A novel idea for cleaning up oil spills
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0:01 - 0:02In the ocean,
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0:02 - 0:03what is the common point
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0:03 - 0:09between oil, plastic and radioactivity?
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0:09 - 0:14On the top line, this is the BP oil spill:
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0:14 - 0:16billions of barrels of oil gushing
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0:16 - 0:18in the Gulf of Mexico.
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0:18 - 0:20The middle line is millions of tons of
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0:20 - 0:22plastic debris accumulating in our ocean,
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0:22 - 0:25and the third line is radioactive material
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0:25 - 0:27leaking from Fukushima nuclear power plant
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0:27 - 0:29in the Pacific Ocean.
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0:29 - 0:33Well, the three big problems have in common
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0:33 - 0:36that they are man-made problems
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0:36 - 0:38but they are controlled by natural forces.
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0:38 - 0:43This should make us feel very, terribly awful
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0:43 - 0:45as much as it should make us feel hopeful,
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0:45 - 0:48because if we have the power to create these problems,
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0:48 - 0:49we may as well have the power
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0:49 - 0:51to remediate these problems.
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0:51 - 0:53But what about natural forces?
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0:53 - 0:56Well, that's exactly what I want to talk about today,
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0:56 - 0:58is how we can use these natural forces
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0:58 - 1:03to remediate these man-made problems.
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1:03 - 1:04When the BP oil spill happened,
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1:04 - 1:07I was working at MIT, and I was in charge
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1:07 - 1:10of developing an oil spill-cleaning technology.
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1:10 - 1:13And I had a chance to go in the Gulf of Mexico
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1:13 - 1:15and meet some fishermen and see
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1:15 - 1:17the terrible conditions in which they were working.
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1:17 - 1:20More than 700 of these boats,
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1:20 - 1:23which are fishermen boats repurposed
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1:23 - 1:25with oil absorbent in white
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1:25 - 1:27and oil containment in orange, were used,
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1:27 - 1:31but they only collected three percent of the oil on the surface,
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1:31 - 1:32and the health of the cleaners
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1:32 - 1:34were very deeply affected.
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1:34 - 1:38I was working on a very interesting technology
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1:38 - 1:41at MIT, but it was a very long-term view
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1:41 - 1:42of how to develop technology,
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1:42 - 1:45and it was going to be a very expensive technology,
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1:45 - 1:47and also it would be patented.
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1:47 - 1:50So I wanted to develop something that we could
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1:50 - 1:53develop very fast, that would be cheap,
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1:53 - 1:55and that would be open-source, so, because
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1:55 - 1:58oil spills are not only happening in the Gulf of Mexico,
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1:58 - 2:00and that would be using renewable energy.
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2:00 - 2:03So I quit my dream job,
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2:03 - 2:04and I moved to New Orleans,
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2:04 - 2:07and I kept on studying how the oil spill was happening.
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2:07 - 2:09Currently, what they were doing is
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2:09 - 2:11that they were using these small fishing boats,
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2:11 - 2:14and they were cleaning clean lines in an ocean of dirt.
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2:14 - 2:18If you're using the exact same amount of surface
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2:18 - 2:20of oil absorbent, but you're just paying attention
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2:20 - 2:22to natural patterns, and if you're going up the winds,
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2:22 - 2:24you can collect a lot more material.
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2:24 - 2:26If you're multiplying the rig,
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2:26 - 2:29so you multiply how many layers of absorbent
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2:29 - 2:31you're using, you can collect a lot more.
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2:31 - 2:33But it's extremely difficult to move oil absorbent
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2:33 - 2:37against the winds, the surface currents and the waves.
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2:37 - 2:38These are enormous forces.
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2:38 - 2:41So the very simple idea was to use the ancient technique
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2:41 - 2:44of sailing and tacking of the wind
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2:44 - 2:46to capture or intercept the oil
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2:46 - 2:48that is drifting down the wind.
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2:48 - 2:51So this didn't require any invention.
