0:00:00.486,0:00:04.546
I love paper, and I love technology,

0:00:04.570,0:00:07.877
and what I do is I make paper interactive.

0:00:07.901,0:00:10.330
And that's what I say when[br]people ask me what I do,

0:00:10.354,0:00:12.229
but it really confuses most people,

0:00:12.253,0:00:14.408
so really, the best way[br]for me to convey it

0:00:14.432,0:00:17.420
is to take the technology and be creative

0:00:17.444,0:00:19.521
and create experiences.

0:00:19.545,0:00:21.773
So I tried to think[br]what I could use for here,

0:00:21.797,0:00:23.893
and a couple of weeks[br]ago I had a crazy idea

0:00:23.917,0:00:27.706
that I wanted to print two DJ decks

0:00:27.730,0:00:30.190
and to try and mix some music.

0:00:30.214,0:00:32.405
And I'm going to try[br]and show that at the end,

0:00:32.429,0:00:35.914
and the suspense will be[br]as much mine if it works.

0:00:35.938,0:00:38.580
And I'm not a DJ, and I'm not a musician,

0:00:38.604,0:00:41.303
so I'm a little bit scared of that.

0:00:41.327,0:00:46.840
So I think, I found the best[br]way to describe my journey

0:00:46.864,0:00:48.490
is just to mention a few little things

0:00:48.514,0:00:50.590
that have happened to me[br]throughout my life.

0:00:50.614,0:00:52.872
There's three particular[br]things that I've done,

0:00:52.896,0:00:54.563
and I'll just describe those first,

0:00:54.587,0:00:56.582
and then talk about some of my work.

0:00:56.606,0:00:59.811
So when I was a kid,[br]I was obsessed with wires,

0:00:59.835,0:01:02.917
and I used to thread them under my carpet

0:01:02.941,0:01:04.510
and thread them behind the walls

0:01:04.535,0:01:06.832
and have little switches[br]and little speakers,

0:01:06.856,0:01:09.548
and I wanted to make[br]my bedroom be interactive

0:01:09.572,0:01:11.078
but kind of all hidden away.

0:01:11.102,0:01:15.119
And I was also really[br]interested in wireless as well.

0:01:15.143,0:01:17.763
So I bought one of those[br]little kits that you could get

0:01:17.787,0:01:19.348
to make a radio transmitter,

0:01:19.372,0:01:22.613
and I got an old book[br]and I carved out the inside

0:01:22.637,0:01:24.483
and I hid it inside there,

0:01:24.507,0:01:26.890
and then I placed it next to my dad

0:01:26.914,0:01:30.968
and snuck back to my bedroom[br]and tuned in on the radio

0:01:30.992,0:01:32.696
so I could eavesdrop.

0:01:32.720,0:01:35.101
I was not at all interested[br]in what he was saying.

0:01:35.125,0:01:36.939
It's more that I just liked the idea

0:01:36.963,0:01:38.453
of an everyday object

0:01:38.477,0:01:39.734
having something inside

0:01:39.758,0:01:43.136
and doing something different.

0:01:43.160,0:01:44.802
Several year later,

0:01:44.826,0:01:48.025
I managed to successfully[br]fail all of my exams

0:01:48.049,0:01:52.750
and didn't really leave school[br]with much to show for at all,

0:01:52.774,0:01:56.308
and my parents, maybe as a reward,

0:01:56.332,0:01:58.168
bought me what turned out to be

0:01:58.192,0:01:59.878
a one-way ticket to Australia,

0:01:59.902,0:02:03.320
and I came back home[br]about four years later.

0:02:03.344,0:02:07.302
I ended up on a farm[br]in the middle of nowhere.

0:02:07.326,0:02:09.750
It was in far western New South Wales.

0:02:09.774,0:02:12.501
And this farm was 120,000 acres.

0:02:12.525,0:02:14.294
There were 22,000 sheep,

0:02:14.318,0:02:16.208
and it was about 40 degrees,

0:02:16.232,0:02:18.862
or 100 or so Fahrenheit.

0:02:18.886,0:02:21.896
And on this farm there[br]was the farmer, his wife,

0:02:21.920,0:02:24.607
and there was the four-year-old daughter.

0:02:24.631,0:02:27.229
And they kind of took me into the farm

0:02:27.253,0:02:30.002
and showed me what it[br]was like to live and work.

0:02:30.026,0:02:32.788
Obviously, one of the most important[br]things was the sheep,

0:02:32.812,0:02:35.725
and so my job was, well,[br]pretty much to do everything,

0:02:35.749,0:02:39.125
but it was about bringing[br]the sheep back to the homestead.

0:02:39.149,0:02:41.116
And we'd do that by building fences,

0:02:41.140,0:02:43.670
using motorbikes and horses,

0:02:43.694,0:02:46.123
and the sheep would make[br]their way all the way back

0:02:46.147,0:02:49.930
to the shearing shed[br]for the different seasons.

