Episode 1 My Genius Idea

Hello, and welcome to My Genius Idea, the series that's looking

for the biggest, best and brightest ideas from all of you.

In My Genius Idea, we're looking for the next generation of inventors.

We received ideas from all over the UK.

The genius ideas ranged from how to look after your pets, robots to help out around

the home, flying cars and eco-powered planes.

Only 18 ideas made it to the heat,

and they'll now go head to head to see who will be crowned the overall winner.

Our budding inventors will work with experts to help their inventions come to life, and they'll go behind

the scenes of some of the UK's most successful organisations to

give them the inspiration needed to progress their inventions further.

I used it to inspire what I did.

Deciding if they can progress in the competition will be down to expert inventor and judge Tom Lawton.

Tom has always had a passion for inventing.

I love it. There are so many ideas around us, under everybody's nose.

A solution that needs to be solved or a problem that hasn't been addressed.

Tom started inventing when he was 10, and by the time he was 21, he developed his first product -

the world's first recordable alarm clock.

You always have ideas, and being an inventor

is about seeing those ideas through into something real.

He's gone on to build a successful career as an inventor, winning international awards for his work.

It's great doing a programme about young inventors

because young inventors have a very fresh perception of the world.

I hope to be inspired by some of these young minds.

Hoping to impress Tom with their ideas today are...

And here are our young inventors now.

Welcome to the My Genius Idea nerve centre. How are you all feeling?

-I'm feeling fine.

-A little bit nervous?

-A bit nervous.

-I'm going to come to you first, Kate. What's your genius idea?

My genius idea is a piano which the keys light up.

Why would you want a piano where the keys light up?

So you can find the right notes.

Kate's idea is an electronic system which

will fit onto a piano and light up the keys that need to be played.

If she can make her invention work, she can use it on a piano to help her hit all the right notes.

I think I have the winning idea cos it can help everyone become musical.

That might help me be a better player. Oliver, I'm going to come to you next. What's the genius idea?

My genius idea is a wireless controlled washing line.

And how did you come up with this idea?

Well, my mum's always complaining about muddy feet in the garden,

so I thought of something that might help her.

Oliver's idea is a wireless controlled

washing line that will be operated by a pulley system.

It was the ski lift at his local snowboarding centre that gave him the inspiration for his invention.

It works on a pulley system,

which will be controlled by a computer in the house,

and to make it go round, you would have to press a button with your foot.

OK. I'm going to come to you now, Leigha. What's your genius idea?

My genius idea is a ramp that fits under a wheelchair so people who are disabled can get up the stairs.

Leigha's idea is a ramp that will fold away under a wheelchair

and be released at the touch of a button.

I thought of my idea when I saw my friend struggling in a wheelchair.

But will this cheerleader be able to ramp up her invention and win the competition?

My idea is the best because it helps people.

In the My Genius Idea HQ, Kate, Oliver and Leigha will each have

one hour to develop their idea with a top expert.

-I'm Cefn.

-Kate is fine-tuning her idea with Cefn Hoile,

who is an expert in making prototypes.

What is hard about playing the piano?

Playing the piano is always hard because you always have to try to find the right notes.

Kate's idea is a teaching tool that sits on your piano and lights up the keys that need to be played.

What's the piano going to do differently?

Well, all the keys can light up in two different colours for each hand.

When you've played the right notes, what's it going to do?

The next ones are going to light up.

-OK.

-But so you know which ones to play afterwards, they're

going to be a bit lighter, the ones that you play next.

So to develop her idea further, Kate will need to find a way to light up the keys on a piano.

How is Oliver getting on with his invention?

He's working on his wireless controlled

washing line idea with Lee Russell, a software engineer.

Would you like to tell me about your idea?

It's a wireless controlled washing line,

and it runs on a pulley system, which is activated by a button.

-OK.

-And it will sound an alarm when it's 90% dry.

Oliver's idea is a washing line that sounds an alarm when your clothes

are ready to take off the line.

-You'd like to have an alarm sound when your washing is 90% dry.

-Yeah.

I think the very difficult bit is going to be measuring that 90% dry.

