All language subtitles for NOVA.S51E15.Building.Stuff.Boost.It.1080p.WEB.h264-BAE_track3_[eng]

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
We live in a built world;

engineering and technology,

built upon innovations and
inventions,

stretching back thousands
of years.

Some of our creations,
like machines,

boost our bodies' abilities.

Others help us reach outside
our comfort zones.

We have left an indelible mark
on the planet

and now the time has come

to use our skills
to make a better world.

Like turbo-charging
the ancient sling.

JONATHAN YANEY:
The idea is 50,000 years old.

NARRATOR:
To launch satellites in a way

we've never done before.

A device that boosts our
sense of touch

to share a dance.

PAUL GALANDO:
I felt I was moving
along with you.

PATRICK PARISEAU:
Begin.

NARRATOR:
Or aid in movement.

A machine
to boost a human experience

and inspire a new generation.

Oh my gosh, so good.

NARRATOR:
Or even recreating a sense...

Good to go.

NARRATOR:
...to replace something
that was lost.

BRIAN BUSSARD:
That was the first time in years

that I had a sensation
of vision.

(whirring)

NARRATOR:
"Building Stuff! Boost It!,"

right now on "NOVA."

♪ ♪

ANNOUNCER:
Major funding for "NOVA"
is provided by the following:

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Earth is home to more than
eight billion people,

living in a world full
of human invention.

ADAM STELTZNER:
Certainly in our modern world,

we don't really appreciate

how saturated
with engineering it is.

Every pen you pick up
to write something with

has been engineered.

The paper on which you write

has been engineered.

♪ ♪

FRANCISCO VALERO-CUEVAS:
Humans are engineers at heart.

You see a problem and
then you identify a solution.

And we've been doing
that forever.

NARRATOR:
This thing we call
engineering...

what is it?

Where does this impulse
to make things come from?

♪ ♪

Anthropologists tell us that
the roots of invention

reach deeper into our past
than we ever imagined.

According to our best records,

some 3.3 million years ago

our ancestors figured out

how to sharpen
a certain kind of rock.

Creating a tool for cutting,

much better than our teeth.

Boosting the chances
for survival.

KENNETH HARRIS II:
Humans dating

way, way back in time

have been inventing things
that help efficiency.

They help their survival,
that help drive them forward

based on the needs of that time.

MARIA YANG:
It's an innate

desire to make things better

through making tools.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
And ever since,

one idea has led to another.

♪ ♪

And every invention
around us today

can be traced back
to those first tools...

♪ ♪

MAN:
We have a cutoff off
at T-minus 30 seconds.

NARRATOR:
Since the 1950s,

rockets have been
our go-to workhorse

for sending people
and payloads into orbit.

(rocket engines roaring)

They are some of the most
complex machines ever built;

the ultimate boost into the sky.

But they aren't exactly new.

Even modern rockets have
historic roots,

going back in time.

Some ancient projectiles

were powered
by chemical explosives

like gunpowder.

In 1232, Chinese soldiers
repelled a Mongol army

using flaming arrows--

likely propelled by
simple rockets.

♪ ♪

Today, rockets are far
more powerful.

Able to send humans to the moon

and the International Space
Station.

MAN:
Solid rocket ignition.

NARRATOR:
But rockets have limitations...

STELTZNER:
Putting things in orbit is hard.

It takes a lot of energy.

Rockets are hard.

They take a lot of energy.

Basically the amount of
fuel required

for rockets to reach,

you know, the outer reach
of our atmosphere

is the limiting factor.

YANEY:
Something like 92, 93%
of the mass

of any rocket is, is fuel;

leaving about 5% or 6%
for the actual structure

and only 2% for the payload.

HARRIS II:
There is a

high demand... (chuckles)

...to put things into space,

but there are limited means

of getting it there.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
But that may soon change.

If engineers at a company
called SpinLaunch

can make the dream imagined

in this promotional video
a reality.

YANEY:
SpinLaunch is a highly unique
way to get to space.

The idea itself

goes back to caveman times.

It's a sling.

NARRATOR:
A sling is an
ancient hunter's weapon.

It's an improvement on the arm
and shoulder's ability

to throw a stone.

