"I love paper, and I love technology," says physicist Kate Stone. Her experiments combine plain paper with conductive ink and microscopic circuit boards to offer a unique, enchanting experience. To date, applications include a newspaper with built-in sound and video, posters that show real-time energy consumption, and ultra-stylish drums and set of DJ consoles that show on stage.
The translation was done by Christina Papadimitriou and custody by Chryssa Rapessi for the TED Talks
I love the paper and I love technology and my job is to make the paper interactive. And that's what I say when they ask me what I do, but it really confuses most, so the best way to convey it is to get the technology and to be creative and to create experiences.
So I tried to think about what I could use here and just two weeks ago, I had the crazy idea of printing two Jay consoles and trying to mix music. And I will try to show it in the end, and the anxiety of working will be as great for me as well. And I'm not a Jay or a musician so I'm afraid a little bit. Well, I think, I found out that the ideal way to describe my trip is to refer to a few things that happened to me during my life. There are three specific things I have done and I will describe them first and then I will talk about a piece of my work.
Λοιπόν, όταν ήμουν παιδί, είχα πάθος με τα καλώδια, και τα περνούσα κάτω από το χαλί μου και τα περνούσα πίσω από τους τοίχους και είχα μικρούς διακόπτες και μικροφωνάκια και ήθελα να κάνω το δωμάτιό μου διαδραστικό αλλά με όλα κάπως κρυμμένα. Και πραγματικά με ενδιέφεραν εξίσου και τα ασύρματα. Οπότε αγόρασα ένα από αυτά τα σετ εργαλείων που μπορούσες να βρεις για να φτιάξεις ένα ραδιοφωνικό αναμεταδότη, και πήρα ένα old βιβλίο και αφαίρεσα το εσωτερικό και το έκρυψα εκεί μέσα, και μετά το τοποθέτησα δίπλα στον μπαμπά μου και γλίστρησα πίσω στο δωμάτιό μου και συντονίστηκα στο ράδιο, ώστε να μπορώ να κρυφακούσω. Δεν με ενδιέφερε καθόλου το τι έλεγε. Περισσότερο απολάμβανα απλώς την ιδέα ότι ένα καθημερινό αντικείμενο είχε κάτι μέσα και έκανε κάτι το διαφορετικό.
A few years later, I successfully failed all my exams and didn't graduate school having a lot to show for it and my parents, perhaps as a reward, bought me what ended up being a non-return ticket for Australia, and came home about four years later.
I ended up on a farm in the middle of nowhere. It was in far western New South Wales. And this farm had an area of 500 acres. And there were 22.000 sheep and the thermowinea reached about 40 degrees, or around 100 Fahrenheit. And on this farm lived the farmer, his wife, and their four-year-old daughter. And they took me to the farm and showed me what it was like to live and work. Obviously, one of the most important things was the sheep, and so my job was to do more or less everything, but basically it was to bring the sheep back to the farm. And we did that by building fences, using motorbikes and horses, and the sheep would take the road back to the fold for the different seasons. And what I learned was that even though at the time, like everyone else, I thought the sheep were dumb because they didn't want to do what we wanted them to do, what I realize now, probably only in the last couple of weeks, thinking about it, is that the sheep weren't dumb at all. We were putting them in an environment where they didn't want to be and they didn't want to do what we wanted them to do. So the challenge was trying to get them to do what we wanted them to do by listening to the weather, the topography and creating things that would make the sheep move effortlessly and go where we wanted them to go.
A few years later I ended up at University του Κέμπριτζ και το Εργαστήριο Κάβεντις στο Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο κάνοντας διδακτορικό στη Φυσική. Το διδακτορικό μου ήταν να κάνω τα ηλεκτρόνια να κινούνται, ένα ένα. Και συνειδητοποίησα — και πάλι, είναι μια από αυτές τις συνειδητοποιήσεις φέρνοντας πάλι στο μυαλό μου τι έκανα — συνειδητοποιώ τώρα ότι ήταν λίγο πολύ το ίδιο όπως το να κάνεις τα πρόβατα να κινούνται. Πράγματι, είναι. Απλώς το κάνεις αλλάζοντας ένα περιβάλλον. Και αυτό ήταν ένα μεγάλο μάθημα για μένα ότι δεν μπρορείτε να δράσετε σε οποιοδήποτε αντικείμενο. Αλλάζετε το περιβάλλον του και το αντικείμενο θα κινηθεί. Οπότε το κάναμε πολύ μικρό και τα αντικείμενα ήταν περίπου 30 νανόμετρα σε μέγεθος• κάνοντάς το πολύ κρύο, τόσο όσο σε θερμοκρασίες υγρού ηλίου• και αλλάζαμε το περιβάλλον αλλάζοντας την τάση και τα ηλεκτρόνια μπορούσαν να ρέουν σε κύκλωμα ένα ένα, μέσα και έξω, ένας μικρός κόμβος της μνήμης.
