Episode 2 My Genius Idea

Hi and welcome to My Genius Idea,

the show 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.

Genius ideas ranged from how to look after your pets,

robots to help around the home,

through to flying cars and eco-powered planes.

Only 18 ideas made it to the heats.

They'll go head-to-head to see who'll be crowned

the overall winner.

Our budding inventors will work with experts

to help their inventions come to life.

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 me.

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 all around us.

Under everybody's nose, there's a solution

or a problem that hasn't been addressed yet.

Tom started inventing when he was 10.

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 that's 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 they 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 they are, our three young inventors.

Welcome, guys, to the Nerve Centre. How are you all feeling? Nervous?

-Yeah.

-A little bit, yeah.

I can feel the tension in the air. OK, I'm coming to you, Georgia.

What's the big idea?

Well, my idea is a bike

with airbags so if you fall off, you won't hurt yourself.

Cycling fan Georgia hopes to clean up in today's show.

Using her own experience of falling off her bike,

she's come up with her own genius idea - airbags for bikes.

I was out riding with my friends on my bike

and I fell over

and that's how I thought of my idea.

I think I have the best idea because it can help people.

Brilliant. What a righteous cause! Great stuff.

Tybalt, I'm coming to you next.

I've invented a bike bleeper

which warns car drivers when there's a cyclist ahead.

Mountain biker Tybalt has come up with the revolutionary idea

to make the road safer for both cyclists and motorists.

I designed the bike bleeper

to try and stop people getting hit on their bikes.

Everyone who drives and who bikes should own one.

Catherine, fill us in.

I designed a voice activated door.

A voice activated door? That sounds impressive. I'd like to have one.

Keen swimmer Catherine wants the freedom to move between rooms

without having the hassle of turning the handle

by using speech technology.

My idea is a door

and you say, like, "Open"

and then it will open.

It's useful for people who are carrying things.

I think my idea is special because it's quite good

for people like me who have brothers or sisters

and they don't want them in their room!

In the My Genius Idea HQ,

Georgia, Tybalt and Catherine

will each have one hour to develop their idea with a top specialist.

Georgia's working on airbags for bikes with Stewart Humby,

an accident investigator.

You've got this fabulous idea for putting an airbag onto a bike.

-Yeah.

-What can you tell me about it so far?

What have you thought about?

Like, if you're on your bike and you fall off,

if it tilts too far to the side like it's going to fall or crash,

-the airbags will come out and you'll land on them.

-Fantastic.

Have you thought about where you want to the put the airbags?

In the handlebars and on the seat.

OK. Have you thought about putting them on the occupant as well

as on the bike, or only on the occupant or the bike?

Yeah, like, on the bike as well as on...

You could have a jacket with a bag in the pockets.

The other thing to think about is around your neck as well.

Often, when you fall off and hit your head, it twists it.

Like a hoodie and you can have it in the side.

Fantastic, yeah! A hoodie airbag, brilliant idea.

With Georgia exploding with ideas,

Catherine is getting to work on her invention with Peter Bell,

a speech recognition expert.

Where would you have your door? What sort of door would it be?

-It'd be like a house door.

-Right. A door in a normal family home?

-Yeah.

-What would be the advantage of having it voice activated?

You wouldn't need a key so you wouldn't lose it.

-So you wouldn't lose the key. You'd always be able to get in.

-Yeah.

I assume it'll be important that this door only let through

-the right kind of people?

-Yeah.

-Is that right?

How do you think that might work?

It would only recognise your voice

so you programme it to recognise just your voice.

We have two types of technology that we tend to use

for these kind of applications.

We never thought about doing it with a door.

But one method is to recognise the words that people are saying

and then the other method

is to try and recognise individual speakers.

We call one speech recognition and the other one speaker recognition,

-or sometimes speaker identification.

-So, good news for Catherine -

the technology exists to make her idea work.

Meanwhile, Tybalt is with Chris Styles,

finding out what technology is available for his invention.

You've come here with an awesome idea. Can you tell me more about it?

I've invented a bike bleeper to save the lives of cyclists

on the road.

If there's a device what could maybe warn the car driver

if there was a cyclist ahead round the bend. I thought to myself...