Archeologists have found
ancient evidence of slings;

some at least 12,000 years old.

For Jonathan Yaney,
the sling is an inspiration.

YANEY:
It rotates.

And at the end of
a rotational element,

you have really,
really high speed.

NARRATOR:
So Jonathan embraced
a radical idea:

use that speed to launch
a spacecraft into orbit.

MABRY:
A sling is something

you spin around,

and basically the more
you can spin it,

the more force you can

basically put on the release

of whatever you're slinging out.

But if you scale this up,

that same principle has
the ability

to launch a rocket into orbit.

That's incredible.

NARRATOR:
That idea has been met
with skepticism,

so the SpinLaunch team
has much to prove.

DAVID WRENN:
It is one of those ideas

that just sounds too crazy.

I think it's good to look
at things,

from a place of skepticism,
at the outset.

But then you have
to be objective

about looking at, well,

what are the underlying
physics

NARRATOR:
The SpinLaunch team is
using electricity

to generate rotational speed,

faster than the speed of sound.

The proposed payload--

a satellite encased in
a bullet-shaped shell--

must withstand up to 10,000 Gs,
or 10,000 times

the force of Earth's gravity,

until it is released...

...at just the right moment.

Once the aeroshell gets around
40 miles up,

the casing would separate

to allow two small
rocket engines

to propel the payload

the rest of the way to
low Earth orbit.

MABRY:
The arm itself that's
actually spinning around

needs to be able to
withstand it

to a certain degree as well.

So you have a need

to not only make sure
that it is structurally sound,

but there needs to be
precision in the timing

in the programming of that
actual release point.

YANEY:
I don't have any classical
training as an engineer.

I self-educate.

I, I read a lot of books...
(chuckles)

...lots of books,
and then I read them again

because I didn't really
understand them the first time.

I became an engineer
along the way.

NARRATOR:
The team's first goal

was to build a proof of concept

mass accelerator
at one-eighth scale,

to validate the key technologies
and use it as a test bed

to spin potential
space-bound components

at many times the force
of Earth's gravity.

Also known as, as g-forces.

And "g" represents
one unit of Earth gravity.

When a pilot pulls up

on the yoke of their jet and
they make a hard turn,

they'll feel the equivalent of
multiple times' Earth gravity,

upwards of eight Gs,
for example.

NARRATOR:
But SpinLaunch payloads

will have to withstand forces

orders of magnitude stronger,

as many as 10,000 Gs.

So the team is working on
building and testing components

that can survive
such extreme acceleration.

STELTZNER:
You know, in some ways,
we humans are sort of timid.

We feel most comfortable
with things

that look like things
we're used to.

So you can't really tell
at the outset

whether the thing that you're
doing that's outlandish

is really going to work.

NARRATOR:
Today, the SpinLaunch team

is asking a critical question:

Can a payload like a CubeSat
survive 10,000 Gs?

So a CubeSat is this

miniaturization of
satellites,

literally making them

into these little cube
components.

So this ten centimeter by
ten centimeter

by ten centimeter unit,

is one piece that can be

added on top of each other
like LEGO blocks.

So we have some of
the most critical subsystems

that you would see on
any satellite.

We have a solar cell here.

it generates a current that
charges this battery up.

And then the battery

stores that energy, right.

And distributes it to all
of the critical subsystems

that require electricity.

So the OBC, or the onboard
computer, is one of them.

This is the, the brains
of the satellite.

NARRATOR:
The team is confident the
CubeSat as a whole will survive,

but so far they've only tested
individual components,

and never the whole system.

CHACHRA:
You know, it's a very,

very common strategy
in engineering

to say we're going to
break this problem

into small parts.

We're going to solve

each of the original parts,

and then we're going to put it
back together again.

NARRATOR:
The team aims to test

some of the components

that are typically found
on CubeSats,

starting with the computer.

JUSTIN WILLIAMS:
So this is saying effectively

its power rails
are all working correctly.

It looks to be talking to
the world just fine.

NARRATOR:
So far, they know that
the battery pack

is particularly vulnerable.

(machine whirring)

A pretest of
the battery pack system

didn't make it
out of the accelerator

in one piece.

