Episode 8 My Genius Idea

Hello and welcome. Today is the second semi-final of 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.

Your 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

and over six shows,

we picked our semi-finalists.

Last time, we found out who was the first finalist...

-Tybalt.

-..and now, we're looking for the second,

as three more inventors take their genius ideas

out into the real world to see if they can actually work.

In today's show, we'll be finding out

how well sound travels under water.

-Lots of crackling, that's it, really.

-We've set up mission control

at Europe's largest solar panel building.

It would make a big difference in space.

And we're at a pig farm, trying to keep our washing out of the mud.

And what we've definitely got here is mud today.

All our semi-finalists will have to impress expert inventor

and judge Tom Lawton,

and prove that their idea is worthy of a place in the Grand Final.

-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

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

Tom started inventing when he was ten, and by the time he was 21,

he developed his first product -

the world's first recordable alarm clock.

You always have ideas. 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.

Tom chose Tybalt and his

bike bleeper invention to become our first finalist.

What do you think is going to make the difference between

the young inventors that go home

and the young inventor that joins Tybalt in the final?

Well, they've all been on their real-world tests,

and it's all about learning from those real-world tests

about the problems you might face making your idea real.

I'm looking for them to have carried some of those ideas

-and discoveries forward.

-In these tests,

they'll each be reunited with their experts

to see if their invention can work out in the real world.

They'll have to report the results of their tests back to Tom.

He'll want to know how well the tests went and if the idea

can be improved, if they've any chance of winning a place

in the final.

Tom, you can relax for now. I'm about to introduce

our last three semi-finalists, but first,

let's remind ourselves how they got here.

Emily beat off the competition in Heat Five to secure

her place in the semi-final.

Her idea of a device to keep marine mammals

out of dangerous areas won Tom over.

-Emily.

-When I next pitch to Tom, I think he'll be looking for...

if I've improved my idea, if it's progressed.

Karampreet fought off tough competition in his heat

to win a place in today's semi. His idea

of putting solar panels in space

to beam power back to Earth impressed judge Tom.

When I was waiting for the result in front of Tom,

I was really nervous and, if I'm honest, probably not expecting

to get through, because the other two ideas were also genius.

Oliver won through in the first heat to win his place in the semi-finals.

His idea of a wireless controlled clothes line

gave him the edge with Tom.

I was really nervous when I was waiting to hear the results from Tom,

but I got there in the end,

so I was just over the moon when he said Oliver.

Our budding inventors all went out in the field

and developed their ideas further in real-world tests.

First up, Emily.

Her invention is a warning device

to keep sea mammals away from danger.

It works by playing warning sounds underwater

to keep them out of harm's way,

by using the sound of their most feared predator, a killer whale.

RECORDING OF WHALE

We're here on the stunning Isle of Mull off the west coast of Scotland,

a place rich in marine life and one of the best places in Europe

to see dolphins, seals and even whales.

We're going to be hooking up with Emily's expert, Jonathan Gordon,

on a research boat, to see how Emily's idea

might work in the real world.

Emily, what areas would you need to protect sea mammals from?

We need to protect them from military sea operations,

oil slicks and wind farm construction.

How does it feel to be in a part of the world that might actually

-use your idea?

-It feels really good. Before, it was just an idea,

but now, it's really coming to life and it's really exciting.

-Shall we go and meet your expert?

-Yeah.

-Come on.

-Morning.

-Hi, Jonathan.

-Good to see you again.

-Good to see you.

-Hi, Emily.

It's a big day for Emily. On board the research boat,

she's going to have the chance to see some of the sea mammals

her idea could help protect,

and then test some of the technology needed to make it work.

Emily, we're heading out there to an island called Calve Island.

It's one of the places that seals come and haul-out, to rest.

She'll have to report all of the results from her test back to Tom,

as she tries to win the last spot in the final.

That's so cool, look at that seal just there.

I think it's really amazing, because I always just thought

they were an extraordinary and beautiful animal.

Seeing them up close, I feel they're even more beautiful.

-It's nice to get so close, isn't it?

-Yeah, it's amazing.

Having seen the type of sea life

that could benefit from Emily's idea,

Jonathan now wants to show her how well sound can travel underwater.

Emily, this is called a hydrophone.

It's really like a microphone that you can put in the water,

and we can listen and see what we can hear.

Does the sound travel well under the water?

Extremely well, better than it travels through the air.

A lot of animals that live in the sea,

but particularly marine mammals, are very acoustically oriented.

