London (IANS): Decades after frustrating millions of people with his maddening multi-coloured plastic cube, reclusive Hungarian professor Erno Rubik is about to throw one more challenge to the world.

Move over Rubik's Cube, step up Rubik's 360 - about to be launched this week as the inventor's reply to snotty kids who can crack the Cube in as little as eight seconds.

Using the same formula of an apparently simple task that is annoyingly hard to complete, the new puzzle involves moving plastic balls through a set of transparent spheres.

Rubik, 64, said: “The 360 is one of the most innovative and exciting puzzles we've developed since the Cube, adopting elements of my original design, challenging the solver to use skill, dexterity and logic.”

The Rubik's Cube was invented in 1974, but was not released until 1980 when it became a global phenomenon. Sales have risen again in recent years with internet tutorials helping to revive interest.

The fastest to do the Cube is a Dutch teenager who took all of 7.08 seconds, and the slowest is 45-year-old British builder Graham Parker, who finished his Cube in January - 26 years after he bought it.

“I have had wrist and back problems from spending hours on it but it was all worth it. When I clicked that last bit into place and each face was a solid colour, I wept,” said Parker.