(crunches)

SANDOMIRSKY:
This gave us a great benchmark

when it hit 7,650 Gs,

that it was pretty darn close.

(machine whirring)

(crunches)

And we didn't have to do
all that much

to make it compatible
with our launch environment.

The batteries aren't designed
for 10,000 Gs natively...

NARRATOR:
The SpinLaunch engineering team
had to figure out

how to make the batteries
more resistant

to the high g forces.

WRENN:
So this is the original.

SANDOMIRSKY:
We saw these batteries

laying on top of each other.

The concern there is that

when you're on the bottom
of the stack,

you're getting three batteries
worth of mass squished on to

plus your own mass.
Yup.

NARRATOR:
This orientation of
the battery cells

didn't work out so well
in the spinner.

The g forces are going
this way.

WRENN:
And you can even see
the bolts

are embedded and bent
into the base here.

One of the things
that we did was

turned it sideways.
Yep.

Let each battery
support itself

and itself only.
Yeah.

SANDOMIRSKY:
So we're going to fully populate
this satellite

with all of the key subsystems
that we're testing out here.

This is the pre-spin test
of the solar cell 1.2 volts.

And then after we're done
with the test,

we will check it out again

and make sure that it's
still getting

a similar voltage reading.

This is going to be
the first time

that this unit
with everything in it--

the battery pack,
the computer--

is spinning up to 10,000 Gs.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Reaching the acceleration

required for launch
is itself

a difficult engineering problem.
There we go.

NARRATOR:
At those speeds,

friction just from the air
would be intense.

So the inside of the accelerator

is actually
a giant vacuum chamber.

YANEY:
If you can pull all
of the air out of it,

then there's
no more air resistance

and consequently heat
on the rotational structure.

(lock clicks)
SANDOMIRSKY:
There we go.

(lock clicks)
Now we're going to go

let the, the vacuum chamber
draw down the pressure.

And then we can spin up.

MARK SIPPERLEY:
Accelerating system...

♪ ♪

(machine whirring)

(numbers clicking)

(whirring continues)

♪ ♪

(numbers clicking)

...9,000,

1.1...,

...95, 96,

97, 98.

10,000.
10,000 Gs. Coming down.

Time.

SANDOMIRSKY:
Yeah! (laughs)

(applause)

♪ Come on, baby ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Let's go ♪

(tool clatters)

(echoing):
Well, look at that.

I don't hear any rattles.

Looks like it's intact.

STELTZNER:
The pressure one feels

when you're hoping for success

is mostly about

the incredible personal human

investment that's gone in

and not wanting to let down

all of your colleagues

when the moment of truth comes.

SANDOMIRSKY:
Let's crack it open.

I'm going to test voltage
on the solar cell.

Yeah. So 0.8.

That's in a reasonable range.

Okay, so now we will take out
the computer.

Looks like it is intact.

It's still responding

when we send it messages,

so it looks pretty good.

I would say that
that was a successful test.

Pretty cool.

Whoo!

(clapping)
(laughs)

NARRATOR:
SpinLaunch has done what
engineers do--

♪ ♪

methodically design, test,
evaluate--

(computer beeping)
and repeat--

as they step their way up

to a system big enough

to send payloads
into low Earth orbit.

♪ ♪

YANEY:
We went to the desert of
New Mexico

to build a flight test system,
you know, at a large scale

that would allow us
to essentially prove

that we had not only
the technology validated,

we could test our own ability

to construct and to execute

on a system of this magnitude
and scale.

(machine whirring)

NARRATOR:
Launching at one-third scale

was a powerful milestone,

spinning the payload

to more than
1,000 miles per hour.

♪ ♪

YANEY:
It was an emotional moment
for the team.

(people cheering)

You have to have
a little bit of faith

to bring something like this

to that level and
to that, that scale.

(rockets bursting)

We've conducted ten successful
back-to-back flight tests.

We haven't had a single failure,

and I think that's a testament

to the practicality of
the technology.

SANDOMIRSKY:
This will be, for the first time

since we've gone to space

as a species, that we'll be
doing it differently.

NARRATOR:
It's common for engineers

to build on an old technology,

transforming it with
new materials,

to scale their way
to innovation.