0:02:49.954,0:02:51.838
And what I learned was,

0:02:51.862,0:02:53.934
although at the time, like everyone else,

0:02:53.958,0:02:55.578
I thought sheep were pretty stupid

0:02:55.602,0:02:57.286
because they didn't do[br]what we wanted them to do,

0:02:57.310,0:03:00.407
what I realize now, probably[br]only just in the last few weeks

0:03:00.431,0:03:02.438
looking back, is the sheep[br]weren't stupid at all.

0:03:02.462,0:03:04.870
We'd put them in an environment[br]where they didn't want to be,

0:03:04.894,0:03:07.418
and they didn't want to do[br]what we wanted them to do.

0:03:07.442,0:03:09.832
So the challenge was to try and get them

0:03:09.856,0:03:10.854
to do what we wanted them to do

0:03:10.878,0:03:13.945
by listening to the weather,[br]the lay of the land,

0:03:13.969,0:03:16.956
and creating things[br]that would let the sheep flow

0:03:16.980,0:03:19.654
and go where we wanted them to go.

0:03:19.678,0:03:21.261
Another bunch of years later,

0:03:21.285,0:03:23.620
I ended up at Cambridge University

0:03:23.644,0:03:25.802
at the Cavendish Laboratory in the U.K.

0:03:25.826,0:03:27.516
doing a Ph.D. in physics.

0:03:27.540,0:03:32.540
My Ph.D. was to move electrons[br]around, one at a time.

0:03:32.564,0:03:35.196
And I realize — again, it's kind[br]of these realizations

0:03:35.220,0:03:37.395
looking back as to what I did —

0:03:37.419,0:03:40.326
I realize now that it[br]was pretty much the same

0:03:40.350,0:03:42.163
as moving sheep around.

0:03:42.187,0:03:44.437
It really is.

0:03:44.461,0:03:47.293
It's just you do it[br]by changing an environment.

0:03:47.317,0:03:49.344
And that's kind[br]of been a big lesson to me,

0:03:49.368,0:03:50.940
that you can't act on any object.

0:03:50.964,0:03:53.488
You change its environment,[br]and the object will flow.

0:03:53.512,0:03:55.530
So we made it very small,

0:03:55.554,0:03:58.418
so things were about 30[br]nanometers in size;

0:03:58.442,0:04:03.213
making it very cold, so[br]at liquid helium temperatures;

0:04:03.237,0:04:06.273
and changing environment[br]by changing the voltage,

0:04:06.297,0:04:09.737
and the electrons could[br]make flow around a loop

0:04:09.761,0:04:12.374
one at a time, on and off,[br]a little memory node.

0:04:12.398,0:04:14.310
And I wanted to go one step further,

0:04:14.334,0:04:16.493
and I wanted to move one electron on

0:04:16.517,0:04:18.428
and one electron off.

0:04:18.452,0:04:21.290
And I was told that I wouldn't[br]be able to do this,

0:04:21.314,0:04:23.304
which, you know, as we've heard[br]from other people,

0:04:23.328,0:04:25.138
that's the thing that makes you do it.

0:04:25.162,0:04:28.676
And I was determined, and I managed[br]to show that I could do that.

0:04:28.700,0:04:30.415
And a lot of that learning, I think,

0:04:30.439,0:04:31.920
came from being on that farm,

0:04:31.944,0:04:33.945
because when I was working on the farm,

0:04:33.969,0:04:35.973
we'd have to use what was around us,

0:04:35.997,0:04:37.766
we'd have to use the environment,

0:04:37.790,0:04:39.640
and there was no such thing

0:04:39.664,0:04:40.950
as something can't be done,

0:04:40.974,0:04:42.832
because you're in an environment where,

0:04:42.856,0:04:45.045
if you can't do what you need to do,

0:04:45.069,0:04:46.655
you can die, and, you know,

0:04:46.679,0:04:50.385
I had seen that sort of thing happen.

0:04:50.409,0:04:52.995
So now my obsession is printing,

0:04:53.019,0:04:55.812
and I'm really fascinated by the idea

0:04:55.836,0:04:58.756
of using conventional printing processes,

0:04:58.780,0:05:00.981
so the types of print[br]that are used to create

0:05:01.005,0:05:02.339
many of the things around us

0:05:02.363,0:05:06.104
to make paper and card interactive.

0:05:06.128,0:05:08.225
When I spoke to some printers[br]when I started doing this

0:05:08.249,0:05:09.869
and told them what I wanted to do,

0:05:09.893,0:05:12.095
which was to print[br]conductive inks onto paper,

0:05:12.119,0:05:13.691
they told me it couldn't be done,

0:05:13.715,0:05:15.937
again, that kind of favorite thing.

