How Tech Works (2012–…): Season 2, Episode 7 - Episode #2.7 - full transcript
On this episode
of How Tech Works.
In the Scottish Highlands,
a master swordsmith
shares the tools of his trade.
And, in a secret location,
a car body created
from pressed hemp.
Hi there, my name is
Dr. Basil Singer.
And for the next half hour,
you won't want to be anywhere
but right here
as we check out incredible tech
stories from around the globe.
Today on How Tech Works,
we're going batty, literally,
over the sonar capabilities
of these tiny creatures.
Plus, how often do you get
to meet a professor
in skateboarding?
But first, we've got a story
that takes us all the way
to the highlands of Scotland,
and takes a long, hard look
at swords.
Yup, swords.
I want you to meet Rob Miller,
a man who is single-handedly
keeping the ancient tradition
of sword making alive.
The Scottish Highlands.
They once echoed
with battle cries,
and the clang
of clashing swords.
Today it's a much more
peaceful place.
But if you listen closely...
the sounds of centuries past
can still be heard.
Rob Miller is one
of a dying breed,
a swordsmith,
still crafting blades
using ancient techniques.
What, initially really
pulled me into this
was this idea about fire
and hammer - forge work.
All this kind of very
primal energy
that goes into making a sword.
At his workshop
on the Isle of Skye,
Rob turns raw steel into
polished pieces of craft work.
For 21 years it's been
his trade,
but there was never
an apprenticeship.
This idea had always
stayed with me.
You know, I'd like to make
a sword, so I did some research.
I started routing around
the old bookshops.
Pre-Internet days, you know,
getting as much information
as I possibly could.
And I ended up just teaching
myself in my spare time,
just bashing away.
No matter the blade,
it all starts as a sheet
of steel
that Rob cuts into shape.
Next...
it's time to forge.
On a molecular level,
when you introduce
the steel into the fire,
it'll start to open up
the lattice within it.
And... it starts to move around
toward a molten state.
Next fire and hammer are used
to form a super-dense
blade edge and tip.
What the...
hammer blows do is, they compact
that steel down
into very dense
crystalline structures
along the edges particularly.
So, you're looking at a way
of refining that steel,
and hardening it,
and breaking it down,
and re-breaking and repacking it
again and again and again,
until you've got this
very fine crystalline edge.
Once work-hardened,
the blade is ready to be ground.
Grinding's just refining
the shape,
removing as much stock as you
can afford to
without compromising the
integrity of the blade at all.
So you want this to be as light
as possible,
because the guy
who lasts longest in battle
without getting tired,
wins basically.
You know it kind of
breaks down to that.
These days,
Rob makes swords for collectors,
not warriors.
But most are exact replicas
of those used in battle.
Historically, each culture
had its own unique style.
Each sword was designed for
a particular way of fighting.
What we're looking at here is...
a very typical Scottish weapon
called a Claymore...
a large two-handed sword
used predominantly for really
devastating blows.
to get into the armor,
and the joints in between.
Crack stuff open.
So if you take this
as an example
of the larger, more bludgeoning
instrument, and then...
something like this,
which is your typical,
medieval single-hand sword,
much faster, much lighter,
more flexibility,
and along with that,
strength and the integrity
that you really need
when you're going into battle.
Back at the forge,
the two most important steps,
hardening and tempering,
now begin.
You reintroduce the steel
into the fire,
bring it up to a bright
cherry red, generally.
And there's a particular peak
when the steel will be ready.
The lattice within that steel
will be open to being shocked.
Plunging a red-hot bar
of steel into oil you'll get
a flare up of flames and smoke,
and it'll shock the steel
into hardening very quickly.
You'll end up with, in effect,
something more like glass.
So, if you took a hammer
to that steel afterwards,
you could tap it,
and it would shatter.
With the shock therapy over,
the blade goes into the forge
one last time for tempering.
Tempering is about
creating a compromise
between that hardness
and the flexibility
that you're looking for
without losing
too much of a cutting edge.
So it's always
about this compromise.
Finally, strength
and flexibility are in balance.
The blade gets ground down
once more
to remove the surface scale,
and then is polished
to a shine.
All that's left now
are the finishing touches.
With many months
going into some blades,
this is always
an anxious moment.