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2:51 - 2:53We just took a simple sailing boat
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2:53 - 2:55and we tried to pull something long and heavy,
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2:55 - 2:57but as we tacked back and forth,
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2:57 - 2:59what we lost was two things:
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2:59 - 3:02we were losing pulling power and direction.
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3:02 - 3:06And so, I thought, what about if we just take the rudder
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3:06 - 3:07from the back of the boat to the front,
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3:07 - 3:09would we have better control?
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3:09 - 3:11So I built this small sailing robot
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3:11 - 3:13with the rudder at the front,
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3:13 - 3:15and I was trying to pull something very long and heavy,
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3:15 - 3:18so that's a four-meter-long object just to pull,
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3:18 - 3:21and I was surprised with just a 14-centimeter rudder,
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3:21 - 3:24I could control four meters of absorbent.
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3:24 - 3:27Then I was so happy that I kept playing with the robot,
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3:27 - 3:30and so you see the robot has
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3:30 - 3:32a front rudder here.
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3:32 - 3:33Normally it's at the back.
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3:33 - 3:36And, playing, I realized that the maneuverability
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3:36 - 3:38of this was really amazing,
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3:38 - 3:40and I could avoid an obstacle at the very last second,
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3:40 - 3:41more maneuverable than a normal boat.
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3:41 - 3:44Then I started publishing online, and
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3:44 - 3:47some friends from Korea, they started being
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3:47 - 3:49interested in this, and we made a boat
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3:49 - 3:51which has a front rudder and a back rudder,
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3:51 - 3:53so we started interacting with this,
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3:53 - 3:55and it was slightly better,
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3:55 - 3:57although it was very small and a bit off balance,
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3:57 - 3:58but then we thought,
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3:58 - 4:00what if we have more than two points of control?
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4:00 - 4:02What if the entire boat becomes a point of control?
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4:02 - 4:04What if the entire boat changes shape?
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4:04 - 4:06So — (Applause)
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4:06 - 4:08Thank you very much. (Applause)
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4:08 - 4:11And so that's the beginning of Protei,
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4:11 - 4:12and that's the first boat in history
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4:12 - 4:14that completely changed the shape of the hull
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4:14 - 4:15in order to control it,
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4:15 - 4:18and the properties of sailing that we get
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4:18 - 4:21are very superior compared to a normal boat.
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4:21 - 4:24When we're turning, we have the feeling of surfing,
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4:24 - 4:28and the way it's going up-wind, it's very efficient.
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4:28 - 4:30This is low speed, low wind speed,
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4:30 - 4:32and the maneuverability is very increased,
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4:32 - 4:35and here I'm going to do a small jibe,
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4:35 - 4:37and look at the position of the sail.
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4:37 - 4:40What's happening is that, because the boat changes shape,
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4:40 - 4:43the position of the front sail and the main sail
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4:43 - 4:44are different to the wind.
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4:44 - 4:46We're catching wind from both sides.
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4:46 - 4:48And this is exactly what we're looking [for]
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4:48 - 4:50if we want to pull something long and heavy.
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4:50 - 4:52We don't want to lose pulling power, nor direction.
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4:52 - 4:55So, I wanted to know if this was possible
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4:55 - 4:57to put this at an industrial level,
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4:57 - 4:59so we made a large boat with a large sail,
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4:59 - 5:02and with a very light hull, inflatable,
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5:02 - 5:03very small footprint,
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5:03 - 5:06so we have a very big size and power ratio.
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5:06 - 5:09After this, we wanted to see if we could
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5:09 - 5:12implement this and automate the system,
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5:12 - 5:13so we used the same system but we added
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5:13 - 5:16a structure to it so we could activate the machine.
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5:16 - 5:19So, we used the same bladder-inflated system,
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5:19 - 5:21and we took it for testing.
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5:21 - 5:23So this is happening in the Netherlands.
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5:23 - 5:26We tried in the water without any skin or ballast
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5:26 - 5:28just to see how it works.