0:05:15.961,0:05:20.643
So I got about 10 credit cards and loans

0:05:20.667,0:05:24.141
and got myself very close[br]to bankruptcy, really,

0:05:24.165,0:05:26.234
and bought myself this[br]huge printing press,

0:05:26.258,0:05:28.358
which I had no idea how to use at all.

0:05:28.382,0:05:29.889
It was about five meters long,

0:05:29.913,0:05:32.147
and I covered myself[br]and the floor with ink

0:05:32.171,0:05:35.435
and made a massive mess,[br]but I learned to print.

0:05:35.459,0:05:37.964
And then I took it back to the printers[br]and showed them what I've done,

0:05:37.988,0:05:40.179
and they were like, "Of[br]course you can do that.

0:05:40.203,0:05:42.383
Why didn't you come here[br]in the first place?"

0:05:42.407,0:05:45.353
That's always the case.

0:05:45.377,0:05:49.140
So what we do is we take[br]conventional printing presses,

0:05:49.164,0:05:51.095
we make conductive inks,

0:05:51.119,0:05:54.588
and run those through a press,[br]and basically

0:05:54.612,0:05:57.940
just letting hundreds[br]of thousands of electrons flow

0:05:57.964,0:05:59.311
through pieces of paper

0:05:59.335,0:06:01.300
so we can make that paper interactive.

0:06:01.324,0:06:02.801
And it's pretty simple, really.

0:06:02.825,0:06:05.664
It's just a collection of things[br]that have been done before,

0:06:05.688,0:06:07.879
but bringing them together[br]in a different way.

0:06:07.903,0:06:10.503
So we have a piece of paper[br]with conductive ink on,

0:06:10.527,0:06:15.116
and then add onto that a small circuit[br]board with a couple of chips,

0:06:15.140,0:06:17.182
one to run some capacitive touch software,

0:06:17.206,0:06:18.826
so we know where we've touched it,

0:06:18.850,0:06:21.364
and the other to run, quite often,

0:06:21.388,0:06:25.327
some wireless software so[br]the piece of paper can connect.

0:06:25.351,0:06:28.734
So I'll just describe a couple[br]of things that we've created.

0:06:28.758,0:06:30.997
There's lots of different[br]things we've created.

0:06:31.021,0:06:33.438
This is one of them, because I love cake.

0:06:33.462,0:06:36.130
And this one, it's a large poster,

0:06:36.154,0:06:38.368
and you touch it and it has[br]a little speaker behind it,

0:06:38.392,0:06:40.606
and the poster talks[br]to you when you touch it

0:06:40.630,0:06:42.297
and asks you a series of questions,

0:06:42.321,0:06:44.311
and it works out your perfect cake.

0:06:44.335,0:06:46.707
But it doesn't tell you[br]the cake there and then.

0:06:46.731,0:06:48.305
It uploads a picture,

0:06:48.329,0:06:50.703
and the reason why it[br]chose that cake for you,

0:06:50.727,0:06:53.926
to our Facebook page and to Twitter.

0:06:53.950,0:06:56.753
So we're trying to create that connection

0:06:56.777,0:06:58.539
between the physical and the digital,

0:06:58.563,0:07:00.577
but have it not looking on a screen,

0:07:00.601,0:07:03.700
and just looking like a regular poster.

0:07:03.724,0:07:08.436
We've worked with a bunch[br]of universities on a project

0:07:08.460,0:07:10.413
looking at interactive newsprint.

0:07:10.437,0:07:12.554
So for example, we've created a newspaper,

0:07:12.578,0:07:13.869
a regular newspaper.

0:07:13.893,0:07:16.854
You can wear a pair of headphones[br]that are connected to it wirelessly,

0:07:16.878,0:07:19.021
and when you touch it,[br]you can hear the music

0:07:19.045,0:07:22.045
that's described on the top,[br]which is something you can't read.

0:07:22.069,0:07:24.211
You can hear a press conference

0:07:24.235,0:07:26.755
as well as reading[br]what the editor has determined

0:07:26.779,0:07:28.303
that press conference was about.

0:07:28.327,0:07:30.440
And you can press a Facebook "like" button

0:07:30.464,0:07:33.119
or you can vote on something as well.

0:07:33.143,0:07:34.358
Something else that we created,

0:07:34.382,0:07:36.622
and this was an idea that I had[br]a couple of years ago,

0:07:36.646,0:07:37.691
and so we've done a project on this.

0:07:37.715,0:07:39.732
It was for funding from the government

0:07:39.756,0:07:43.262
for user-centered design[br]for energy-efficient buildings,

0:07:43.286,0:07:45.296
difficult to say, and something[br]I had no idea what it was

0:07:45.320,0:07:48.080
when I went into the workshop,[br]but quickly learned.