"What can travel round a bend

"by some sort of signal?"

So I used a radio transmitter and radio receiver -

a radio transmitter on the cyclist and a a radio receiver in the car.

So the idea is that the bike is constantly giving out a signal

and the car picks up on it hopefully and alerts the driver?

Yeah, within a 30-metre range.

Georgia's keen to find out the best design for her airbags on bikes.

Do you know, like...? If they're light and soft,

if you land on them, would they not pop?

The thing with an airbag is, if you look at this,

what you notice when the airbag goes off,

it pops out and immediately see how it collapses straightaway?

Whereas these systems here

use something different. This is a new technology that's come in.

What you have is a gas cylinder.

It's got carbon dioxide inside, like you get in lemonade, OK?

That fills the bag up, it keeps it up for a long time.

So then if you came off your bike, you'd still have your airbags on?

Exactly, yeah. It's still inflated and you're still...protected.

So Georgia's idea looks like it could progress from putting airbags

on bikes to airbags on bikers' clothing. Which will she decide?

Catherine's finding out the best way to operate

her automatic door securely.

The important thing about your door is that it only opens

for the person that's allowed to open the door.

So I thought we could get...

the door to recognise a particular password.

We could have different passwords for different people.

Can you use it anywhere else apart from your house, like a shop

-or a business meeting?

-Well, that's a really good question.

I was thinking, when I saw your idea,

that where it'd be really useful for me would be getting into work

because at the moment, we have a swipe card system.

So this is my card to get into the door.

Of course, I have to swipe it and then I have to key in a pin number.

So I think that's somewhere where it could be really useful.

You could use it in hospitals for people who can't use their hands.

They don't have to touch anything so infection might not spread.

By thinking of new uses for her invention,

Catherine could clean up in today's competition.

Tybalt is right on track with his idea, too.

The technology exists to make his invention,

but the challenge is to make it small enough to fit on a bike.

On a bike, you can't have a power supply or take a laptop with you.

There's certainly no way that you'd want to mount this. The aim would be

to smash the design down to something more portable.

Have you thought about how you would wish...

the system to, you know, flag a warning to the driver?

Would it just a beeping, or have you thought about...

-a visual thing?

-Yeah, I thought about warnings

-like, "Warning, cyclist ahead."

-Have you ever been in the car

and the name of the radio station appears on the display?

They actually use a technology called RDS, Radio Data Service.

At the radio station end, they can transmit the name

of their radio station. When you tune to it, it comes up on your radio.

So, great news for Tybalt. He can use existing technology

in car radios to warn drivers of cyclists.

With only 20 minutes left, I'm off to check on everyone's progress.

First, Georgia with her airbags for bikes.

As well as maybe mounting the airbags onto the bike,

maybe now also putting them on a jacket as well.

It also uses a gas system, and you were talking about

the difference with that. Can you remember what that was?

If you're wearing the suit, if you've come completely

off your bike, these ones will still be out.

That's right. So it remains inflated for a long period of time,

so as you're rolling down the road, this keeps protecting you for each

-roll, roll, roll, then you're OK.

-That's interesting. It sounds like

you're really coming along with this now.

-Have you learnt loads from Stewart?

-Yeah.

Meanwhile, Catherine has come up with some problems

with her voice activation device,

but has made some alterations that might just work.

-What have you been doing then, Catherine?

-We've been trying

to set a password and seeing how the voice activation works.

You're talking about this being in people's homes.

Is that the only place you see it working?

You could have it in hospitals or in a supermarket as well,

cos in a hospital, people might not be able to use their hands.

If you touch something, it can spread infection,

so you wouldn't have to touch the door.

That's a really good idea. That's something that you think,

why have they not got that already? It makes so much sense.

Is this kind of technology used by lots of people?

No, it's not used very much.

These things are still very much in development.

But they certainly haven't spread to places

where they could be really useful, like hospital.

And Tybalt is exploring further

how his idea can work with existing car radios.

Tybalt, please talk me through this. What's going on here?

We're talking about how FM radio works.

Something like this, we're taking off-the-shelf components

to build what is essentially a prototype.

