0:00:20.486,0:00:22.033 (Forest noises) 0:00:22.033,0:00:24.765 In the summer of 2011,[br]as a tourist, 0:00:25.674,0:00:29.415 I visited the rainforests of Borneo[br]for the very first time, 0:00:29.958,0:00:32.081 and as you might imagine, 0:00:32.081,0:00:36.212 it was the overwhelming sounds[br]of the forest that struck me the most. 0:00:36.961,0:00:39.521 There's this constant cacophony of noise. 0:00:39.811,0:00:42.395 Some things actually do stick out. 0:00:42.395,0:00:46.722 For example, this here is a big bird,[br]a rhinoceros hornbill. 0:00:47.944,0:00:50.836 This buzzing is a cicada. 0:00:52.158,0:00:56.488 (Forest sounds) 0:01:02.875,0:01:05.047 This is a family of gibbons. 0:01:05.047,0:01:08.634 It's actually singing to each other[br]over a great distance. 0:01:09.462,0:01:13.334 The place where this was recorded[br]was in fact a gibbon reserve, 0:01:13.334,0:01:15.371 which is why you can hear so many of them, 0:01:15.372,0:01:18.086 but in fact the most important noise 0:01:18.086,0:01:20.485 that was coming out[br]of the forest that time 0:01:20.485,0:01:22.258 was one that I didn't notice, 0:01:22.258,0:01:25.087 and in fact nobody there[br]had actually noticed it. 0:01:25.840,0:01:27.846 So, as I said, this was a gibbon reserve. 0:01:27.846,0:01:31.681 They spend most of their time[br]rehabilitating gibbons, 0:01:31.681,0:01:35.357 these cute apes that you also just heard[br]a few minutes ago. 0:01:36.765,0:01:39.256 But in fact, what I didn't realize[br]when I got there, 0:01:39.256,0:01:41.684 was that they also have[br]to spend a lot of their time 0:01:41.684,0:01:45.151 protecting their area from illegal logging[br]that takes place on the side. 0:01:45.151,0:01:47.268 And so if we take the sound of the forest 0:01:47.268,0:01:50.336 and we actually turn down the gibbons,[br]the insects, and the rest, 0:01:50.336,0:01:51.756 as you're hearing now, 0:01:51.756,0:01:55.292 in the background, the entire time,[br]in recordings you heard, 0:01:55.292,0:01:58.481 was the sound of a chainsaw[br]at great distance. 0:02:00.213,0:02:03.691 And in fact, as I said,[br]these guards were there - 0:02:03.691,0:02:08.528 They had three full-time guards[br]who were posted around this sanctuary 0:02:08.528,0:02:11.959 whose job was in fact[br]to guard against illegal logging, 0:02:13.115,0:02:16.899 and one day, we went walking,[br]again as tourists, out into the forest, 0:02:16.899,0:02:18.685 and within five minutes' walk, 0:02:18.685,0:02:22.331 we stumbled upon somebody[br]who was just sawing a tree down, 0:02:22.331,0:02:26.201 five minutes' walk, a few hundred meters[br]from the ranger station. 0:02:26.564,0:02:28.824 They hadn't been able[br]to hear the chainsaws, 0:02:28.824,0:02:31.762 because as you heard,[br]the forest is very, very loud. 0:02:33.407,0:02:38.047 It struck me as quite unacceptable[br]that in this modern time, 0:02:38.047,0:02:42.102 just a few hundred meters away[br]from a ranger station in a sanctuary, 0:02:42.620,0:02:46.723 that in fact nobody could hear it when[br]someone who has a chainsaw gets fired up. 0:02:46.723,0:02:50.139 It sounds impossible,[br]but in fact, it was quite true. 0:02:50.139,0:02:53.023 However, I did want to set out[br]and try and find a way 0:02:53.023,0:02:55.936 to work on helping them, because again,[br]they were there,[br] 0:02:55.936,0:02:57.878 they wanted to protect the reserve. 0:02:57.878,0:03:01.020 It was just a matter of being able[br]to hear the chainsaws. 0:03:01.020,0:03:02.739 So how do we stop illegal logging? 0:03:02.739,0:03:06.234 It's really tempting, as an engineer,[br]always to come up with a high-tech, 0:03:06.234,0:03:08.063 super-crazy high-tech solution - 0:03:08.063,0:03:12.319 I'm from San Francisco,[br]that's what we like to do there - 0:03:12.319,0:03:14.489 but in fact, you're in the rainforest. 0:03:14.489,0:03:16.912 It has to be simple,[br]it has to be scalable, 0:03:16.912,0:03:20.250 and so what we also noticed[br]while were there was that 0:03:20.250,0:03:23.198 everything we needed was already there. 0:03:23.640,0:03:26.980 We could build a system[br]that would allow us to stop this 0:03:26.980,0:03:29.154 using what's already there. 