It's with a spinning arm

that's throwing satellites
into space.

That's totally new.

How could that not
be exciting?

♪ ♪

When you look at cutting edge
technology today,

you can see that it's just
being built upon

the things that we've already
seen from the past.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Sometimes we boost technology

from the more recent past.

Consider something we take
for granted

in everything from cell phones

to cars to video games.

(video game beeping,
controller clicking))

It's called "haptics".

Vibrations and
other physical sensations

that enable our technology
to talk back to us

through our sense of touch.

(cymbals clinking)

NARRATOR:
At Harvard, scientist and
engineer Shriya Srinivasan

is thinking about those
physical feedback loops

every time she performs
an ancient dance.

SHRIYA SRINIVASAN:
I've been dancing
since I was very young.

The ideas around movement and
sensory feedback

have been percolating
in my brain

in for a long time.

(cymbals tapping)

When I dance, of course,

I'm intimately aware of my body
and its movements.

What the audience feels,
however,

may be limited
by their conditioning

or what they can perceive
visually.

♪ ♪

(voiceover):
I am a biomedical engineer
by training

and at some point
I started to wonder,

can we use the receptors in
our skin to communicate

the complexity of the rhythms

that are embedded within
the choreography?

And would that enable
the audience

to experience then the dance
to a higher dimension?

NARRATOR:
Shriya turned her curiosity
into an engineering problem:

Could she share the rhythmic
complexity of the choreography--

as she feels it in her body
with the audience?

To find out,

she and her dance company
co-founder, Joshua George,

are conducting trials at
Harvard's Motion Capture Lab.

♪ ♪

KRITHIKA SWAMINATHAN:
So we're going to grab this
metatarsal point.

NARRATOR:
The motion capture system
reads and records

the position of the dots
placed on Joshua,

in order to create a
digital version of his movements

and understand the biomechanics
of the dance.
Great.

SRINIVASAN (voiceover):
But more importantly,
we're interested in capturing

what's not readily visible
to the eye.

So muscle activation,
for example,

or forces to the ground.

MAN:
Now, can you flex your biceps?

NARRATOR:
Audience members can see
the movements,

but they can't feel the force
of a step or a jump.

VALERO-CUEVAS:
If you think about how
humans interact,

we like shaking hands.

We like hugging.

So being able to tap into

that sense of touch,

or as it's sometimes
called embodiment,

is a gateway into
allowing you to be...

and experience something

that you're
not immediately doing,

for example, it'd be great
to feel how a dancer moves.

SRINIVASAN:
So as you flex the bicep,
you can see in yellow

the activation of that muscle.

SWAMINATHAN:
We have these reflective markers
that we put on someone.

We have them do
a certain movement.

We take that information

and kind of convert that into

body movement quantitative
data.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
What we think of as haptics
embedded in technology

has roots in aviation.

As planes advanced,

pilots no longer felt mechanical
vibrations in the controls

when the plane was about
to stall.

So haptics were used to
replace these vibrations

artificially,
preserving the warning.

SETOR ZILEVU:
Haptics is super critical

and very innovative in
the design process

because it has the ability
to really blend

the physical world with
the digital world.

haptics were everywhere.

Things felt.

You pushed a button on
your radio

and the button went sha-clank
and you could feel it.

My brain is evolved

to sense whether that action

that I've taken with my finger

has resulted in a,

um, an actual an effect.

(computer beeping)

NARRATOR:
Shriya's team is applying this
concept to dance.

SRINIVASAN:
Take a feel and see
what you think.

NARRATOR:
And the team is using modern
technology to develop it.

ISABELLA GOMEZ-HJERTHEN:
At the moment we're using

two different types of haptics
on the phone.

(phone vibrating)

So we can set them at different
intensities,

different sharpness.

We can also vary how long
they are.

We're able to then assign

a haptic pattern
or a vibration pattern

to that move and have it happen
at that time,

during the song
or during the performance.

NARRATOR:
They are under pressure
to work out the kinks--

they're giving a performance
the next day

and they hope to work with
the audience to test the system.

SWAMINATHAN:
Okay. Yeah, I think we're
set for Friday.