Does it sound exciting? This talk of a prototype of one of your ideas?

-Yeah.

-I don't want to hold you up, so I'll see you guys later.

So, what does expert inventor

and judge, Tom, make of the ideas so far?

I am dead impressed, actually. You've got three original ideas.

People say, why didn't I think of that? There's three ideas there

that you think, why didn't anybody think of it?

Do you think the key is in simplicity?

Yeah, there's an interesting use of technology there and these experts

know their stuff almost as well as the kids do, and it's impressive

to see technology used in the right way,

but importantly to solve the problem and that's what it's about.

Has anything caught your eye so far? I know it's early days.

Well, I'm a keen cyclist myself, so I obviously have an infinity

with a couple of the ideas that we've seen,

but I'm not going to discount the other one as well.

There's so many applications for the voice recognition stuff, I can see.

So I'm going to reserve my judgement until the pitch.

Tom will be judging all their ideas later on.

He'll want to know well Georgia, Catherine and Tybalt have grasped

the technology behind their inventions,

and how well they can sell them to him.

This here, that's...

Only one of our budding inventors can go through to the next round.

The guys are hard at work behind me. But we've already had them

hard at work, looking at how inventions and ideas

can be brought into the real world. We sent all three of them off

to meet Olympic gold medallist and world record holder cyclist,

Chris Boardman, to see how great ideas

have made the British cycling team one of the best in the world.

Great Britain is at the forefront of cycling technology,

and the GB team won eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics.

The team's home is the National Cycling Centre in Manchester.

Olympic gold medallist, Chris Boardman

broke three world records here, and was the technical manager

to the British cycling team at the Beijing Olympics.

The inspiration to be gained from watching world class riders

in an environment like this, is watching things being done

to the absolute maximum, to being pushed always,

never being satisfied with "That's good enough".

It's always, "How can it be better? How can it be better?"

Today, might help me with science and aerodynamics and how bikes work.

I think it'll help my invention,

because aerodynamics is involved with bikes.

I'm looking forward to seeing the bikes and looking

at how they work and seeing the track.

Good morning. Welcome to the Manchester Velodrome.

After the introductions,

Chris is keen to explain the technology behind the track.

Any ideas why it's got a slope?

Does it help people going round sharp corners?

It does. If it was completely flat, when they got

to about 30 km per hour, they'd have to REALLY lean over to get around.

And if the track was flat, they'd probably slide out.

Their wheels couldn't grip and they'd slide out.

So they've had to make the track bent like this to bring it up,

so the riders can get round at speed.

That's the only way to get around a bend this tight.

Here, there's a little experiment

that shows how a bike rider goes around the track.

If I spin this ball around,

the energy is trying to push it outwards,

always trying to push it outwards,

so it can go around the top of this funnel,

so long as I keep going at a certain speed,

and centrifugal force is what helps them to do that.

It shows you that if you're going fast enough,

the ping pong ball can go actually around.

But if you're going too slow, you just drop. Like that.

The biggest thing that the riders have to overcome is air resistance.

So the bike has to be a nice, aerodynamic shape.

This is one of the fastest bikes that you'll find in the world.

But it's not just the bike that needs to be aerodynamic.

It's the cyclist's position too.

I'm now very upright and there's a lot of wind hitting my body now.

And it's really slowing me down.

So, I can't do anything about the bike shape, because that's fixed.

Bit I CAN make me smaller,

by getting lower on bike and pulling myself down,

and pull my elbows in.

I'm probably about 30% smaller.

And that makes a very, very big difference.

Chris has got a wheelie good challenge for our inventors.

He's teamed them up with Carolyn,

one of the cyclists training at the Velodrome.

Shall I go around once, and show you what I do?

And maybe you can give me some tips afterwards?

Our budding inventors have to put what they know about rider position

and the shape of the track to the test,

as they work out a way to try and make Carolyn go faster.

So, what do you think?

Erm...you could try crouching down. It'll help your speed.

And you should go lower on the flatter bits

and higher on the bends.

Her first lap was just under 23 seconds,

so after some expert coaching, what can she do on a second attempt?

So, what do you think?