0:03:31.954,0:03:34.902 So, in fact, who was there?[br]What was already in the forest? 0:03:34.902,0:03:35.940 Well, we had people. 0:03:35.940,0:03:39.122 We had this group there that was[br]dedicated, three full-time guards, 0:03:39.122,0:03:40.947 dedicated to go and stop it, 0:03:40.947,0:03:44.474 but they just needed to know[br]what was happening out in the forest. 0:03:45.041,0:03:47.502 In fact, the real surprise,[br]this is the big one, 0:03:47.502,0:03:49.850 was that there was connectivity[br]out in the forest. 0:03:49.850,0:03:52.827 There was cell phone service[br]way out in the middle of nowhere. 0:03:52.827,0:03:55.603 We're talking hundreds of kilometers[br]from the nearest road, 0:03:55.603,0:03:59.239 there's certainly no electricity,[br]but they had very good cell phone service, 0:03:59.239,0:04:01.885 these people in the towns[br]were on Facebook all the time, 0:04:01.885,0:04:03.795 they're surfing the web on their phones, 0:04:03.795,0:04:06.389 and in fact they just[br]charge their phones once a day. 0:04:06.389,0:04:09.489 And this sort of got me thinking[br]that in fact it would be possible 0:04:09.489,0:04:11.372 to use the sounds of the forest, 0:04:11.372,0:04:13.857 pick up the sounds[br]of chainsaws programmatically, 0:04:13.857,0:04:15.521 because people can't hear them, 0:04:15.521,0:04:17.106 and send an alert. 0:04:17.106,0:04:19.676 But you have to have a device[br]to go up in the trees. 0:04:19.676,0:04:23.385 So if we can use some device[br]to listen to the sounds of the forest, 0:04:23.385,0:04:25.707 connect to the cell phone[br]network that's there, 0:04:25.707,0:04:27.805 and send an alert to people on the ground, 0:04:27.805,0:04:31.071 perhaps we could have a solution[br]to this issue for them. 0:04:31.896,0:04:34.706 But let's take a moment[br]to talk about saving the rainforest, 0:04:34.706,0:04:38.586 because it's something that we've[br]definitely all heard about forever. 0:04:38.586,0:04:41.498 People in my generation[br]have heard about saving the rainforest 0:04:41.498,0:04:42.919 since we were kids, 0:04:42.919,0:04:45.853 and it seems that the message[br]has never changed: 0:04:45.853,0:04:48.298 We've got to save the rainforest,[br]it's super urgent, 0:04:48.298,0:04:50.954 this many football fields[br]have been destroyed yesterday. 0:04:50.954,0:04:54.243 and yet here we are today,[br]about half of the rainforest remains, 0:04:54.243,0:04:57.739 and we have potentially more urgent[br]problems like climate change. 0:04:58.293,0:05:03.820 But in fact, this is the little-known fact[br]that I didn't realize at the time: 0:05:03.820,0:05:06.878 Deforestation accounts[br]for more greenhouse gas 0:05:06.878,0:05:11.141 than all of the world's planes,[br]trains, cars, trucks and ships combined. 0:05:11.141,0:05:13.993 It's the second highest contributor[br]to climate change. 0:05:14.331,0:05:16.123 I was pretty amazed by that. 0:05:16.123,0:05:18.428 Also, according to Interpol, 0:05:18.428,0:05:22.169 as much as 90 percent of the logging[br]that takes place in the rainforest 0:05:22.169,0:05:25.842 is illegal logging,[br]like the illegal logging that we saw. 0:05:26.136,0:05:29.597 So if we can help people in the forest[br]enforce the rules that are there, 0:05:29.607,0:05:33.161 in fact, there's a mandate to do so,[br]because it is illegal, 0:05:33.161,0:05:36.737 then in fact we could eat heavily[br]into this 17 percent 0:05:36.737,0:05:39.990 and potentially have a major impact[br]in the short term. 0:05:39.990,0:05:43.699 It might just be the cheapest,[br]fastest way to fight climate change - 0:05:44.561,0:05:47.293 would be to stop illegal logging. 0:05:48.164,0:05:50.188 And so here's the system that we imagine. 0:05:50.188,0:05:51.407 It looks super high tech. 0:05:51.407,0:05:54.070 The moment a sound of a chainsaw[br]is heard in the forest, 0:05:54.070,0:05:56.242 the device picks up the sound[br]of the chainsaw, 0:05:56.242,0:05:59.832 it sends an alert through the standard[br]GSM network that's already there 0:05:59.832,0:06:01.705 to a ranger in the field 0:06:01.705,0:06:05.056 who can in fact show up in real time[br]and stop the logging. 