0:07:48.104,0:07:50.243
And we wanted to try and encourage people

0:07:50.267,0:07:52.091
to use energy better.

0:07:52.115,0:07:55.613
And I really liked the idea that,[br]instead of looking at dials

0:07:55.637,0:07:58.159
and reading things to say --

0:07:58.183,0:08:00.101
looking at your energy usage,

0:08:00.125,0:08:03.355
I wanted to create a poster[br]that was wirelessly connected

0:08:03.379,0:08:04.999
and had color-changing inks on it,

0:08:05.023,0:08:08.575
and so if your energy usage[br]was trending better,

0:08:08.599,0:08:10.902
than the leaves would appear[br]and the rabbits would appear

0:08:10.926,0:08:12.288
and all would be good.

0:08:12.312,0:08:14.312
And if it wasn't, then there'd be graffiti

0:08:14.336,0:08:16.241
and the leaves would fall off the trees.

0:08:16.265,0:08:18.731
So it was trying to make[br]you look after something

0:08:18.755,0:08:20.856
in your immediate environment,

0:08:20.880,0:08:23.345
which you don't want to see[br]not looking so good,

0:08:23.369,0:08:25.472
rather than expecting people to do things

0:08:25.496,0:08:27.783
in the local environment[br]because of the effect

0:08:27.807,0:08:29.262
that it has a long way off.

0:08:29.286,0:08:31.620
And I think, kind of like going[br]back to the farm,

0:08:31.644,0:08:34.648
it's about how to let people[br]do what you want them to do

0:08:34.672,0:08:39.065
rather than making people do[br]what you want them to do.

0:08:39.089,0:08:40.525
Okay.

0:08:40.549,0:08:43.347
So this is the bit I'm really scared of.

0:08:43.371,0:08:45.586
So a couple of things I've created are,

0:08:45.610,0:08:47.003
there's a poster over here

0:08:47.027,0:08:49.434
that you can play drums on.

0:08:49.458,0:08:54.181
And I am not a musician. It seemed[br]like a good idea at the time.

0:08:54.205,0:08:56.953
If anyone wants to try[br]and play drums, then they can.

0:08:56.977,0:08:58.597
I'll just describe how this works.

0:08:58.621,0:09:02.591
This poster is wirelessly[br]connected to my cell phone,

0:09:02.615,0:09:05.467
and when you touch it,[br]it connects to the app.

0:09:05.491,0:09:12.157
(Drums)

0:09:13.778,0:09:15.598
And it has really good response time.

0:09:15.622,0:09:19.828
It's using Bluetooth 4, so[br]it's pretty instantaneous.

0:09:20.322,0:09:22.880
Okay. Thanks.

0:09:22.904,0:09:26.620
(Applause)

0:09:27.168,0:09:28.930
And there's a couple of other things.

0:09:28.954,0:09:31.462
So this one is like a sound board,

0:09:31.486,0:09:36.072
so you can touch it, and I just[br]love these horrible noises.

0:09:36.096,0:09:40.116
(Sirens, explosions, breaking glass)

0:09:43.876,0:09:46.661
Okay, and this is a D.J. turntable.

0:09:46.685,0:09:49.118
So it's wirelessly linked to my iPad,

0:09:49.142,0:09:53.755
and this is a software[br]that's running on the iPad.

0:09:53.779,0:09:57.379
Oh, yes. I just love doing that.

0:09:57.403,0:10:00.403
I'm not a D.J., though, but I just[br]always wanted to do that.

0:10:00.427,0:10:02.804
(Scratching)

0:10:02.828,0:10:07.697
So I have a crossfader,[br]and I have the two decks.

0:10:07.721,0:10:10.052
So I've made some new technology,

0:10:10.076,0:10:11.648
and I love things being creative,

0:10:11.672,0:10:13.577
and I love working with creative people.

0:10:13.601,0:10:16.249
So my 15-year-old niece, she's amazing,

0:10:16.273,0:10:17.269
and she's called Charlotte,

0:10:17.293,0:10:19.455
and I asked her to record something,

0:10:19.479,0:10:21.384
and I worked with a friend called Elliot

0:10:21.408,0:10:22.901
to put some beats together.

0:10:22.925,0:10:24.961
So this is my niece, Charlotte.

0:10:24.985,0:10:35.530
(Music)

0:10:58.273,0:11:00.332
Yay!

0:11:00.356,0:11:09.398
(Applause)

0:11:09.422,0:11:11.470
So that's pretty much what I do.

0:11:11.494,0:11:13.126
I just love bringing technology together,

0:11:13.150,0:11:15.067
having a lot of fun, being creative.

0:11:15.091,0:11:16.815
But it's not about the technology.

0:11:16.839,0:11:19.679
It's just about, I want to create[br]some great experiences.

0:11:19.703,0:11:21.079
So thank you very much.

0:11:21.103,0:11:26.119
(Applause)