So Oliver's found that the main challenge of his invention

will be to calculate just when the washing is dry enough to be taken off the line.

Leigha is getting advice on her fold-away wheelchair ramp

from Phil Robbins, a design engineer.

Why don't you tell me a little bit more about your idea?

-My invention is a ramp that fits under a wheelchair.

-And how did you come up with that idea?

Well, my mum cuts a girl's hair, and she struggles getting up the stairs.

Leigha's invention is a fold-away wheelchair ramp that can be operated

independently by wheelchair users.

I'm thinking it really needs to be portable.

OK. There's lots of different technologies that we can use to do that.

A ramp that's big enough to go up a flight of stairs, we need to

fit that beneath the wheelchair, so we need to look at some different ideas there,

or you can also look to develop the idea to be usable by the person in the wheelchair on their own.

So Leigha has discovered there are lots of different challenges to make her wheelchair ramp portable.

She'll need to focus on the size of her invention to make it work.

The success of Kate's invention depends on being able

to light up the keys on a piano to show which ones need to be played.

-She's looking into ways to make her idea work.

-So what are you thinking you might control?

The lights on and off, and you can control the timing of that.

OK. Faster and slower?

Yeah. My idea has different colours for different hands.

Can these light up in two different colours or more?

You can get special LEDs which are described as RGB, which is red, green and blue.

You can have the same light go green at one time and then red at another time.

When you make the keys, can you make them sort of see-through-ish type colours?

One of the advantages of what you were saying originally in terms of

using an existing piano, though, is people don't have to buy a new piano.

Building a piano is probably harder than building lots and lots of lights to illuminate an existing piano.

So we could use them to light up the key, then you'd be able to see the key to push.

Kate's now got the choice of changing her idea so the lights shine

down onto the piano keys instead of being lit up from the inside.

She needs to think about which to choose - it could be the difference between winning and losing.

Oliver needs to find a way to tell users when all the clothes

on his wireless-controlled washing line are nearly dry.

The clothes will get lighter as they get drier because they'll lose some of their water.

-Yeah.

-So what I'd like to do today is we're going to weigh the clothes dry, then we're going to wet them,

and weigh them wet, and calculate the difference between those two weights. Right.

If you'd like to place that on the scales.

-153 grams.

-So let's wet the T-shirt and weigh it again.

Calculating the difference between the wet and dry clothes will let

Oliver know how much water the clothes hold.

It's 286 grams.

Now we need to find out the difference in percentage between these weights.

Oliver can work out that the T-shirt weighs 53% more when it's wet.

I think we should do the same experiment again, but with a different item of clothing, because

I'd like to check to see if the different materials in the different items of clothing hold more water.

-So should we do the same experiment, but with a jumper this time?

-OK.

-OK?

If the percentage isn't the same, it means the clothes

hold different amounts of water and will dry at different rates.

237 grams.

So while some might be nearly dry, some could still be wet and will cause problems with his invention.

It was 721 grams.

After finding out the wet and dry weights of the clothes,

Oliver can see that different clothes' materials can dry at different rates.

So he now realises that he needs to find a way to make his alarm sound

when all the clothes are dry, not just some of them.

He'll need to solve this problem if he's any chance of staying in the competition.

Leigha wants her wheelchair ramp to be portable,

so she's starting to look into different designs that could help her idea become a reality.

And what I've done here is, I've just mocked up a couple of little designs

of folding mechanism, so we've got something that can hinge.

It could hinge multiple ways,

and also...

it can roll up.

So why do you think a ramp like this might be good for your invention?

Will it be because it will fold up so it can be easier to go under it?

Yeah. We also need to think about the strength as well,

so do you think that looks strong enough to hold a wheelchair?

Possibly.

Possibly. Now, what they have in the Army is, they have these

special forms of tank that they use to lay bridges across water.

It will put its bridge down across the river, and

then it can drive over it, and all the others can drive over it as well.

I think we can incorporate this into your design.

I'm really interested to seeing that in my own invention.

'With only 20 minutes left, I'm off to see how the budding inventors

'are coming along with their ideas.

'First up, it's Kate.'

Kate and Cefn, how's it going?