I'm one of these people
that are never 100% pleased
with anything,
and I probably never ever
will be.
But that's part
of the driving force to go on...
doing this, you know,
to be creative.
But there are times,
there are moments
when I can look upon a piece
and say:
"That's a job well done!"
You know, I like that.
Beautiful and powerful.
Though Rob's swords
will never see a battlefield,
they're keeping a long legacy
in Scotland alive.
It's interesting to think
that at some point
in the history of our people
and our families individually
and collectively,
somebody would have stood up
with a sword
to defend the rights
of that family to continue.
And that as a direct
or indirect result of the sword,
we are alive today.
Now from the ancient past,
we fast forward to the future
of car manufacturing,
featuring... cannabis.
Yeah, I know.
Cannabis and cars...
don't really go together
that well.
And nor should they.
But in Alberta in Canada,
there's a movement to take
the industrial form of cannabis,
called hemp, and use it
to build a car chassis.
Sound weird?
Yes, of course it does.
But it's stronger than anything
on the road today. Have a look.
Nathan Armstrong
is driving some major changes
in the car industry.
Kind of pushing
the boundaries as far as what
manufacturing and what design
and what products can be.
As a man who designs cars,
he's challenged himself
to do the unthinkable.
He's going to grow one
out of hemp.
There's no pesticides.
All hemp is organic.
It's all non-GMO.
There are no known pathogens
that attack the hemp plant.
It regulates its own weeds.
So really it's the perfect crop.
It's called Kestrel,
an electric car
that Nathan hopes
will be Canada's
first bio-composite car.
Making a car out of hemp
isn't exactly a new idea.
Turn of the century,
Henry Ford,
the very first model T
had a hemp body
And the plan was actually
to run the vehicle on hemp.
Back then, they
didn't roll with Ford's idea.
But to Nathan,
it's exactly what
the car industry needs now.
I think the market's
ready for it this time.
It all starts here
at a top secret location
in rural Alberta
where biologists
are growing the perfect hemp.
It is the largest
pilot facility of its kind
in the world.
We're growing cars,
we're growing houses,
we're growing clothes.
We're growing a lot
of different things.
And it all starts with
processing in this facility.
Hemp is different from cannabis
because it doesn't contain THC,
the chemical that gets you high.
Probably you'd have to smoke
so much
you'd get sick long before
you got high.
Industrial hemp
is an amazing plant
that produces a higher volume
of fiber
than any other crop
grown in Canada.
Can you imagine that this plant
in three, four weeks
will be three meters tall...
and we will harvest...
about ten tons of dry fiber
per hectare.
Spinning that fiber
into car parts
is where John Wolodko fits in.
His mission:
find the right recipe
of hemp and resin
to handle the rigors
of the road.
This is the backbone
of any sort of structure
that we are going to create.
We then use composite
manufacturing processes
that will infuse resin
or polymer into the system.
Here is an example of a part
that was partly infused.
So it shows basically the mat
and the infusion line.
Today Nathan is here
to check the latest combination.
What we have here
is a set up
that basically bends
the specimen.
We're testing
a hemp hybrid material.
So this incorporates a little
bit of synthetic fibers.
The material goes in
and slowly the machine starts
putting on the pressure.
- It's 192 pounds.
- That's incredible.
Even with the weight
of a fully-grown man
bearing down on this one,
it's just starting to crack.
- Quite plastic, isn't it?
- That was incredible!
You can see.
It didn't even splinter.
It's important
for a car.
You don't want it just breaking,
You want it to absorb
energy slowly.
Tests aren't always
so smooth.
There's been some doozies.
But there's been big improvement
the last couple of years.
With a few recipes perfected,
they're starting to cook up
actual car parts.
This is the front face shift
for the car, done in 100% hemp.
You can see here this is
one of our first attempts.
So on this one...
we didn't quite get
quite enough resin,
so we have a lot of dry spots
throughout.
Although this part
isn't made of hemp,
it's made of fiberglass.
And it's what the Kestral hood
will look like.
It's proof
that they're on the right track.
You know what, it's so durable,
let me show you something.
It has a lot
of resiliency that...
you can walk on it.
What's unique about this,
is you've got the spring back.
So it's quite tough.
We won't get damaged
in a hail storm.
We can't get door dings.