That's their main sense for detecting all sorts of things,

including things they need to be frightened of.

Emily, have a listen, see what you can hear.

CRACKLING

Lots of crackling, that's it, really.

Yeah. What that crackling is

are little shrimps that live on the bottom and make very loud clicking,

cracking noises. That's often what you hear

when you're in a rocky environment, crackling.

Emily now knows that sound travels really well underwater,

but just how far away can it be heard?

To find this out, Jonathan's put together a test.

He's going to be playing the sound of the killer whale

-from the lifeboat...

-This is our underwater speaker.

Do you want to lower it gently into the water?

..and then, they'll head back out into the harbour,

to see how far the sound travels.

-How far away are we now?

-650 metres.

That would be a really useful distance to be able to keep animals

away from dangerous things, and give them protection.

This test is key in getting their idea to work.

At 650 metres, could a sea mammal about to swim into danger

hear the warning sound and turn away?

To find out, they drop the listening device into the water...and wait.

WAILING

-You can hear that.

-Wow. Even I can hear that.

For the sea mammals, that would be a really useful distance,

to be able to protect them.

At nearly three-quarters of a kilometre away,

the whale sound can be heard loud and clear.

-It's a great result.

-I think it's really amazing

that we can hear from here so clearly.

Yeah, I'm surprised myself that it's working so well.

I think the next step now would be to try and

do some experiments with real animals in the wild.

So, Emily, how did you find your day out at sea?

I found it really exciting, because it was...

really up close to the animals. It really made me feel for them

and realise how important it actually is to me to save them.

So, a great day for Emily.

If she could develop her idea further, she might make an important

contribution towards conserving sea mammals in the future.

Next to put their idea to the test in the real world is Karampreet.

Karampreet wants to invent the next generation of renewable energy

by launching a satellite into space, to capture the powerful rays

of the sun, and then beam this super solar energy back to Earth.

Glyndwr University are leaders in solar energy research

and technology. They're housed in a building that has

the largest solar panel of its kind in the whole of Europe.

This wall produces 85 kilowatts of power,

enough to power 15 houses for a year.

So this is the perfect place to test Karampreet's invention.

Karampreet, talk to us about who's going to benefit from this.

I think there's already areas where they don't have enough energy,

but I think even more developed countries like the UK,

in a few years, we could face an energy crisis. So I think it would be

-helpful all over the world.

-I think it's time to meet Dr Douglas,

-your expert, shall we?

-Let's go.

Dr Douglas Halliday has brought along the solar panel

that could make Karampreet's invention work,

and possibly win him that place in the final.

The first part of the real-world test

is to show why putting solar panels in space

is more efficient than using them here on planet Earth.

In space, you're not limited by climatic radiations and cloud cover.

Down here, we've got some artificial cloud.

The idea is, we're going to cover our panel with pretend cloud

and look at the impact on the power that's being produced.

The voltmeter reading is around 32 vaults.

What happens when we put on our fake cloud?

Karampreet, if you'd like to go

and look at the voltmeter and tell us what the meeting is.

-It's around 28 volts.

-OK, so we've had a drop in the voltage output

of over four volts from this panel,

which would obviously reduce the amount of power it produces.

One of the key benefits of installing this panel in space

is that it's not limited in this way.

I'm really encouraged by this, and it does show that it would make

-a big difference is space, making it worthwhile.

-What a great start.

Yeah, I'm really happy with this.

So, we've shown how much more solar energy can be collected

without the problem of cloud cover. Now, we've got to think about

how that solar energy collected up in space can be transmitted

back here on Earth, to be used as an alternative energy source.

You need to transmit the energy from the solar panel back down to Earth.

One of the ways you can think about doing that is with microwaves.

Dr Halliday has set up a demonstration to show how the energy

from space could be transferred to Earth using microwave beams.

On the left, we have space, which will transmit the microwaves

to the antenna on the right, planet Earth.

The amount of power received is displayed on this meter.

Right, there's another problem and challenge we have to overcome.

If you sit down between the two antenna, we can demonstrate here.

What you'll notice is that the power level has dropped, almost to zero.

That indicates the issues that happen

-when the signal is interrupted.

-What kind of interruptions

would we get when we transmit this microwave beam back to Earth?

First of all, there's cloud cover, such as we have today.

There's also the possibility of aircraft,

or even migrating birds that may get in the way of the microwave beam.

One of the other issues is that the solar satellite

will be 25,000 miles away from Earth.