Fine. I've learnt about these little computers and the lights

and that if you shine that on there,

you can see it, and you can even see it on the black notes as well.

That's a really good idea.

Cefn, do you know of anything like this that's been created before?

Well, there's nothing that I know of that is like a true piano,

and that's something that's very important to Kate, learning...

is that the keys are weighted

and that it has the authentic piano experience.

We're going to be trying to fit that sort of behaviour

into something that's like a real piano.

It sounds like you're really cracking on with this,

so I'm going to leave you to it. Well, done. Brilliant.

'Has Oliver managed to solve his problem of trying to work out when washing is nearly dry?'

-Ollie, how's it going?

-It's going all right.

I've learnt that dry clothes weigh less than wet clothes.

It's an interesting idea, this, and I think I know where you're going with it. Can you explain some more?

When the weight stops changing...

In a sense stops drying?

Stops drying, stops losing the water out of it, that should mean that the clothes are dry.

That's brilliant. How will the technology help you know when these are done?

We've got a lot of options,

and Oliver and I need to talk about that later to say,

how exactly do you want this alarm to work?

I wouldn't mind having one of these when they're done because I hate bringing my washing in.

'I wonder how Leigha is getting on with her wheelchair ramp.'

-How's it going?

-I've learnt about different kinds of ramps.

There's a kind of ramp what you can roll up like that one,

and there's a kind of ramp what you can just slide out like that.

OK. Show us how this one works.

-Oh, OK. So it uncoils?

-It opens like that.

We've also been throwing around a few other ideas as well.

What's going on here?

The tank carries bricks along, and then it goes up and places

them over the river, and then all the tanks can go across.

I'll leave you to carry on some more research

because it sounds like it's going in the right direction. Brilliant.

'So what does expert inventor and judge Tom make of the ideas so far?'

We've got three great original ideas that are showing

a wide variety of imagination, so I'm always impressed with that.

With Leigha's, it's a mechanical design type solution.

With Ollie's, there are all sorts of different

washing line-type devices, but he's bringing it up to the 21st century.

Kate's has really got merit.

I love the fact that you don't have to have it integrated into your piano.

It's something that could fit onto any piano.

OK then Tom, I won't keep you any longer.

Have another good look around.

'Tom will be judging all their ideas later on.

'He'll want to know how well Kate, Oliver and Leigha

'have understood the technology behind their ideas and how well they can sell them to him.'

What are you doing with that?

'Only one of today's inventors can win a place in the semi-finals.'

What are you looking to do with these experiments?

Well, I'm looking so it would fold up under the wheelchair, and when it

placed it out, it needs to be the right size to get through the door.

Our young inventors are maximising their time really well.

They're trying to get as much information as possible out of their expert.

Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest, so we sent them up, up and away

to check out an invention that we still use today that was first thought up over 300 years ago.

Lindstrand Balloons is one of the world's leading designers in hot air balloons.

Andy Marshall is their design engineer and will be showing our young inventors the science needed

to get a balloon in the air, proving that simple technology can last for years and years if you get right.

Hot air balloons really gave people the idea that flight was possible.

It opened up a whole world of science which didn't exist up to that time,

so ballooning really set the world of science this motion.

It would be good if at the end of the day

the children understand that the simplest ideas are often the best.

Today I hope I might learn something which will improve my invention.

I'm really excited to learn about how air balloons stay up in the sky.

Andy begins by showing the young inventors the special

types of material needed to keep a balloon air born.

So this is the material that the balloons are made from.

If it gets damaged, you can imagine if it were to get snagged on a bush

or something like that, it would cause a hole in your balloon.

If I rub that with my fingers,

-it's called self-healing fabric.

-It's really good material because

if you get a hole in it, you just give it a rub, and it's just magic.

Now they know what the balloon is made of, they need to know how much

air is needed to lift it, and Andy has a sweet experiment for our young inventors.

We've got a doughnut and a balloon, and we're going to

work out just how much doughnut this balloon can carry, OK?

And yes, you are going to get to eat it.

The gas in the balloon can lift a total of 76 grams,

but the balloon and basket together weigh 71 grams,

so therefore the balloon should be able to lift

the difference between the two numbers,

in this case, five grams or less.