Nobody can scratch it.
Kids can't break it.
Nathan dreams
of growing more than a car.
He wants to grow
an entire industry
right there in Canada.
I think ten years
from now we have...
ten thousand people
employed in Canada doing...
work that was based on the work
we're doing now
that would be just fantastic.
And I don't think...
there's really anything
better than that.
There's loads more
How Tech Works coming your way.
Hello, and welcome back to
How Tech Works.
I'm Basil Singer.
Now our next story
is about... bats.
As in those tiny,
flying creatures of the night.
Now you may know that a bat's
shape-shifting ears
give it one of the most
sophisticated sonar systems
in the world.
What you may not know, is that
a group of scientists
want to build robot ears
with the very same powers.
Dan Riskin is just
the reporter for the job.
It's a hectic morning
at Shandong University's
international laboratory.
Researchers are trying to solve
a mystery.
The shape of these ears
looks deceptively simple.
They have something that most
other bat species don't have,
and that is that they move
about five times per second.
And while they move
they change their shape.
These are the ears
of a horseshoe bat.
And the mystery physicist
Rolf Mueller and his team
want to crack,
is exactly how they use
those shape-shifting ears
to navigate through the dark
of night at 40km an hour,
never hitting a single object,
and gobbling up
tiny insect prey.
Bats have developed
this amazing skill
to navigate in the dark
just using their ears.
So there is a lot
of intelligence in these ears
that enables it.
So if you can pull
this intelligence out
and understand how they do that,
then you can apply that
for technical purposes.
For Rolf,
that technical purpose
is building a bat-inspired
robot.
The goal is to replicate
the sonar system of the bats.
So we have a little
artificial bat that could go out
in just the same environment
the bat goes into,
and then be able to do
the things that the bat can do.
A robot that mimics
a bat's sonar system
is something every defense
department in the world
would drool over.
If we could come close
to the bats,
it really would be
a quantum leap
in terms of the sensory
capabilities.
Back in the lab,
three high-speed cameras
and an ultra-sonic microphone
are set to catch this bat's
super-fast moves
and high-frequency shouts.
His ears are painted
to help track the movement.
Normally, this move
takes half a second.
But slowed down, you can see
how much the ear moves
in the blink of an eye.
And right here...
****
is the moment
the bat echolocates.
It happens simultaneously
while the ear is moving.
What this means
is that instead of waiting for
soundwaves to come back to them,
the ears are constantly
in motion,
seeking out the sound.
This is a sensing paradigm
that is similar to when
you run into the surf...
on an ocean beach.
You sense the wave
while you're running into them.
We believe the bats
are doing something similar.
They are sensing
the incoming echoes
while their ears
are wiggling around
in the incoming wave field.
This could be part of the reason
that bats are so good
at echolocating.
One thing's for sure,
it's an important clue.
And it's not the only clue
that Rolf discovered.
We have digital models
of about 1000...
ear and nose baffle samples,
digital models,
from about 100
different bat species.
Using a CT scanner,
he's captured hundreds
of bat ears.
and then, with the help
of 3D software,
he's come up with the average
bat ear.
The average bat ear,
despite all the complexity
in the individual species,
is surprisingly simple.
It's just a cone.
If you take a piece of paper,
and you form a cone,
and then cut it
at an oblique angle,
that's the average ear.
Based on this average template,
Rolf created his first prototype
robotic bat ear.
The robotic is about...
shape change.
Here we start from our
average building block.
Now we introduce shape features
from that original.
But instead of being static,
not changing,
we introduce shape change.
So the robot ear allows us
to evaluate
how these features act...
when the ear is also changing
its shape.
It's a baby step
in the right direction.
But there are still more
questions than answers
to what on the surface seems
like a relatively simple system.
The basic principle of biosonar
is really ridiculously simple.
You produce a sound.
They do it the same way
as we produce speech.
There are objects
in the environment.
They reflect the sound.
Echoes of the sound come back.
They're picked up by the ears,
listened to by the ears
just like we listen to sound.
By analyzing these echoes,
the bat knows what to do.
And that's the point
where we're are -
not quite there yet.
And we probably won't
be there for several years.
Which means that a bat's face
is still the most sophisticated
sonar system in the world.