In order to demonstrate the difficulties of transmitting

over a large distance, Karampreet, if you could pick up the antenna

and just walk down there with it.

You can see that as he's walking away,

the signal is dropping almost to zero, because of the extra distance

involved between the antenna.

A major stumbling block, where do we go from here?

One stage going forward would be to think about using a satellite dish,

which would focus and direct the energy in a specific direction.

But that wouldn't necessarily overcome the distance that

we've been talking about - 25,000 miles

from the solar panels to the Earth.

I'm feeling confident that we can overcome this.

Karampreet may still be confident,

but if he's any chance of making it to the final,

he'll have to think of a better way to transmit the energy

before he reports back to Tom.

It is a bit disheartening that there are new issues to overcome,

but as an inventor, you have to keep going and keep trying.

I think one of the important things is never to lose hope.

Karampreet's got a great idea on his hands, but it's an ambitious one.

There are problems with transmitting all that energy

from the solar panel 25,000 miles away to here on Earth. Next up,

I'm off to hang out with Oliver.

Oliver's invention was inspired by his mum, who doesn't like walking on

their muddy garden to hang out the washing.

The line moves around, which means users don't have to step in mud.

It also comes with an alarm to tell you when it's dry.

To test Oliver's washing line out, I've roped in some extras

who love really muddy places. We're here at a pig farm to see if

we can hang out the washing without treading in the mud.

Come on then, girls, ready for your close-up.

So, Oliver, we're here with your family at a pig farm.

-Are you as messy as these guys at home?

-Probably.

-Is he, Mum?

-Yes, he definitely is.

-So I guess you're hoping that

-Oliver's invention comes to reality?

-Yes, I definitely am,

because I hate going out with muddy feet

in my garden to hang my washing out.

Let's see if we can solve this problem.

It's time to meet your expert. Come on, let's go.

Oliver's expert, Lee Russell, has built a prototype of his invention.

-Right, Lee, what have we got here?

-Oliver wanted his washing line

to be able to move along so his mum didn't have to get in the mud.

That's one of the first things we're going to show.

What we've definitely got here is mud today. We're going to try

to keep out of that as much as we can. After that,

we're going to test to see if we can tell when the washing's dry.

We're ready for the first part of the test, Oliver.

What do you want me to do?

First of all, I'd like you to hang out the washing.

No worries, Oliver.

I do this all the time at home.

Right, OK. That's on there. OK, Oliver. Three, two, one...

Press the button!

-Yes!

-Yes!

-You've done it.

-Yay!

-'So, the first part of the test

'was a massive success for Oliver, but now, they've got to see whether

'that line can send a signal to Oliver's mum

'and let her know when the clothes are dry,

'meaning Oliver could breeze into that final spot.'

Right, Lee, how are we going to work the second part of the test?

We've got this little system here.

It's kind of like a mobile phone.

It will receive a signal from the unit on the washing line,

and when the washing's dry, it will receive a little message saying

-"washing dry" and that buzzer will go off.

-Right, I'll hang this up.

The science behind the alarm system

is to measure the wet clothes over a period of time.

As clothes dry, the water in them evaporates and they become lighter.

So, once the weight stops changing, the washing should be dry.

For our real-world test, we're using dry clothes to check the alarm

so, if it works, it should go off more or less straightaway

once we've hung the clothes out. It's all riding on this.

In theory, when I plug this receiver in,

it should send a message to Oliver and his mum.

So, let's join them now.

Oliver, I'll let you do the honours.

Plug the battery in.

We're hoping we get a message that says...the washing is done.

Lee's system weighs the washing every five minutes

and then decides whether to send a signal.

So, we waited...

..and waited...

PIG GRUNTS

..and, just as we were about to give up...

-BUZZING

-Yes!

-Yes!

Washing dry!

Oliver, what a success! Both parts of the test worked today.

I'm feeling really great. It's just a brilliant day,

and I hope to get through to the final with this idea.

Although it's been a success,

expert Lee has spotted a problem - the wind.

When the wind blows, the clothes will tug on the line and could give

a false reading to the sensor, showing they're changing weight.

So, Oliver, how did you find your day at the pig farm?

It was really good.

I loved learning about my idea and how I could venture forward from it.

-You've got lots to think about, haven't you?

-Yep.

-But overall, happy? Thumbs up?

-Yeah.

-Yes!

We've seen how Oliver's idea might actually work, although they didn't

take into account the elements - how will the wind affect his line?