0:06:05.056,0:06:08.872 It's no more about going out[br]and finding a tree that's been cut. 0:06:08.872,0:06:11.028 It's not about seeing[br]a tree from a satellite 0:06:11.028,0:06:12.645 in an area that's been clear cut, 0:06:12.645,0:06:14.584 it's about real-time intervention. 0:06:14.584,0:06:18.096 So I said it was the cheapest[br]and fastest way to do it, 0:06:18.096,0:06:21.047 but in fact, actually, as you saw,[br]they weren't able to do it, 0:06:21.047,0:06:22.738 so it may not be so cheap and fast. 0:06:22.738,0:06:25.512 But if the devices in the trees[br]were actually cell phones, 0:06:25.512,0:06:27.192 it could be pretty cheap. 0:06:27.192,0:06:31.398 Cell phones are thrown away[br]by the hundreds of millions every year, 0:06:31.398,0:06:33.808 hundreds of millions in the U.S. alone, 0:06:33.808,0:06:36.858 not counting the rest of the world,[br]which of course we should do, 0:06:36.858,0:06:39.404 but in fact, cell phones are great. 0:06:39.404,0:06:41.333 They're full of sensors. 0:06:41.333,0:06:43.432 They can listen[br]to the sounds of the forest. 0:06:43.432,0:06:46.837 And because you guys probably[br]each have hundreds of apps on your phones 0:06:46.837,0:06:49.522 so you know which is the most popular[br]platform out there. 0:06:49.522,0:06:50.902 We do have to protect them. 0:06:50.902,0:06:53.193 We have to put them in this box[br]that you see here, 0:06:53.193,0:06:54.650 and we do have to power them. 0:06:54.650,0:06:57.373 Powering them is one of the greater[br]engineering challenges 0:06:57.373,0:06:58.749 that we had to deal with, 0:06:58.749,0:07:01.165 because powering a cell phone[br]under a tree canopy, 0:07:01.165,0:07:03.272 any sort of solar power[br]under a tree canopy, 0:07:03.272,0:07:05.840 was an as-yet-unsolved problem, 0:07:05.840,0:07:08.819 and that's this unique[br]solar panel design that you see here, 0:07:08.819,0:07:13.860 which in fact is built also from recycled[br]byproducts of an industrial process. 0:07:14.555,0:07:16.853 These are strips that are cut down. 0:07:17.520,0:07:20.345 So this is me putting it all together 0:07:20.345,0:07:23.503 in my parents' garage, actually. 0:07:23.503,0:07:26.459 Thanks very much to them[br]for allowing me to do that. 0:07:28.033,0:07:31.720 As you can see,[br]this is a device up in a tree. 0:07:33.982,0:07:36.493 And this is a device on me. 0:07:40.997,0:07:43.705 But of course you have to climb a tree[br]to get there. 0:07:43.705,0:07:47.252 What you can see from here, perhaps,[br]is that they are pretty well obscured 0:07:47.252,0:07:49.530 up in the tree canopy at a distance. 0:07:49.556,0:07:52.938 That's important, because although[br]they are able to hear chainsaw noises 0:07:52.938,0:07:55.529 up to a kilometer in the distance,[br]which is pretty big, 0:07:55.529,0:07:58.075 allowing them to cover[br]about three square kilometers, 0:07:58.075,0:07:59.820 they should be well hidden, 0:07:59.820,0:08:04.196 because if someone were to take them,[br]it would make the area unprotected. 0:08:04.196,0:08:06.436 So we had to test it, right,[br]it's a great idea, 0:08:06.436,0:08:09.494 you saw that fancy infographic,[br]but does it actually work? 0:08:09.813,0:08:12.206 Well, to test it,[br]we took it back to Indonesia, 0:08:12.206,0:08:14.576 not the same place, but another place, 0:08:14.576,0:08:16.400 to another gibbon reserve 0:08:16.400,0:08:19.578 that was threatened daily[br]by illegal logging. 0:08:20.498,0:08:24.082 In fact, we installed it in the trees,[br]you see up here... 0:08:24.877,0:08:28.584 On the very second day[br]that we installed it, 0:08:28.584,0:08:31.139 it picked up illegal chainsaw noises. 0:08:31.989,0:08:34.018 We were able to get a real-time alert. 0:08:34.018,0:08:35.421 I got an email on my phone. 0:08:35.421,0:08:37.342 Actually, we had just climbed the tree. 0:08:37.342,0:08:39.103 Everyone had just gotten back down. 0:08:39.103,0:08:40.929 All these guys are smoking cigarettes, 0:08:40.929,0:08:43.873 and then I get an email,[br]and they all quiet down, 0:08:43.873,0:08:45.830 and in fact you can hear the chainsaw 0:08:45.830,0:08:47.740 really, really faint in the background, 0:08:47.740,0:08:50.078 but no one had noticed it[br]until that moment. 