Our last story
will really knock the socks
off anyone
who's ever considered
Mathematics to be boring.
You're about to meet a professor
and inventor
who is taking equations
to a whole new level...
with skateboards!
I bring you
The Skateboard Professor!
When he was
in primary school,
Joe Kniss dreamt be could fly.
I got some crazy idea
that I could have a hover board.
I actually convinced my friends
that I was getting one
for Christmas.
Instead, he settled
for skateboards.
the swerve and the weave.
They're very finicky,
but very dynamic.
And you're only sort of
loosely attached to it.
Skateboards actually
teach many lessons.
- Yeah!
- You're in the moment.
If you don't pay attention
for a second, you hit a rock
and you fall off, and you get
a lesson about paying attention.
So, it definitely is very, very
in the moment.
It's therapeutic for me.
It is my release.
Now, Joe's a professor,
teaching Computer Science...
Maths.
I had this desperate need
to make my job fun.
And Mathematics
is incredibly hard to teach.
I had this real need to connect
the things that I miss...
with the job that I have to do,
and make it make all make sense.
He's not a big fan
of computer mice or joysticks.
Joe's solution?
Hook the skateboard
up to the computer.
And since that would be hard
to roll on pavement,
create an indoor virtual space.
He calls it The Dome.
The dome is a hemisphere
that we project onto.
Well, here it is!
And we can literally
immerse ourselves
in anything you can imagine.
And the dome is perfect.
It wraps around.
It allows your eyes
to comfortably look around
and really get a sense of space
without the need
for three-dimensional glasses
or extra devices.
To get around
in virtual space,
a skateboard is the perfect
set of wheels.
The guts of the board
are simple.
We felt like natural feel.
Real skateboard action
was very important.
So what we've done...
is underneath
this piece of plywood,
we've placed our force sensors
at all four corners.
We've got a battery pack
and Bluetooth transmitter.
And...
we can tell exactly how
you're balanced on the board,
where your weight's shifted.
And on top of the board,
we've mounted our skateboard
tethered in the center
by this spring
that brings us back
to a neutral position.
And if you can ride
a skateboard,
obviously you can fly
through asteroids.
I'm using some gestures here
to control how I fly.
So... we're free-will particle,
and we can fly
through this space at will.
But the skateboard rig
is not the hover board
of Joe's dreams.
It was obvious, like,
this skateboard needs to fly.
We realized we need a robot.
So Joe and his team
came up with the Hex-Dex.
It's kind of a flight simulator
for skateboards.
This is Stuey, Hex-Dex one...
its platform.
We can put whatever we want
on it.
Here's what it does. Matthew,
can you give me a hand?
We can go all six degrees
of freedom.
We can go side to side,
front to back, up and down.
We can tilt this way.
We can tilt this way.
We can even twist.
Those are little infrared LEDs,
this is an infrared camera.
And using some mathematics,
we can tell exactly
what position the deck is in,
given how we see
those LEDs over there.
This also includes
accelerometers, and gyroscopes
to tell us about how
we're moving up...
on top of the deck.
In addition, this middle layer
of the deck you see here,
has force sensors on it
to tell you how much you weigh,
where your balance is,
are you falling?
So that the deck can perhaps
move and catch you.
Or punish you and buck you off.
Everything about this project
has been a demonstration
of how to do demonstration.
They put the Hex-Dex
through all sorts of paces.
But they've never flown it
in the dome before.
Never in here.
No, it's the first time.
The relocated board
is a bit testy.
It better dance this time.
And then, it locked up.
But eventually,
they get it up and running.
I made it squishy this time.
See how much more dynamic it is?
Then it's Joe's turn
to fly
through the asteroid belt.
He wants to play it safe.
It's a little jumpy.
So let's respect our noggins.
Put my helmet on.
Here we are...
in the rings of Saturn.
Basically this thing
is responding to my moves.
And then, as we accelerate,
we get more feedback
from the deck.
Joe's hopeful
that his inventions will take on
a life of their own,
and that people will come up
with original uses.
We're interested in ways
of interacting or...
game play that isn't just,
you know,
shoot the bad guys
or race the car.
We want to go beyond that.
I mean that's so last century.
And as soon as I get
a super conductor
and a power source
strong enough,
I'm going to make
the real one.
You've been watching
How Tech Works.
