- Title: Machine solves Rubik's cube in 0.6 seconds
- Date: 10th November 2016
- Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (NOVEMBER 10, 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF WOMAN USING RUBIK'S CUBE
- Embargoed: 25th November 2016 17:02
- Keywords: Rubik Rubik's cube record Guinness Sub1 Reloaded Erno Rubik
- Location: MUNICH, GERMANY / FIL ELOCATIONS
- City: MUNICH, GERMANY / FIL ELOCATIONS
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Science
- Reuters ID: LVA00257V55Y3
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A high performance robot has established a new machine world record for solving a Rubik's Cube.
The Sub1 Reloaded machine solved the famous puzzle in a remarkable 637 thousandths of a second (0.637 seconds) at the Electronica trade fare in Munich on Wednesday (November 9), an Infineon spokesperson told Reuters.
As a button was pressed on Sub1, shutters covering the robot's camera sensors helped the machine detect how the toy's individual cubes had been mixed up. It immediately devised a solution and sent commands to six motor-controlled arms, each of them spinning the cube's faces into the toy's original position.
The record-breaking robot was constructed by Infineon's Albert Beer, who also established the previous machine record of 0.89 seconds using an earlier prototype, according to Infineon.
The Guinness World Records has been notified about the attempt, but are yet to acknowledge the new world record, Infineon said in a statement.
Guinness's official Rubik's Cube record for a human is 4.904 seconds.
The toy was invented in 1974 by Hungarian Erno Rubik.
British company Seven Towers, which manages Rubik's Cube intellectual property rights, lost a trademark battle on Thursday (November 10) after Europe's top court said its shape was not sufficient to grant it protection against copycats.
German toy maker Simba Toys challenged the trademark protection in 2006, saying that the cube's rotating capability should be protected by a patent and not a trademark.
Patents allow inventors to block rivals from making commercial use of their inventions without their approval for a certain period of time while trademarks give intellectual property owners' an exclusive and perpetual right to their designs, logos, phrases or words as long as they use them.
The German company took its case to the Luxembourg-based European Union Court of Justice (ECJ) after EUIPO and a lower EU court dismissed its lawsuit.
ECJ judges agreed with Simba Toys' arguments.
EUIPO will now have to issue a new decision based on the ECJ judgement. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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