-What was my time?

-18.644 seconds.

-Oh, it was over four seconds faster!

I'm really happy with that!

It was surprising, because those little changes

made such a big difference.

I think it was great to learn about aerodynamics,

because it can help my invention.

We're back in HQ and with only 10 minutes left, Georgia,

Catherine and Tybalt will have to make the most of their time.

Originally, Georgia wanted to fit airbags on bikes,

but has decided to put them on clothing instead.

All she has to do now is inflate it to see

how it could protect the rider in a fall.

-Give it a good, sharp pull.

-Your coat will come off!

-SHE LAUGHS

Well that's easier said than done. So to make sure Georgia

doesn't start to feel too deflated, I've come to her rescue.

-Right, three, two, one.

-COAT PUFF UP AIR

And there we go!

-That's amazing!

-It's good, isn't it?

And I'm... Feel that.

I could fall over anywhere.

-How far will it expand?

-That's its maximum inflation now.

So now, I would have come to a stop long ago, by now.

So how does it feel, seeing one of your ideas

-coming into the real world slowly? Pretty impressed with that?

-Yeah.

Catherine is now recording voice commands into special

voice recognition software that could make her idea a reality,

as long as she can remember the magic words.

Open sesame.

Nine green apples.

No.

I've forgotten the password.

Oh, what was the password?

Eight pebble bananas.

Yeah.

Having found out his invention will work with existing technology

Tybalt finds out how his idea can be made to work with a car radio.

Any car radio that picks up your FM signal will spot

there's a TA flag, a traffic announcement flag,

and regardless of what it's doing, if it's playing a CD or another station,

it changes channels to your bike's channel

and plays "cyclist alert" through the speakers.

When it goes out of range of the bike it no longer receives the signal,

so reverts back to what you were listening to.

Yeah, I think it would work like that and I had suggested that

but I didn't know how I could do it.

So essentially it's a mechanism

that allows your bike to interrupt the car radio.

And play an announcement specifically to that car.

With time up Georgia has found out

the best way to protect cyclists with airbag technology.

Catherine has developed further uses for her idea

hoping to use it in hospitals.

And Tybalt knows he can use existing car radios to make his idea work.

But whose invention 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.

First up, it's Georgia.

Good luck, we'll be rooting for you.

Off you go.

Will Georgia be able to impress Tom

with her idea of airbags to protect cyclists?

Will she be able to persuade him that she has the winning invention?

-Hi, Georgia. How are you?

-I'm really good but nervous at the same time.

I'm looking forward to learning about your airbags for bikes.

Can you explain the idea?

It's changed, and instead of having it on the bike

put it in a normal jacket, a normal jumper,

-that you'd normally wear...

-OK.

And then have gas containers which have CO2 inside,

so if you fall, or trip,

there's a sensor that senses it,

and then it'll go off and you won't hurt yourself.

So you were saying when you fall off the bike

the CO2 canister's triggered,

and that inflates the airbags.

What happens? Do they stay inflated?

They stay inflated because the CO2 is different from an airbag.

-Cos airbags have holes in that let all the air out straightaway.

-OK.

But the CO2 just stays for quite a while.

OK. And why have you designed that feature into it?

Erm, because if you came off your bike on a hill,

you'd just roll and roll.

If you were tumbling it stays inflated and would still protect you?

-And it wouldn't hurt.

-A very good idea.

So it could be for joggers, people on horses,

you could use it for all sorts of action sports.

A great idea. Thank you very much.

It was a brilliant pitch, and I wish you luck.

OK.

When I was walking I was a bit scared

but when he started talking halfway through it was OK.

Tybalt is next up with his bike bleeper invention.

Will he convince Tom that he should go through to the semifinals?

Hi, Tybalt. I'm looking forward to learning about the bike bleeper.

Can you explain the idea to me?

I invented the bike bleeper

cos a friend from school was knocked off his bike and killed.

When the car comes into the 50-metre range

the car will bleep, the device in the car will bleep.

OK. Can you explain a little bit, perhaps,

about the technology as to how it might work?

There is a radio receiver in the car and a radio transmitter on the bike.