I'm Basil singer,
and I'll see you next time.
of How Tech Works.
In the Scottish Highlands,
a master swordsmith
shares the tools of his trade.
And, in a secret location,
a car body created
from pressed hemp.
Hi there, my name is
Dr. Basil Singer.
And for the next half hour,
you won't want to be anywhere
but right here
as we check out incredible tech
stories from around the globe.
Today on How Tech Works,
we're going batty, literally,
over the sonar capabilities
of these tiny creatures.
Plus, how often do you get
to meet a professor
in skateboarding?
But first, we've got a story
that takes us all the way
to the highlands of Scotland,
and takes a long, hard look
at swords.
Yup, swords.
I want you to meet Rob Miller,
a man who is single-handedly
keeping the ancient tradition
of sword making alive.
The Scottish Highlands.
They once echoed
with battle cries,
and the clang
of clashing swords.
Today it's a much more
peaceful place.
But if you listen closely...
the sounds of centuries past
can still be heard.
Rob Miller is one
of a dying breed,
a swordsmith,
still crafting blades
using ancient techniques.
What, initially really
pulled me into this
was this idea about fire
and hammer - forge work.
All this kind of very
primal energy
that goes into making a sword.
At his workshop
on the Isle of Skye,
Rob turns raw steel into
polished pieces of craft work.
For 21 years it's been
his trade,
but there was never
an apprenticeship.
This idea had always
stayed with me.
You know, I'd like to make
a sword, so I did some research.
I started routing around
the old bookshops.
Pre-Internet days, you know,
getting as much information
as I possibly could.
And I ended up just teaching
myself in my spare time,
just bashing away.
No matter the blade,
it all starts as a sheet
of steel
that Rob cuts into shape.
Next...
it's time to forge.
On a molecular level,
when you introduce
the steel into the fire,
it'll start to open up
the lattice within it.
And... it starts to move around
toward a molten state.
Next fire and hammer are used
to form a super-dense
blade edge and tip.
What the...
hammer blows do is, they compact
that steel down
into very dense
crystalline structures
along the edges particularly.
So, you're looking at a way
of refining that steel,
and hardening it,
and breaking it down,
and re-breaking and repacking it
again and again and again,
until you've got this
very fine crystalline edge.
Once work-hardened,
the blade is ready to be ground.
Grinding's just refining
the shape,
removing as much stock as you
can afford to
without compromising the
integrity of the blade at all.
So you want this to be as light
as possible,
because the guy
who lasts longest in battle
without getting tired,
wins basically.
You know it kind of
breaks down to that.
These days,
Rob makes swords for collectors,
not warriors.
But most are exact replicas
of those used in battle.
Historically, each culture
had its own unique style.
Each sword was designed for
a particular way of fighting.
What we're looking at here is...
a very typical Scottish weapon
called a Claymore...
a large two-handed sword
used predominantly for really
devastating blows.
to get into the armor,
and the joints in between.
Crack stuff open.
So if you take this
as an example
of the larger, more bludgeoning
instrument, and then...
something like this,
which is your typical,
medieval single-hand sword,
much faster, much lighter,
more flexibility,
and along with that,
strength and the integrity
that you really need
when you're going into battle.
Back at the forge,
the two most important steps,
hardening and tempering,
now begin.
You reintroduce the steel
into the fire,
bring it up to a bright
cherry red, generally.
And there's a particular peak
when the steel will be ready.
The lattice within that steel
will be open to being shocked.
Plunging a red-hot bar
of steel into oil you'll get
a flare up of flames and smoke,
and it'll shock the steel
into hardening very quickly.
You'll end up with, in effect,
something more like glass.
So, if you took a hammer
to that steel afterwards,
you could tap it,
and it would shatter.
With the shock therapy over,
the blade goes into the forge
one last time for tempering.
Tempering is about
creating a compromise
between that hardness
and the flexibility
that you're looking for
without losing
too much of a cutting edge.
So it's always
about this compromise.
Finally, strength
and flexibility are in balance.
The blade gets ground down
once more
to remove the surface scale,
and then is polished
to a shine.
All that's left now
are the finishing touches.
With many months
going into some blades,
this is always
an anxious moment.
I'm one of these people
that are never 100% pleased
with anything,
and I probably never ever
will be.