-So how much doughnut did the balloon lift?

-4.8 grams.

-Wonderful.

Who wants to eat the last bit?

It's time to test the science on a much larger scale.

To inflate the balloon, you fill it first with cold air,

then the clever bit to make it fly, you fill it with really hot air.

The hot air that's coming out of the burner

is going up and filling that bag,

and it's making the air inside of it weigh less than the air around it.

So the balloon is pushing up.

It's wanting to break free and fly up into the sky.

It's like blowing a bubble underwater.

It wants to float up until it gets to the surface.

OK. Big question of the day, then, who would like to go in the balloon?

Me! Me! Me!

MUSIC: "Fly Away" by Lenny Kravitz

-See you later. Have a good one!

-With the balloon tethered to the ground,

the young inventors get a taste of what ballooning is all about.

It's really calm and gentle.

-How was it?

-Great.

-Brilliant.

I'm feeling very good.

It's just been amazing today.

No other day could top today.

We're back in the My Genius Idea HQ,

and it's the last ten minutes of their development session.

Now Kate, Oliver and Leigha

will see if their ideas have the ability to work.

Kate's been working on a lighting system to help her piano-teaching tool come to life.

Now it's time to put it to the test and see if it could really work.

And you can see that there's one key that's lit up.

Just try pressing that key and see what happens.

OK. So it's played a note.

And you can see that the light has changed to another key.

So just keep going.

SHE PLAYS PIANO NOTES

So what did you think of it?

I think it was really good,

and it could really help people if it was improved even more.

-Yeah. Do you want one at home?

-Yeah.

Oliver's decided that his invention will sound an alarm

when the washing is dry.

He's been looking further into how this could work.

What I've built here is a very basic prototype,

so when the washing dries this slider will move from the bottom to the top.

So if you move that up towards the top,

then you see the light comes on, and that's our signal to say,

washing's dry. Come and get it in.

So have you any thoughts?

Have you got any thoughts about how you'd like that signal to be sent?

I might think about texting.

Because that would be very useful, wouldn't it, because that would mean that someone could be anywhere,

and they'd be able to get the message saying, washing's dry!

And Leigha has been trying to find the best design for her wheelchair ramp invention.

Her expert has one which she can put to the test to see if her invention could actually work.

So what we're doing, we put the ramp into place.

Do you want to just push the wheelchair up there?

Keep your fingers on the handles.

There you go. And then what happens, you turn these two wheels, and, hey, presto!

It's packed way again, and you still have access to push the wheelchair.

There was another slight issue I was thinking about.

I've got a little door frame here that I can just use to show you.

I'll put that in place.

It's not going to fit, is it?

-No.

-OK. Well, it's something for me to think about.

We're going to try to look to package it

a bit smaller and make sure that everything can fit in there.

-So are you happy with this idea, then?

-Yeah.

With time up, Kate has worked out a way to shines light onto piano keys.

Oliver has solved his problem of how to tell when your washing is dry,

and Leigha has chosen the design she thinks would be best for her wheelchair ramp.

But who will impress Tom the most to win a place in the next stage of the competition?

'All three of our budding inventors now have to pitch to Tom, and it's Leigha to go first.'

It's time to talk Tom through your genius idea.

Leigha, off you go. Good luck.

'Leigha will have to convince Tom that her idea for a fold-away

'wheelchair ramp is worthy of a place in the semi-finals.'

-Hello, Leigha. Can you explain the idea to me?

-My invention is a ramp, and people in wheelchairs use it.

I came up with it because most of my friends are in a wheelchair,

so I thought that it would help most people.

Can you elaborate on the idea? What does it do?

It folds under like a fan under the wheelchair, and then you press

-a button, and it folds out, so you could get upstairs.

-A clever design.

That would give a lot of independence to the person in the wheelchair.

You could use it in schools and shops.

Presumably something that works with the wheelchair they've already got.

Is it made of any special materials?

It can either be made out of fibreglass or aluminium.

-And why would you choose those two materials?

-Because they're strong and very light.

You've spent time with an expert.

Did you learn anything from your time with them?

The different ways how the ramp could, like, fold up.