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5:28 - 5:31And then we mounted a camera for controlling it,
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5:31 - 5:34but quickly we saw that we would need
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5:34 - 5:36a lot more weight at the bottom,
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5:36 - 5:38so we had to take it back to the lab,
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5:38 - 5:40and then we built a skin around it,
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5:40 - 5:43we put batteries, remote controllers, and then
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5:43 - 5:44we put it in the water and then we
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5:44 - 5:48let it go in the water and see how well it would work,
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5:48 - 5:51so let some rope out, and hope it's going to work,
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5:51 - 5:54and it worked okay, but we still have a long way.
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5:54 - 5:57Our small prototype has given us good insight
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5:57 - 5:58that it's working very well,
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5:58 - 6:01but we still need to work a lot more on this.
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6:01 - 6:04So what we are doing is an accelerated evolution
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6:04 - 6:06of sailing technology.
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6:06 - 6:08We went from a back rudder to a front rudder
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6:08 - 6:10to two rudders to multiple rudders
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6:10 - 6:12to the whole boat changing shape,
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6:12 - 6:13and the more we are moving forward,
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6:13 - 6:19and the more the design looks simple and cute. (Laughter)
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6:19 - 6:22But I wanted to show you a fish because --
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6:22 - 6:25In fact, it's very different from a fish.
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6:25 - 6:29A fish will move because -- by changing like this,
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6:29 - 6:32but our boat is propelled by the wind still,
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6:32 - 6:35and the hull controls the trajectory.
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6:35 - 6:38So I brought to you for the first time on the TED stage
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6:38 - 6:41Protei Number Eight. It's not the last one,
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6:41 - 6:43but it's a good one for making demos.
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6:43 - 6:45So the first thing as I show you in the video is
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6:45 - 6:49that we may be able to control the trajectory
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6:49 - 6:51of a sailing boat better,
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6:51 - 6:54or we may be able to never be in irons,
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6:54 - 6:55so never facing the wind,
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6:55 - 6:57we always can catch the wind from both sides.
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6:57 - 7:00But new properties of a sailing boat.
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7:00 - 7:04So if you're looking at the boat from this side,
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7:04 - 7:06this might remind you of an airplane profile.
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7:06 - 7:09An airplane, when you're moving in this direction,
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7:09 - 7:11starts to lift, and that's how it takes off.
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7:11 - 7:13Now, if you're taking the same system,
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7:13 - 7:16and you're putting vertical, you're bending,
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7:16 - 7:18and if you're moving this way forward,
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7:18 - 7:21your instinct will tell you that you might go this way,
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7:21 - 7:22but if you're moving fast enough,
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7:22 - 7:24you might create what we call lateral lift,
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7:24 - 7:27so we could get further or closer to the wind.
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7:27 - 7:30Other property is this:
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7:30 - 7:34A normal sailing boat has a centerboard here
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7:34 - 7:36and a rudder at the back,
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7:36 - 7:38and these two things are what creates most
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7:38 - 7:41resistance and turbulence behind the boat,
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7:41 - 7:43but because this doesn't have either
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7:43 - 7:45a centerboard or a rudder,
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7:45 - 7:47we hope that if we keep working on this hull design
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7:47 - 7:50we can improve and have less resistance.
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7:50 - 7:52The other thing is, most boats, when they reach
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7:52 - 7:54a certain speed, and they are going on waves,
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7:54 - 7:57they start to hit and slap on the surface of the water,
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7:57 - 8:00and a lot of the energy moving forward is lost.
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8:00 - 8:02But if we're going with the flow,
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8:02 - 8:04if we pay attention to natural patterns
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8:04 - 8:06instead of trying to be strong,
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8:06 - 8:08but if you're going with the flow, we may absorb
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8:08 - 8:12a lot of environmental noises, so the wave energy,
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8:12 - 8:15to actually save some energy to move forward.
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8:15 - 8:19So we may have developed the technology
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8:19 - 8:22which is very efficient for pulling something long and heavy,
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8:22 - 8:26but the idea is, what is the purpose of technology
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8:26 - 8:28if it doesn't reach the right hands?