NARRATOR:
Besides enhanced
dance performances,

Shriya's lab is also using
haptics to do research

to help medical patients with
muscle spasticity

move more smoothly.

They're asking
if vibration feedback

can reduce the symptoms
of spasticity;

a condition that causes muscles
to stiffen,

making them difficult to move--

often as result
of spinal cord injury

or traumatic brain injury,

A.L.S., multiple sclerosis,
or cerebral palsy.

Patrick Pariseau,

a PhD candidate,

is one of Shriya's students.

PARISEAU:
With spasticity,

it feels like someone

is holding your limb
in place.

Any time you want to move,

you have to struggle
against yourself.

Shriya is working on
a potential solution.

SRINIVASAN (voiceover):
The nervous system is kind of
like an orchestra.

And conducting it is the brain,

sending signals
but also receiving feedback

about which parts are
playing what.

And having them work together

is the key to executing movement

and moving seamlessly in
the world.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
In typical arm motion,

the bicep contracts to bend
the arm at the elbow

while the tricep relaxes,

and the tricep contracts
to straighten the arm

while the bicep relaxes.

(electronic buzzing)

The device that they're building

is designed to pick up
activation of one muscle

and then mechanically tell
the opposite muscle to relax.

♪ ♪

SRINIVASAN:
In a patient with spasticity,
for example,

there's co-contraction,
so as your bicep contracts,

your tricep is also contracting

and that causes that movement
to be rigid.

PARISEAU:
So we're targeting the biceps
and triceps.

Let me know
if it's too tight.

DARAIO:
Biomedical engineering,
requires

a fundamental understanding
not only of

the basic engineering
principles

like mechanics, electronics
and...

uh, computer science,

but also of
the fundamental properties

of the biology
of the human body.

NARRATOR:
Step one:
put the prototype system

on student volunteer Anni

and use it to collect data

with a simple reflex test.

We've attached
E.M.G. sensors.

So E.M.G.
is electromyography.

We're going to record
the activation of her muscles

and then display it
on this laptop.

(device beeping,
hammer tapping in rhythm)

Yeah, I think that was...

...that, that was.
Oh, yeah.

PARISEAU:
Yeah? That was a strong one.

NARRATOR:
Step two:

measure the amount

of muscle activation
when the device vibrates,

to see if the activation
goes down.

PARISEAU:
So now we are going to
turn on the vibration.

SRINIVASAN:
Here what we're looking at is

can we apply
vibratory stimuli

at just the right time
and at the right amount

and the right parameters
to relax the relevant muscles

to allow for more
free movement.

(device beeping,
hammer tapping in rhythm)

Yeah, I think that's...
All right.

So now it should be
stimulating on the bicep.

Can you feel it on your bicep?
Yes.

(device beeping,
hammer tapping in rhythm)

Yup.
Yep. Right there?

All right. Great.

NARRATOR:
The next step?

Preliminary analysis
of the motions.

The hope is
that vibration reduces

unwanted muscle activation

so they can use vibrations
in their device

to relax the targeted muscles.

If they can demonstrate that,

then eventually
they plan to build a device

that will detect activation
in one muscle

and determine which other muscle
to deactivate.

(electronic buzzing)

PARISEAU:
Begin.

NARRATOR:
Boosting flexibility

and restoring motion.

Two, three, four, five.

NARRATOR: In today's test...
Relax.

NARRATOR:
...the device is giving them
encouraging data.

Confirming vibration
as an effective strategy

for relaxing specific muscles
brings them one step closer

to developing a therapeutic
device for spasticity.

PARISEAU:
The feeling that
we were able to,

What appears to be successfully,

relax those muscles with
vibration

was a very good feeling,

because it means
that we're one step closer

to help people with spasticity
move more easily.

NARRATOR:
From one test to another.

Good evening, everybody.

Welcome to Decoded Rhythms.

The human nervous system...

NARRATOR:
The first opportunity
for Shriya and her dance company

to add a layer
to the performance

through haptic feedback.

Sensation is the gateway
to the human experience.

NARRATOR:
Audience members
download an app,

and as they watch and listen,

they'll feel
synchronized vibrations.

