'll miss it.