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8:28 - 8:31Normal technology or innovation happens like this:
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8:31 - 8:33Somebody has an interesting idea,
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8:33 - 8:35some other scientist or engineer,
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8:35 - 8:38they take it to the next level, they make a theory about it
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8:38 - 8:39and maybe they patent it,
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8:39 - 8:41and then some industry will make a contract
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8:41 - 8:45of exclusivity to manufacture and sell it,
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8:45 - 8:47and then, eventually, a buyer will buy it,
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8:47 - 8:49and we hope that they are going to use [it] for a good purpose.
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8:49 - 8:53What we really want is that this innovation happens
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8:53 - 8:55continuously. The inventor and engineers
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8:55 - 8:57and also the manufacturers and everybody
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8:57 - 9:00works at the same time, but this would be sterile
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9:00 - 9:03if this was happening in a parallel and uncrossed process.
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9:03 - 9:05What you really want is not a sequential,
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9:05 - 9:07not parallel development.
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9:07 - 9:08You want to have a network of innovation.
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9:08 - 9:10You want everybody, like we're doing now,
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9:10 - 9:13to work at the same time, and that can only happen
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9:13 - 9:17if these people all together decide to share the information,
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9:17 - 9:20and that's exactly what open hardware is about.
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9:20 - 9:23It's to replace competition by collaboration.
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9:23 - 9:28It's to transform any new product into a new market.
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9:28 - 9:30So what is open hardware?
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9:30 - 9:32Essentially, open hardware is a license.
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9:32 - 9:34It's just an intellectual property setup.
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9:34 - 9:37It means that everybody is free to use,
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9:37 - 9:40modify and distribute, and in exchange
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9:40 - 9:41we only ask for two things:
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9:41 - 9:43The name is credited -- the name of the project --
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9:43 - 9:46and also the people who make improvement,
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9:46 - 9:48they share back with the community.
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9:48 - 9:49So it's a very simple condition.
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9:49 - 9:53And I started this project alone in a garage in New Orleans,
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9:53 - 9:55but quickly after I wanted to publish and share
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9:55 - 9:57this information, so I made a Kickstarter,
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9:57 - 9:59which is a crowd-fundraising platform,
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9:59 - 10:02and in about one month we fundraised 30,000 dollars.
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10:02 - 10:05With this money, I hired a team of young engineers
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10:05 - 10:07from all over the world, and we rented a factory
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10:07 - 10:09in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
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10:09 - 10:12We were peer-learning, we were engineering,
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10:12 - 10:15we were making things, prototyping,
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10:15 - 10:17but most importantly we were trying our prototypes
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10:17 - 10:19in the water as often as possible,
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10:19 - 10:22to fail as quickly as possible, to learn from.
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10:22 - 10:25This is a proud member of Protei from Korea,
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10:25 - 10:27and on the right side, this is a multiple-masts
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10:27 - 10:29design proposed by a team in Mexico.
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10:29 - 10:32This idea really appealed to Gabriella Levine
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10:32 - 10:35in New York, and so she decided to prototype
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10:35 - 10:37this idea that she saw, and she documented
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10:37 - 10:39every step of the process,
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10:39 - 10:41and she published it on Instructables,
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10:41 - 10:43which is a website for sharing inventions.
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10:43 - 10:45Less than one week after,
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10:45 - 10:49this is a team in Eindhoven, it's a school of engineering.
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10:49 - 10:52They made it, but they eventually published
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10:52 - 10:53a simplified design.
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10:53 - 10:55They also made it into an Instructable,
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10:55 - 10:56and in less than one week, they had
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10:56 - 10:59almost 10,000 views, and they got many new friends.
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10:59 - 11:02We're working on also simpler technology,
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11:02 - 11:04not that complex, with younger people
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11:04 - 11:06and also older people,
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11:06 - 11:09like this dinosaur is from Mexico. (Laughter)
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11:09 - 11:12So Protei is now an international network
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11:12 - 11:14of innovation for selling technology
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11:14 - 11:16using this shape-shifting hull.
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11:16 - 11:20And what puts us together is that we have a common,
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11:20 - 11:23at least, global understanding
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11:23 - 11:26of what the word "business" is, or what it should be.
