The posted article isn’t as good as the better, longer web page by the actual researchers at https://www.mola.org.uk/discoveries/news/worlds-most-difficu...

Anyway, let’s see them tackle Eternity II next.

https://eu.woodtrick.com/blogs/news/eternity-ii-puzzle-the-h...

There has to be master Jigsaw puzzle solvers out there who'd solve it much faster and better than the average person.

First, the average person isn’t doing this.

Second, I doubt even the best puzzlers would do well. There is no reference image, pieces missing, the pieces they have aren’t guaranteed to fit, and no indication of whether or not you’ve actually placed a piece correctly.

I’m shocked at your suggestion that the best puzzlers would ever look at the picture on the box!

I wonder whether CV models could help speed this up. There is the obvious challenge of pieces not fitting together exactly, being broken or otherwise defaced etc. but then humans are struggling with the same thing, just that computers have far better memories.

Wasnt there some youtuber that built a jigsaw puzzle solver machine? Wonder if that could be used here

Stuff Made Here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsPHBD5NsS0

Mark Rober https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqr-PdVYhY4

Looks like a job for crowdsourcing?

I dispute the title. How many pieces? What's the graphic scale vs the piece size? Does it have a border?

Maybe better described as "A Jigsaw Puzzle"