Overall though, the skies look blue for Oliver and his genius idea.

With the real-world tests completed, they've each thrown up

different results for the young inventors. Emily's been able

to test the technology that will make her idea work.

Karampreet has to solve the difficult problem of transferring

the energy back to Earth. And Oliver's seen his line work,

but needs to ensure the weighing mechanism -

to tell when the clothes are dry - remains accurate when it's windy.

But who can impress Tom the most with their overall results

and win themselves that place in the final?

So, Tom, we've just seen the real tests there.

Anything that caught your eye?

Yeah, it's all great.

In particular, it's good to see even Karampreet perhaps becoming aware of

how big his idea is and some of the hurdles

he's going to face in making it a reality.

So, yeah, that's the point of the real-world tests -

to discover things that you couldn't do in theory.

Is it exciting for you to see these ideas

kind of start to become more real?

It is. I'm not even the one who's developing them.

So, yeah, it's great to be sat back and seeing what they're developing.

-Really good.

-I know we've got three very excited and pretty nervous

young inventors waiting to chat with you and talk you through

-their ideas. I'll leave you to make some final preparations.

-Thanks.

OK. You know what time it is, don't you? It's time to speak to Tom...

'All three of our budding inventors

'now have to pitch to Tom for a place in the final.

'First up, it's...'

-Oliver. Are you ready?

-Yeah.

-Are you prepared?

-Yeah.

Bring it on. Off you go. Good luck!

To impress Tom, Oliver will need to remember all the technology

behind his idea, as well as proving that his invention

still has the potential to work. Will Tom be convinced

that he should win a place in the final?

Hi, Oliver, lovely to see you. I understand you've been testing

your wireless washing-line on a farm with some pigs. How did it go?

-It went really well.

-In particular, what aspects went well?

-The washing line went forwards and backwards...

-Yes.

..first time, so that was really good.

And the alarm went off at the right time, and when it went off,

we all jumped and cheered, so it was really good.

Did any problems arise during this test?

We thought about the problems and I've got two.

The pulley system must allow pegs to go round it.

If the pegs can't go around the pulley system,

-it's just going to go forwards and backwards.

-Right, OK.

And then you're not going to be able to get the far clothing to you, etc.

You mentioned that you had two problems. What was the other?

The sensor must go off at the right time.

Lee, my expert, says that the sensor must be adapted, so the wind

-doesn't interfere, so it sends the alarm just at the right time.

-OK.

It pulls the weight of the clothes down and makes them appear heavier?

-Yeah.

-Listen, thank you very much for answering all my questions

and for another presentation.

I think you've done really well. You seem to have learned a lot

and seem to relish the challenge of overcoming another problem and...

-well done.

-Thank you.

-Thank you, Oliver.

I think it went really well today.

It's all dependent on what he decides.

Next up, it's Karampreet. Has he come up with a solution

to transfer the power from his solar space panels back to Earth

that will persuade Tom he's worthy of a place in the final?

Hi, Karampreet. It's great to see you again.

I understand you've been researching your solar space panels

further by visiting the largest solar wall in Europe.

-How did that go?

-That went really well.

I made a few slight modifications to my idea whilst I was there.

OK. Interesting, I look forward to learning about that.

What aspects of the test that you went through worked well?

In the first experiment, we allowed a 3 square metre solar panel

to collect solar energy on what was a rather cloudy day.

-The energy output we got was 33 Volts.

-OK.

We then obstructed some of the light coming in with an artificial cloud,

-and the new reading came in at 27 Volts.

-OK.

-That's a reduction of around 20%.

-So it's very clear

that cloud cover affects the amount of solar energy you can collect.

It does. Even on a sunny day, the atmosphere

absorbs around 40% of the solar energy we'd otherwise receive.

-Which is a huge amount.

-And we're obviously limited to daytime hours.

And these issues would be overcome by my idea.

So these were things you discovered and you defined.

Were there any problems that arose during your test?

In a second experiment,

we transmitted microwave energy through the air

and allowed some of it to be collected by a receiver antenna.

-OK.

-The reading we got was actually extremely small

and was next to nothing if something obstructed the path.

-OK.

-Or if we increased the distance

from the transmitter to the receiver antenna.

-OK.

-And this showed it would be imperative to send the microwave

energy as a focused beam, so all the energy is collected by a dish.

I certainly credit you for thinking so big with the whole of this idea.

A great presentation again. You've answered all my questions.