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11:26 - 11:28This is how most work today.
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11:28 - 11:31Business as usual is saying, what's most important
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11:31 - 11:33is to make lots of profit, and you'll be using
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11:33 - 11:36technology for that, and people will be your work force,
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11:36 - 11:37instrumentalized,
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11:37 - 11:40and environment is usually the last priority.
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11:40 - 11:44It will be just a way to, say, greenwash your audience
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11:44 - 11:46and, say, increase your price tag.
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11:46 - 11:48What we're trying to do, or what we believe,
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11:48 - 11:51because this is how we believe the world really works,
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11:51 - 11:53is that without the environment you have nothing.
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11:53 - 11:56We have the people so we need to protect each other, yes,
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11:56 - 11:57and we're a technology company,
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11:57 - 12:03and profit is necessary to make this happen. (Applause)
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12:03 - 12:06Thank you very much. (Applause)
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12:06 - 12:10If we have the courage to understand or accept
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12:10 - 12:12that this actually how the world really works,
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12:12 - 12:15and this is the order of priority that we need to choose,
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12:15 - 12:17then it makes obvious why we need
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12:17 - 12:20to choose open hardware for developing environmental
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12:20 - 12:22technology, because we need to share information.
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12:22 - 12:24What's next for us?
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12:24 - 12:26So, this small machine that you've seen,
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12:26 - 12:28we're hoping to make small toys like
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12:28 - 12:32one-meter remote control Protei that you can upgrade --
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12:32 - 12:35so replace the remote control parts by Androids,
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12:35 - 12:39so the mobile phone, and Arduino micro-controller,
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12:39 - 12:40so you could be controlling this
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12:40 - 12:41from your mobile phone, your tablet.
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12:41 - 12:45Then what we want to do is create six-meter versions
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12:45 - 12:47so we can test the maximum performance of these machines,
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12:47 - 12:49so we can go at very, very high speed.
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12:49 - 12:50So imagine yourself.
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12:50 - 12:53You are laying down in a flexible torpedo,
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12:53 - 12:55sailing at high speed,
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12:55 - 12:57controlling the shape of the hull with your legs
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12:57 - 12:59and controlling the sail with your arms.
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12:59 - 13:04So that's what we're looking for developing. (Applause)
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13:04 - 13:06And we replace the human being --
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13:06 - 13:08to go, for example, for measuring radioactivity,
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13:08 - 13:10you don't want a human to be sailing those robots --
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13:10 - 13:13with batteries, motors, micro-controllers and sensors.
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13:13 - 13:17This is what our teammates, we dream of at night.
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13:17 - 13:20We hope that we can sometime clean up oil spills,
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13:20 - 13:24or we can gather or collect plastic in the ocean,
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13:24 - 13:27or we can have swarms of our machines
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13:27 - 13:31controlled by multi-player video game engines
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13:31 - 13:33to control many of these machines,
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13:33 - 13:34to monitor coral reefs
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13:34 - 13:37or to monitor fisheries.
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13:37 - 13:41Our hope is that we can use open hardware technology
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13:41 - 13:45to better understand and protect our oceans.
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13:45 - 13:48Thank you very much. (Applause)
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13:48 - 14:07(Applause)
- Title:
- A novel idea for cleaning up oil spills
- Speaker:
- Cesar Harada
- Description:
-
When TED Senior Fellow Cesar Harada heard about the devastating effects of the BP Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, he quit his dream job and moved to New Orleans to develop a more efficient way to soak up the oil. He designed a highly maneuverable, flexible boat capable of cleaning large tracts quickly. But rather than turn a profit, he has opted to open-source the design.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 14:30
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for A novel idea for cleaning up oil spills | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for A novel idea for cleaning up oil spills | ||
Thu-Huong Ha accepted English subtitles for A novel idea for cleaning up oil spills | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for A novel idea for cleaning up oil spills | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for A novel idea for cleaning up oil spills | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for A novel idea for cleaning up oil spills | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for A novel idea for cleaning up oil spills | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for A novel idea for cleaning up oil spills |