But that's part
of the driving force to go on...
doing this, you know,
to be creative.
But there are times,
there are moments
when I can look upon a piece
and say:
"That's a job well done!"
You know, I like that.
Beautiful and powerful.
Though Rob's swords
will never see a battlefield,
they're keeping a long legacy
in Scotland alive.
It's interesting to think
that at some point
in the history of our people
and our families individually
and collectively,
somebody would have stood up
with a sword
to defend the rights
of that family to continue.
And that as a direct
or indirect result of the sword,
we are alive today.
Now from the ancient past,
we fast forward to the future
of car manufacturing,
featuring... cannabis.
Yeah, I know.
Cannabis and cars...
don't really go together
that well.
And nor should they.
But in Alberta in Canada,
there's a movement to take
the industrial form of cannabis,
called hemp, and use it
to build a car chassis.
Sound weird?
Yes, of course it does.
But it's stronger than anything
on the road today. Have a look.
Nathan Armstrong
is driving some major changes
in the car industry.
Kind of pushing
the boundaries as far as what
manufacturing and what design
and what products can be.
As a man who designs cars,
he's challenged himself
to do the unthinkable.
He's going to grow one
out of hemp.
There's no pesticides.
All hemp is organic.
It's all non-GMO.
There are no known pathogens
that attack the hemp plant.
It regulates its own weeds.
So really it's the perfect crop.
It's called Kestrel,
an electric car
that Nathan hopes
will be Canada's
first bio-composite car.
Making a car out of hemp
isn't exactly a new idea.
Turn of the century,
Henry Ford,
the very first model T
had a hemp body
And the plan was actually
to run the vehicle on hemp.
Back then, they
didn't roll with Ford's idea.
But to Nathan,
it's exactly what
the car industry needs now.
I think the market's
ready for it this time.
It all starts here
at a top secret location
in rural Alberta
where biologists
are growing the perfect hemp.
It is the largest
pilot facility of its kind
in the world.
We're growing cars,
we're growing houses,
we're growing clothes.
We're growing a lot
of different things.
And it all starts with
processing in this facility.
Hemp is different from cannabis
because it doesn't contain THC,
the chemical that gets you high.
Probably you'd have to smoke
so much
you'd get sick long before
you got high.
Industrial hemp
is an amazing plant
that produces a higher volume
of fiber
than any other crop
grown in Canada.
Can you imagine that this plant
in three, four weeks
will be three meters tall...
and we will harvest...
about ten tons of dry fiber
per hectare.
Spinning that fiber
into car parts
is where John Wolodko fits in.
His mission:
find the right recipe
of hemp and resin
to handle the rigors
of the road.
This is the backbone
of any sort of structure
that we are going to create.
We then use composite
manufacturing processes
that will infuse resin
or polymer into the system.
Here is an example of a part
that was partly infused.
So it shows basically the mat
and the infusion line.
Today Nathan is here
to check the latest combination.
What we have here
is a set up
that basically bends
the specimen.
We're testing
a hemp hybrid material.
So this incorporates a little
bit of synthetic fibers.
The material goes in
and slowly the machine starts
putting on the pressure.
- It's 192 pounds.
- That's incredible.
Even with the weight
of a fully-grown man
bearing down on this one,
it's just starting to crack.
- Quite plastic, isn't it?
- That was incredible!
You can see.
It didn't even splinter.
It's important
for a car.
You don't want it just breaking,
You want it to absorb
energy slowly.
Tests aren't always
so smooth.
There's been some doozies.
But there's been big improvement
the last couple of years.
With a few recipes perfected,
they're starting to cook up
actual car parts.
This is the front face shift
for the car, done in 100% hemp.
You can see here this is
one of our first attempts.
So on this one...
we didn't quite get
quite enough resin,
so we have a lot of dry spots
throughout.
Although this part
isn't made of hemp,
it's made of fiberglass.
And it's what the Kestral hood
will look like.
It's proof
that they're on the right track.
You know what, it's so durable,
let me show you something.
It has a lot
of resiliency that...
you can walk on it.
What's unique about this,
is you've got the spring back.
So it's quite tough.
We won't get damaged
in a hail storm.
We can't get door dings.
Nobody can scratch it.
Kids can't break it.