You, of course, have researched this thoroughly,

-so, thank you very much, Karampreet.

-Thank you.

I thought my pitch went very well.

I did my pitch as best I could. If I don't get through,

I won't be worried, because there's nothing else I could have done.

Finally, it's Emily's turn to pitch her marine mammal protection system.

Tom will be judging all the young inventors on how well

their ideas have progressed from the heats,

and the results from the real-world tests.

-Hi, Emily, it's a pleasure to see you again.

-Hi.

I hear that you got to see some marine mammals up close

in the real world as part of your reward tests.

Yeah, it was really cool. We saw two seals and they were really pretty.

How did the tests go?

The tests went really well.

Because we were quite far away and the sound travelled so well through

-the water, it was really good that we could still hear it.

-Yeah.

It actually travels better than it does through the air.

-OK.

-It was really quite amazing.

-Do you think if there were other

ambient sounds that were going on - maybe lots of fishing,

lots of boat activity -

do you think that might affect the clarity of the sound you heard?

When we were playing my sound, we could still hear all the boats,

but you can still make out which sound it was

and really clearly, so I don't think it would affect it at all.

So, over and above the sound of the other boats,

you could still hear the sound clearly?

The sound you played through the hydrophone,

was that an actual sample from a killer whale?

Yeah. Jonathan said he'd recorded it a while back

-and they were the real sounds.

-OK, OK.

So, it's an accurate reproduction of a recording of that sound,

and that's what's played through the hydrophone.

What have you identified is the primary...

locations where this technology would be of greatest benefit?

I was speaking with Jonathan.

We realised...

-that wind turbine construction is a major threat to them.

-Yeah.

It's a really big part of noise pollution.

There's always people on patrol boats looking out for the animals.

If they're spotted, the operation is immediately stopped

and it can't continue until all the animals are away.

-OK.

-If we could keep them away before they got near,

-it would save the company time and money.

-Yes, OK.

-Listen, well done, and thank you for a clear presentation.

-Thank you.

I thought it went really well. I'm really happy

with what I said to Tom today and I hope he puts me through to the final.

Oliver, Karampreet and Emily have tested

their ideas in the real world and have pitched their results to Tom.

Only one of them can win the last place in the all-important final.

Will it be Oliver and his idea for

a wireless controlled washing line?

Karampreet's solar panels in space?

Or Emily's marine mammal

protection system?

Tom, it's the second semi-final and these decisions

-don't get any easier, do they?

-No, they don't.

-This has been the toughest decision I've had to make so far.

-Really?

Really difficult. Weighing everything up,

-it's been really challenging.

-OK. It may have been challenging,

but have you come to a final decision?

-Have you decided who is going to be in the final?

-I have, yes.

OK, Thomas, if you'd like to take a seat,

I'll welcome in our young inventors.

It's crunch time.

They've all spent time testing their ideas and have pitched them to Tom.

But who has won that place in the final?

How are you all feeling?

-Nervous.

-There's a lot of tension in the room.

You've all done so well to get this far - to the semi-final.

Tom has admitted this has been

the most difficult decision he's had to make yet.

Nevertheless, he has come to a decision.

-So, Tom, it's over to you.

-Yeah, the three of you

have done brilliantly, to echo what Johnny said.

Oliver, you've shown a true inventive spirit

and you constantly find solutions to all the problems you encounter,

but I do still question whether this is the best solution

to the problem of drying clothes.

Karampreet, your capacity to think big is utterly inspiring.

So too is your ability to underpin your ideas

with intelligent thinking and hard facts. However, I still wonder if

there are too many unknown factors that make this idea

a fantastic area for further research.

Emily, it's a unique idea and a very clever one too.

But while your expert believes it will work,

we still haven't seen it work in the wild.

All things considered, I have come to a conclusion and...

the young inventor that I'm going to send through to the final is...

..Emily.

So, Emily wins the last place in the final with her idea of

a marine mammal protection system,

and will go head-to-head with Tybalt and his bike bleeper.

Emily, did you think you were going to make it through?

I thought I'd have a chance of getting through, but because

-both the boys' ideas were really good, I wasn't sure.

-Well done,

you got through to the final!

So, we have our second and last genius idea through to the final,

and it was Emily's. Over these eight shows,

we've seen some incredible ideas

that have shown originality and creativity at their best.

A big thank you to Karampreet and Oliver. Join us next time,

as Emily takes on Tybalt in the My Genius Idea grand final.

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