I think you've made a very clear presentation as to exactly what your idea is,

and thank you very much.

Thank you.

With her presentation over, all Leigha can do is wait

for the others to pitch and for Tom to make his decision.

Next up, Kate will need to show Tom she's understood

the technology behind her idea to try and win a place in the semi-finals.

Hi, Kate. Can you tell me about the piano light?

Well, the piano light is a piano which has keys that light up

to help you play the piano.

-So who's it aimed at?

-Well, it's aimed at anyone who wants to play the piano, really.

Can you take me through the diagram and explain exactly how it would work?

Well, you choose the speed that you want to play at with the speed dial,

and you press "start", and the notes light up.

Dark is the one you play first, and as they get lighter, the lighter ones are the ones you play last.

Can you tell me a little bit about the technology that's involved behind this?

At first, I thought that the lights could sort of shine under the keys,

but then when I worked with my expert,

I realised that I couldn't put them under the keys and I'd have to have a light shining down onto the keys.

It can be fitted onto any type of piano.

You can fit it on top,

and little lights would shine onto the thing.

-OK. So it could be retro-fitted to a real piano?

-Yeah.

I think it's a really, really good idea, and I love the idea

of encouraging people to pick up playing musical instruments,

so thank you very much.

'I think it went really well.

'He said it was quite good.'

Tom's not looking for a finished idea today. He's looking to see

which one has the most potential to cut it in the real world.

He'll be judging them on how well they've understood the technology

and how well they can explain their idea to him.

Hello, Oliver. Can you tell me about your wireless-controlled washing line?

Well, your foot button will be on the path,

so you can press the button down, and it will send

a message to the computer to say that the washing can go around,

and then you can peg your washing on...

-So you press the foot button and that will bring the washing towards you, and it will rotate it around?

-Yeah.

And when the line's full, it will take the weight,

and then an hour later, it will take the weight again.

Why do you need to know what the weight of the washing is?

I've learnt that when the clothes are dry, it's going to weigh less

than when the clothes are wet, so it will send the message to your phone.

So it's about measuring the change in the weight,

and when it sees that it's had some change, but then no more,

it knows it's as dry as it wants to be, so it wirelessly

and intelligently alerts you as to when your washing is dry?

Yes, that's exactly what it does.

Listen. You've really absorbed this idea, and you've kind of...

you've done all the research around it.

I think you've done a really good presentation, so thank you very much.

Bye-bye.

'It went fine. I had to answer a few questions, then.

'And then he thought it was real good.'

So for two of our budding inventors, the competition

will be over shortly, but who has won a place in the next round?

Will it be Leigha with her idea of a fold-away wheelchair ramp?

Kate and her custom-fit piano light system?

Or Oliver with his invention of a wireless-controlled washing line?

Tom, what did you make of the three ideas you saw today?

Well, there's three very different ideas for three

entirely different approaches to innovation, so brilliant.

It is a hard job, but have you come up with a decision?

After much deliberation, I have.

OK. Well, Tom, if you'd like to take a seat, it's time to welcome back our young inventors.

'It's crunch time. They've all spent time developing their ideas and have

'pitched them to Tom, but who has won that place in the semi-finals?'

You've done so well to get this far, but only one of you can go through

to the next stage, the semi-finals, so it's over to Tom.

Well, I think you've all done really well.

Leigha, I think it's brilliant that you're thinking about access for all,

but I'm concerned that the idea might not be practical enough for the user in all situations.

Kate, I think it was a great pitch,

and you've really moved the idea on since spending time with your expert,

but I do wonder how effective it could be as a teaching aid.

Oliver, you've demonstrated how you can use existing technology to solve a problem,

but I wonder whether it's too complicated.

But considering everything, I have come to a decision,

and the inventor that I'm going to send through to the semi-final of My Genius Idea is...

Oliver.

So Oliver wins with his idea of a wireless-controlled washing line

and is still in with chance of winning My Genius Idea.

Oliver, well done. How are you feeling, mate?

-Great.

-Yeah? Look at that smile!

Guys, you did so well to get this far. Unlucky.

So we have our first genius idea through to the next stage.

We'll see you next time on My Genius Idea.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail [email protected]