♪ ♪

SWAMINATHAN:
We're hoping that the audience

can be more in tune
with the performance

by giving them this
sort of understanding,

haptically,
what the dancers are doing.

♪ ♪

(music ends)

(audience applauding)

SRINIVASAN:
I thought it was a good
work in progress demo.

Most of the technology aspects
worked well.

Everything synced,

and it was exciting to just
see initial--

people's initial reactions
to it.

I love this.
Um, I'm an ex ballet dancer.

There's something about having
this motion and movement

in my hand, but I felt I was
moving along with you,

and that was really cool.

(audience applauding)

NARRATOR:
Combining two worlds,

each adding a bit to the other.

SRINIVASAN:
I would say that the data

that we're gathering from
the dance work,

the biomechanics,

the ability
to classify movements

to interpret intent,

all of those
higher level insights

will guide us in the development

of patterns for patients
with spasticity.

Two, three, four, five.

Relax.

NARRATOR:
We all have physical limits.

But tools of all kinds help us

go beyond what our bodies
can do on their own.

Simple machines,

like levers and pulleys
and screws,

boost our strength.

But we also make tools
just for fun.

Every invention
starts with an idea.

TAHIRA REID SMITH:
We're trying to see

how much play there is...

NARRATOR:
For Tahira Reid Smith,

her idea comes from
a childhood passion:

Double Dutch.

GIRL:
One two, three, four,

five, six, seven, eight...

REID SMITH:
Growing up in Bronx, New York,

in the 1980s,

Double Dutch was just
what you did as a little girl.

NARRATOR:
This double rope version
of jump rope

was brought to New York
by Dutch settlers

in the 17th century.

(kids chanting)

More recently,

it became popular,
particularly among Black girls,

in cities across the U.S.

There are even fiercely
competitive

national competitions,
and in some high schools,

it's recognized
as a varsity sport.

♪ ♪

To play,

Double Dutch
requires two people

spinning ropes
in opposite directions

and at least one person
to jump.

Tahira dreamed of a machine
that would allow her,

an only child at the time,

to play Double Dutch
whenever she wanted.

In third grade, she won
a contest for that concept.

And in the years
that followed,

she never gave up
on that dream.

REID SMITH:
Major passion project.

Talking about an idea
that I've had for decades.

NARRATOR:
Today, she's a mechanical
engineer and professor,

working in
human-machine systems.

And she's building
to her ultimate dream:

to create an affordable version
of her invention

that people everywhere
could enjoy.

Meanwhile,
another engineer,

Sky Leilani, is working on

her own Double Dutch
prototype.

Sky works at a
robotics software company.

SKY LEILANI:
When I was in college,

I found Dr. Reid's
Double Dutch machine,

at a point where I was
feeling like I couldn't

get where I wanted to go.
I was just surrounded by

a lot of people who didn't
look like me.

I saw she was from the Bronx,

which is kind of similar
to where I'm from,

and that really inspired me.

Problems that matter,

that are informed by culture,
then informed by background,

can stimulate the desire to
get into engineering,

to desire to go about this
process of creating something

that didn't previously exist.

The problems in which we decide
are important enough to solve

are influenced by
someone's background

and someone's culture.

NARRATOR:
Tahira has come to Viam Robotics
in New York City

to collaborate with Sky.

Hi!
Oh my gosh, hi!

NARRATOR:
Bringing along her
goddaughter, Sa'nai,

part of the latest generation

interested in engineering
Double Dutch.

REID SMITH:
When I first learned about Sky,

it really touched me deeply,
because

I didn't know that people
were watching me from afar.

When I was looking at your
designs, I was just like, "Wow."

REID SMITH (voiceover):
I was very encouraged by it,
I was also impressed by

her passion and her excitement.

NARRATOR:
Sky isn't a mechanical engineer
like Tahira is.

She's iterated
on Tahira's design,

adding
computer-controlled motors

and a software interface
to control the two ropes.

DARAIO:
What are the traits
of an engineer?

I think I think
it's hard to generalize.

I feel like there's,

there's many different kinds
of engineering.

There's many different kinds
of skills required

in the different types
of engineering.

REID SMITH:
She's modernized it,

writing code to control it.

There's vision
for even an app,

and doing everything
largely through

computer software and
electronics.