Nathan dreams
of growing more than a car.
He wants to grow
an entire industry
right there in Canada.
I think ten years
from now we have...
ten thousand people
employed in Canada doing...
work that was based on the work
we're doing now
that would be just fantastic.
And I don't think...
there's really anything
better than that.
There's loads more
How Tech Works coming your way.
Hello, and welcome back to
How Tech Works.
I'm Basil Singer.
Now our next story
is about... bats.
As in those tiny,
flying creatures of the night.
Now you may know that a bat's
shape-shifting ears
give it one of the most
sophisticated sonar systems
in the world.
What you may not know, is that
a group of scientists
want to build robot ears
with the very same powers.
Dan Riskin is just
the reporter for the job.
It's a hectic morning
at Shandong University's
international laboratory.
Researchers are trying to solve
a mystery.
The shape of these ears
looks deceptively simple.
They have something that most
other bat species don't have,
and that is that they move
about five times per second.
And while they move
they change their shape.
These are the ears
of a horseshoe bat.
And the mystery physicist
Rolf Mueller and his team
want to crack,
is exactly how they use
those shape-shifting ears
to navigate through the dark
of night at 40km an hour,
never hitting a single object,
and gobbling up
tiny insect prey.
Bats have developed
this amazing skill
to navigate in the dark
just using their ears.
So there is a lot
of intelligence in these ears
that enables it.
So if you can pull
this intelligence out
and understand how they do that,
then you can apply that
for technical purposes.
For Rolf,
that technical purpose
is building a bat-inspired
robot.
The goal is to replicate
the sonar system of the bats.
So we have a little
artificial bat that could go out
in just the same environment
the bat goes into,
and then be able to do
the things that the bat can do.
A robot that mimics
a bat's sonar system
is something every defense
department in the world
would drool over.
If we could come close
to the bats,
it really would be
a quantum leap
in terms of the sensory
capabilities.
Back in the lab,
three high-speed cameras
and an ultra-sonic microphone
are set to catch this bat's
super-fast moves
and high-frequency shouts.
His ears are painted
to help track the movement.
Normally, this move
takes half a second.
But slowed down, you can see
how much the ear moves
in the blink of an eye.
And right here...
****
is the moment
the bat echolocates.
It happens simultaneously
while the ear is moving.
What this means
is that instead of waiting for
soundwaves to come back to them,
the ears are constantly
in motion,
seeking out the sound.
This is a sensing paradigm
that is similar to when
you run into the surf...
on an ocean beach.
You sense the wave
while you're running into them.
We believe the bats
are doing something similar.
They are sensing
the incoming echoes
while their ears
are wiggling around
in the incoming wave field.
This could be part of the reason
that bats are so good
at echolocating.
One thing's for sure,
it's an important clue.
And it's not the only clue
that Rolf discovered.
We have digital models
of about 1000...
ear and nose baffle samples,
digital models,
from about 100
different bat species.
Using a CT scanner,
he's captured hundreds
of bat ears.
and then, with the help
of 3D software,
he's come up with the average
bat ear.
The average bat ear,
despite all the complexity
in the individual species,
is surprisingly simple.
It's just a cone.
If you take a piece of paper,
and you form a cone,
and then cut it
at an oblique angle,
that's the average ear.
Based on this average template,
Rolf created his first prototype
robotic bat ear.
The robotic is about...
shape change.
Here we start from our
average building block.
Now we introduce shape features
from that original.
But instead of being static,
not changing,
we introduce shape change.
So the robot ear allows us
to evaluate
how these features act...
when the ear is also changing
its shape.
It's a baby step
in the right direction.
But there are still more
questions than answers
to what on the surface seems
like a relatively simple system.
The basic principle of biosonar
is really ridiculously simple.
You produce a sound.
They do it the same way
as we produce speech.
There are objects
in the environment.
They reflect the sound.
Echoes of the sound come back.
They're picked up by the ears,
listened to by the ears
just like we listen to sound.
By analyzing these echoes,
the bat knows what to do.
And that's the point
where we're are -
not quite there yet.
And we probably won't
be there for several years.
Which means that a bat's face
is still the most sophisticated
sonar system in the world.
Our last story
will really knock the socks
off anyone
who's ever considered
Mathematics to be boring.