And it's folded away in a little box on the bike,

but can clip onto the handlebars and can go on the dashboard on the car.

Has the idea improved at all since you spent time with the expert?

Yes.

I didn't know there was an existing radio receiver in the car

built in the car in the radio.

So that radio receiver is just in a regular radio in a car

and every car's got a radio in it.

So, in effect, the bleeper that would be on all bikes, or most bikes,

would talk to almost all cars.

That's a really, really good idea.

Thank you.

Have you thought about what might happen

if drivers don't have their radios on, for instance?

Would the technology still work?

Erm, no, that's the only thing why buying on would be good.

I think it's very honourable that you're doing something

that could potentially save lives.

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

Thank you.

With Tybalt's pitch over Catherine's up next

with her voice-activated door system.

Will Tom be persuaded that she should go through to the semifinals?

Remember, Tom's not looking for a completely finished idea today,

he's looking for an idea that has the most potential.

he'll judge them on the technologies they've mastered

-and how well they can explain their idea.

-Catherine, how are you?

OK, thank you.

Good, good. I'm looking forward to learning about your idea,

for a voice-activated door.

Can you explain the concept to me?

Well, you talk into the sensor there,

and then it'll recognise your voice,

and you can also make a new password there.

And the door mechanism will make the door open,

and then you walk through.

So you walk up to the door, you say, "open sesame", or "this is my house"

or "I live here" or "I'm so-and-so",

-and it recognises your voice and the door...

-Then you say a password.

You say a password as well, so that encrypts it so it's specific to you,

and the door opens for you.

Mmm, very interesting.

Where did you get the inspiration for this from?

It was one night and my mum went out of the room

-and she came back with a tray full of drinks.

-OK.

And one of us had to get out our comfy chair to go and open the door.

-OK.

-And then after that we said that it would be really good

to have just a door that said, "open sesame" and it would open.

Who will benefit from the idea?

-Well you could have it in a home, like I've said.

-Yeah.

Or in a hospital as germs spread easily when you touch surfaces.

Now that's an interesting idea.

So, if it would recognise your voice,

how would it recognise your voice and not my voice, for instance?

You'd have to train it, like say into it if you were cross,

and you'd have to say into it if you were happy.

OK. So you'd record your voice into it,

it would then recognise the kind of pattern of the sound of your voice.

-Yes.

-It would remember that...

-Yes.

-..then know it.

Thank you very much, a really good presentation. Well done.

So, with the pitches over who has impressed the most

to book themselves a place in the next round?

Will it be Georgia's idea for airbags?

Tybalt's bike bleeper device?

Or Catherine and her voice-activated door system?

Tom, three more strong ideas today.

How did they do?

They did brilliantly. I'm so impressed.

You've got three great ideas,

they've all taken on board the advice the experts have given

and pitched really well too.

It must have been really difficult to make a decision but have you?

-I have.

-OK, shall I get the young inventors in then?

Do it, Johny.

-Tom, if you'd like to take a seat.

-OK.

It's crunch time.

They've all spent time developing their ideas and pitched them to Ton

but who has won that place in the semifinals?

How are you doing, guys?

Nervous.

Bit nervous.

You've done so well to get this far.

But Tom has come to a decision.

So, Tom, it's over to you.

Yeah, you've done brilliantly to get this far, you really have.

Georgia, I thought your idea was fabulous,

I loved the way that you've addressed road safety

and making cycling safer.

I do worry about if it's something

people would actually wear on a day-to-day basis.

Tybalt, it's a great idea as well.

The solution seems interesting. Especially going through the stereo

but what'd happen if people don't have their radio on?

Catherine, a great idea as well.

And I'm particularly impressed by the journey it's taken,

how it's evolved from something that works in the home

that could work in hospitals and areas like that.

It's a difficult decision for me to make.

It's a difficult decision, Tom.

But it's a decision that you've got to come to.

So I'm going to ask you,

which genius idea is going through to the next round, the semifinals?

It's Tybalt.

How does it feel?

It feels really good.

So, Tybalt wins with his bike bleeper.

And he's still in with a chance of winning My Genius Idea.

All that's left to say is join us next time

as we look for another genius idea.

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