Very little
mechanical engineering.

NARRATOR:
As Sky describes her approach,

Tahira sees that
Sky is running into

a familiar problem:

synchronizing the ropes.

♪ ♪

The ropes need to
extend in a high arc,

turning in opposite directions

and staying 180 degrees
out of phase with each other--

in other words,
when one rope is on the ground,

the other should
be directly overhead.

As they rotate,

they need to maintain
a regular rhythm

to truly create
Double Dutch.

It looks easy
when a person does it,

but as Tahira and Sky
know firsthand,

it's anything
but simple to engineer.

That was wrong.

REID SMITH:
The motor is always

the most challenging aspect.
LEILANI: Mm-hmm.

REID SMITH:
And that is how it was
with us.

With Double Dutch,
the biomechanics

that people
use to get it to--

it looks so seamless.
Yeah.

But trying to recreate
that in a robot?
Yes.

You realize...

VALERO-CUEVAS:
We have to ask ourselves

how does the biology do it
with materials and

information processing units

that no engineer would
dream of using?

How is it that we can
move both ropes so well

at the same time,
but a robot can't?

So then the question is,
what do we need to do

to replicate that?

Look to your left.

That's so cool.

NARRATOR:
Sky has chosen motors

that are powerful
enough to swing the ropes,

with an added feature.

LEILANI:
The motor for the
Double Dutch machine

is from a hoverboard.

They're DC motors
with encoders in them,

so they can track the position.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The encoder setup uses
magnetic poles

mounted on the motor's shaft.

A nearby sensor detects
the changes in magnetic field

as the motor spins,

tracking the motor's
rotational position and speed

with precision.

That information can
then be sent to a computer,

to adjust the spin in real time.

At least, in theory.

REID SMITH:
A and C we're running right now.

LEILANI:
Not B. B isn't running, see?

NARRATOR:
For now, only three of Sky's
four motors are spinning.

REID SMITH:
If these are two people's arms,

it's just that--

it's like you
step to the right...
Okay.

NARRATOR:
They decide to align
two working motors

so they can work with
one spinning rope for now.

Let's just turn it on,
let's just see.

♪ ♪

Yeah, this is
slow enough

where I could actually
just walk into it.

(excited squeal)

NARRATOR:
It's an impressive milestone:

the two arms turning the rope
are perfectly in sync.

(laughs)

Okay.

Yay!
(both clapping)

Oh my gosh, so good.

I haven't
seen anybody use it

or anything, this--
(exclaims)

Let's see...

It's really important,
especially in sort of

engineering projects where
there's a consumer,

to sort of take prototypes

and actually test them
with your end users

to see what their
feedback is.

LEILANI:
That's what I love so much

about this project, is
Double Dutch is collaborative

and then robotics
as an entire field,

it combines three types
of engineering: mechanical,

electrical,
and software engineering.

NARRATOR:
After making some tweaks
to the code,

they decide to try

a true Double Dutch jump.

REID SMITH:
You want to hear a pat-pat,
pat-pat, pat-pat...

Okay, can you take
it over for me?
Okay.

NARRATOR:
With two of the working motors,

Tahira guides Sky
to be a stand-in turner.

Just snatch it from me.
Okay, okay.

(laughs)

I'm gonna just try it
with a little bit...

(jumping echoing)

NARRATOR:
With Sky's assistance,

the motors are leading the way.

(jump rope clattering)

And they're working
like a charm.

Oh, that's so satisfying!

Oh my gosh.
(breathless):
Okay.

Thank you so much, Dr. Reid.
You are so welcome.

This is... amazing.
This was fun.

LEILANI:
Working with Dr. Reid today

was incredible.

It was actually
a dream for me.

I felt like, if I continue
with this project,

I'm gonna get there,

and then I'm going to see myself
as a different person

who's capable of more than I
used to think I was.

NARRATOR:
Meanwhile, after decades,

Tahira is finally taking
her own Double Dutch design

to the next level.

♪ ♪

And when we've
done small tests...

NARRATOR:
She's partnering with
a product design company,

to turn her prototype

into an affordable,
consumer-ready version.

Historically what has been
difficult has been

how to design the system
in such a way

that it's fully functional
and also cost effective.