0:08:50.078,0:08:53.151 And so then we took off[br]to actually stop these loggers. 0:08:53.151,0:08:54.601 I was pretty nervous. 0:08:54.601,0:08:59.110 This is the moment where we've actually[br]arrived close to where the loggers are. 0:08:59.110,0:09:02.259 This is the moment where you can see[br]where I'm actually regretting 0:09:02.259,0:09:04.617 perhaps the entire endeavor. 0:09:04.617,0:09:07.346 I'm not really sure what's[br]on the other side of this hill. 0:09:07.346,0:09:09.226 That guy's much braver than I am. 0:09:09.226,0:09:12.468 But he went, so I had to go, walking up, 0:09:12.768,0:09:15.262 and in fact, he made it over the hill, 0:09:15.262,0:09:18.765 and interrupted the loggers in the act. 0:09:20.105,0:09:21.845 For them, it was such a surprise - 0:09:21.845,0:09:24.058 they had never, ever[br]been interrupted before - 0:09:24.058,0:09:26.303 that it was such an impressive[br]event for them, 0:09:26.303,0:09:29.345 that we've heard from our partners[br]they have not been back since, 0:09:29.345,0:09:31.150 to this one area to go logging there. 0:09:31.150,0:09:32.635 They were, in fact, great guys. 0:09:32.635,0:09:34.818 They showed us how[br]the entire operation works, 0:09:34.818,0:09:37.399 and what they really convinced us[br]on the spot was that 0:09:37.399,0:09:39.942 if you can show up[br]in real time and stop people, 0:09:39.942,0:09:43.106 it's enough of a deterrent[br]they won't come back. 0:09:44.577,0:09:45.500 So -- 0:09:45.500,0:09:48.194 Thank you. (Applause) 0:09:55.649,0:09:58.715 Word of this spread, possibly[br]because we told a lot of people, 0:09:58.715,0:10:02.162 and in fact, then some really[br]amazing stuff started to happen. 0:10:02.162,0:10:05.907 People from around the world[br]started to send us emails, phone calls. 0:10:05.907,0:10:08.470 They said that they could use[br]this system, too. 0:10:08.470,0:10:11.686 As you can see, it was clearly built[br]for this one, isolated instance 0:10:11.686,0:10:13.899 in the forest, that I experienced. 0:10:14.330,0:10:16.606 What we saw was that people[br]throughout Asia, 0:10:16.606,0:10:19.190 people throughout Africa,[br]throughout South America, 0:10:19.190,0:10:21.350 they told us that they could use it too, 0:10:21.350,0:10:22.852 and what's most important, 0:10:22.852,0:10:25.543 what we'd found that[br]we thought might be exceptional, 0:10:25.543,0:10:28.398 in the forest there was[br]pretty good cell phone service. 0:10:28.398,0:10:30.332 That was not exceptional, we were told, 0:10:30.332,0:10:33.617 we were told that in many areas[br]there is very good cell phone service, 0:10:33.617,0:10:37.594 and that particularly is on the periphery[br]of the forests that are most under threat. 0:10:37.594,0:10:39.629 And then something[br]really amazing happened, 0:10:39.629,0:10:42.979 which was that people started sending us[br]their own old cell phones. 0:10:42.979,0:10:44.844 So in fact what we have now is a system 0:10:44.844,0:10:48.052 where we can use people on the ground,[br]people who are already there, 0:10:48.052,0:10:50.928 who can both improve[br]and use the existing connectivity, 0:10:50.928,0:10:53.798 and we're using old cell phones[br]that are being sent to us 0:10:53.798,0:10:55.284 by people from around the world 0:10:55.284,0:10:58.515 that want their phones to be doing[br]something else in their afterlife, 0:10:58.515,0:10:59.406 so to speak. 0:10:59.406,0:11:02.338 And if the rest of the device[br]can be completely recycled, 0:11:02.338,0:11:05.100 then we believe it's an entirely[br]upcycled device. 0:11:06.068,0:11:10.318 So again, this didn't come[br]because of any sort of high-tech solution, 0:11:10.318,0:11:14.290 despite - as an engineer[br]what I was really driven to do. 0:11:15.534,0:11:17.731 It just came from using[br]what's already there, 0:11:17.731,0:11:20.711 and I'm thoroughly convinced[br]that if it's not phones, 0:11:20.711,0:11:22.962 that there's always[br]going to be enough there 0:11:22.962,0:11:24.682 that you can build similar solutions 0:11:24.682,0:11:27.167 that can be very effective[br]in new contexts. 0:11:27.167,0:11:28.498 Thank you very much. 0:11:28.498,0:11:30.744 (Applause)