You're about to meet a professor
and inventor
who is taking equations
to a whole new level...
with skateboards!
I bring you
The Skateboard Professor!
When he was
in primary school,
Joe Kniss dreamt be could fly.
I got some crazy idea
that I could have a hover board.
I actually convinced my friends
that I was getting one
for Christmas.
Instead, he settled
for skateboards.
the swerve and the weave.
They're very finicky,
but very dynamic.
And you're only sort of
loosely attached to it.
Skateboards actually
teach many lessons.
- Yeah!
- You're in the moment.
If you don't pay attention
for a second, you hit a rock
and you fall off, and you get
a lesson about paying attention.
So, it definitely is very, very
in the moment.
It's therapeutic for me.
It is my release.
Now, Joe's a professor,
teaching Computer Science...
Maths.
I had this desperate need
to make my job fun.
And Mathematics
is incredibly hard to teach.
I had this real need to connect
the things that I miss...
with the job that I have to do,
and make it make all make sense.
He's not a big fan
of computer mice or joysticks.
Joe's solution?
Hook the skateboard
up to the computer.
And since that would be hard
to roll on pavement,
create an indoor virtual space.
He calls it The Dome.
The dome is a hemisphere
that we project onto.
Well, here it is!
And we can literally
immerse ourselves
in anything you can imagine.
And the dome is perfect.
It wraps around.
It allows your eyes
to comfortably look around
and really get a sense of space
without the need
for three-dimensional glasses
or extra devices.
To get around
in virtual space,
a skateboard is the perfect
set of wheels.
The guts of the board
are simple.
We felt like natural feel.
Real skateboard action
was very important.
So what we've done...
is underneath
this piece of plywood,
we've placed our force sensors
at all four corners.
We've got a battery pack
and Bluetooth transmitter.
And...
we can tell exactly how
you're balanced on the board,
where your weight's shifted.
And on top of the board,
we've mounted our skateboard
tethered in the center
by this spring
that brings us back
to a neutral position.
And if you can ride
a skateboard,
obviously you can fly
through asteroids.
I'm using some gestures here
to control how I fly.
So... we're free-will particle,
and we can fly
through this space at will.
But the skateboard rig
is not the hover board
of Joe's dreams.
It was obvious, like,
this skateboard needs to fly.
We realized we need a robot.
So Joe and his team
came up with the Hex-Dex.
It's kind of a flight simulator
for skateboards.
This is Stuey, Hex-Dex one...
its platform.
We can put whatever we want
on it.
Here's what it does. Matthew,
can you give me a hand?
We can go all six degrees
of freedom.
We can go side to side,
front to back, up and down.
We can tilt this way.
We can tilt this way.
We can even twist.
Those are little infrared LEDs,
this is an infrared camera.
And using some mathematics,
we can tell exactly
what position the deck is in,
given how we see
those LEDs over there.
This also includes
accelerometers, and gyroscopes
to tell us about how
we're moving up...
on top of the deck.
In addition, this middle layer
of the deck you see here,
has force sensors on it
to tell you how much you weigh,
where your balance is,
are you falling?
So that the deck can perhaps
move and catch you.
Or punish you and buck you off.
Everything about this project
has been a demonstration
of how to do demonstration.
They put the Hex-Dex
through all sorts of paces.
But they've never flown it
in the dome before.
Never in here.
No, it's the first time.
The relocated board
is a bit testy.
It better dance this time.
And then, it locked up.
But eventually,
they get it up and running.
I made it squishy this time.
See how much more dynamic it is?
Then it's Joe's turn
to fly
through the asteroid belt.
He wants to play it safe.
It's a little jumpy.
So let's respect our noggins.
Put my helmet on.
Here we are...
in the rings of Saturn.
Basically this thing
is responding to my moves.
And then, as we accelerate,
we get more feedback
from the deck.
Joe's hopeful
that his inventions will take on
a life of their own,
and that people will come up
with original uses.
We're interested in ways
of interacting or...
game play that isn't just,
you know,
shoot the bad guys
or race the car.
We want to go beyond that.
I mean that's so last century.
And as soon as I get
a super conductor
and a power source
strong enough,
I'm going to make
the real one.
You've been watching
How Tech Works.
I'm Basil singer,
and I'll see you next time.