And I wanted to go a step further and I wanted to move an electron in and an electron out. And they told me I couldn't do that, which, you know, as we've heard from other people, is what ultimately drives you to do it. And I was determined, and I managed to prove that I could do it. And a lot of that knowledge, I think, came from living on that farm, because when I was working on the farm, we had to use what was around us, we had to use the environment, and there was no such thing as not something can happen because you're in an environment where if you can't do what you need to do, you can die and, you know, I've seen it happen.
So now my passion is printing and I am really excited about the idea of using conventional printing processes so that the types of printing used to create many of the things around us make paper and card interactive. When I spoke with some printers at my start and told them what I wanted to do, which was to print on paper with conductive ink, I was told that this favorite thing was not again. So I got some 10a credit cards and loans and I came close to bankruptcy, really, and I bought a huge printer that I had no idea how to use it. It was about five meters long and I covered myself and the floor with ink and created a huge mess, but I learned to print. And then I went back to the publishers and showed them what I had done, and they said, "Of course, you can do that. Why did not you come here from the beginning? "That's how it is.
Well, what we do is that we get conventional printers, we create conductive inks, and we go through a printer and basically just let hundreds of thousands of electrons flow through pieces of paper and so we can make the paper interactive. And it's pretty easy, really. It is just a set of things that have been done, but combined in a different way. Well, we have a piece of paper with conductive ink and then we add a small circuit board with two chips, one to run capacitive touch software to know where we've touched and the other to run, quite often, wireless software, so that the piece of paper can be connected.
Well, I will just describe a couple of things we have done. We have made many different things. This is one of them, because I love the cake. And this is a big poster and you touch it and it has a small speaker behind it and your poster speaks when you touch it and makes you a series of questions and identifies you the perfect cake. But he does not reveal the cake at that moment. It raises an image and why she chose this cake for you on our Facebook and Twitter page. So, we're trying to create this connection between hardware and digital, but not looking at a screen, and just look like a normal poster.
We worked with a few universities on this project, looking at the case of interactive newsprint. So, for example, we created a newspaper, a regular newspaper. You can wear a set of headphones that connect to it wirelessly and when you touch it, you can hear the music described above, which is something you can't read. You can listen to a press conference while reading what the publisher has defined as the content of the press conference. And you can like on Facebook, or also vote on something.
Another thing we built and this was an idea I had a few years ago, so we did a project on it. It was government funding for user-centred energy efficient building design, which is hard to say and something I had no idea what it was when I went into the workshop, but quickly learned. And we wanted to try and encourage people to use energy in a better way. And I really liked the idea, instead of looking at a dial and reading things to say, looking at your energy usage, I wanted to create a poster that would be connected wirelessly and have connections on it that change color and so if your energy consumption tended for the better, then the leaves and rabbits would appear and all would be well. And if it wasn't, then there would be graffiti and leaves would fall from the trees. Well, I was trying to get you to take care of something in your immediate environment that you don't want to see not looking very good, rather than expecting people to do things in the local environment because of the consequences that are far away. And I think, like going back to the farm, it's about letting people do what you want them to do rather than forcing people to do what you want them to do.
Okay. Well, that's the part I'm really afraid of. Well, some things I've created is a poster here over which you can play drums. And I'm not a musician. It seemed a good idea when I made it. If someone wants to try and play drums, they can do it. I will just describe how it works. The poster is wirelessly connected to my mobile phone and when you touch it I will connect to the application.
(Drums)
And it really has a good response time. It uses Bluetooth 4, so it's almost instantaneous. Okay. Thanks. (Clap)
There are two other things. Well, this is like a sound card, so you can touch it, I love those horrible noises!
(Sirens, explosions, breaking glass)
Okay, this is a DJ console Well, it's wirelessly connected to my iPad and this is a software running on the iPad. Oh yes! I love to do this. Of course, I'm not a DJ, but I always wanted to do that. (Scratching) Well, I have a mechanism to "quit" the sound and I have both consoles. So I made a new technology, and I love being creative, and I love working with creative people. So, my 15 naive niece is wonderful, it's called Charlotte, and I asked her to record something and worked with a friend called Eliot to mount some bits. Well, this is my niece, Charlotte.
(Music)
So!
(Clap)
Well, that's what I generally do. I just like connecting technologies, having fun, being creative. But it's not just about technology. It's about me wanting to create some great experiences.
Well, thank you very much.