NARRATOR:
Which is why she still thinks

that the most
practical approach is to use

only mechanical means
to synchronize the motors.

Tahira and director of
industrial design,

Steve Escobar, are deep in the
proof-of-concept stage.

♪ ♪

For now, they're working with
a rudimentary plywood model

to answer a few
basic design questions.

ARMANI:
Once you have an idea,

how are you going to actually

execute the idea?

How are you going to design

the idea so that people

will actually want to use it?

How are you going
to make it accessible?

Both from a cost
perspective, but also...

from a user
interface perspective.

NARRATOR:
This first iteration
of the design

uses just one motor
on each side,

plus some good old-fashioned
mechanical hardware,

like gears, sprockets,
and chains.

(creaking)

Already,

they're facing
a few familiar challenges.

Looks like it's in sync,
actually.

NARRATOR:
Including getting
the ropes in sync.

It's starting to
go out of sync.

Okay.

NARRATOR:
With years of Double Dutch
experience,

Tahira knows exactly what
the ropes should sound like.

REID SMITH:
We need to be able to hear

a consistent
pat-pat, pat-pat.

But we're hearing...

(slow, uneven clapping)

It's very rhythmic.

That's why when
stuff's out of beat,

it's like--
it's like the whole--

it's-it's, it's just wrong.

If anything slips,

it would be a tooth.

NARRATOR:
Using gears is a
common sense way

to keep the rotation
of the ropes in sync.

But something is wrong.

REID SMITH:
We think the weight of the rope

was throwing this off.

ESCOBAR:
When it's in motion,

it's actually creating
too much force

for these arms.

REID SMITH:
Let's take
some of these off

and let's see what happens.

Let's see,
let me just listen for it.

(ropes patting ground
rhythmically)

MICHAEL SPRAUVE:
So how's it going?

Yeah, it's coming along.

NARRATOR:
Michael Sprauve,
president of Speck Design,

stops in to see how things
are progressing.

Where are we at, guys?

NARRATOR:
As a team, they talk
about the day's testing,

and how to improve the design.

REID SMITH:
There's a lot to think about

with some of the play
that's still in the arms.

Your visit with Sky was
very inspirational to us,

and that was switching from
a single motor with gears

to two motors at each end.

When you
shared that with us,

it really kind of
turned a light bulb on.

It's extremely
important to have

to have different people
who can see things

from a different angle,

because each one of us have
our own blind spots.

were rooted in her
experience with mechanisms.

But collaborating with Sky
has expanded the possibilities

for realizing the machine.

The best moments of ideation

are, in my experience,
collaborative.

And they involve ideas
bouncing off one another,

being folded over,
the negative of that idea

being turned in into
the positive of this other idea.

NARRATOR:
Working together across
different fields,

what engineers call
interdisciplinary collaboration,

can be a powerful multiplier.

Though a lot more
troubleshooting remains,

Tahira's project is finally
coming to life

after decades of work.

REID SMITH:
Semi-surreal.

Exciting...
(clapping)

It's a lot.

It's... heartwarming,
it's...

(wavering sigh)

(whispering):
I'm just glad.

(sniffles)

There's a message

behind this product

when it gets on the market,

there's a story
to inspire young girls,

young inventors,
young minds, dreamers.

NARRATOR:
Tahira dreamt of a machine

that could recreate the motions
of another person's arms.

But what happens
when engineers take aim

at a biological system

that is far more complex--
like vision?

Restoring the ability to see
with an idea

that once seemed
like science fiction.

(indistinct radio chatter)

PHILIP TROYK:
"The Six Million Dollar Man."

I have to say, if there was
any inspiration,

that, that show was.

PILOT:
I can't hold it,
she's breaking up...

(booming)

MAN:
We can rebuild him.

We have the technology.

TROYK:
When I was an undergraduate,

I became interested in how

electronics could be
mated with the human body.

NARRATOR:
For more than 20 years,

Phil Troyk and his
interdisciplinary research group

have been pioneering
a technology

designed to
restore some vision

to those who have
lost the ability to see.

We've been using prosthetics to
restore our bodies' abilities

for thousands of years.

VALERO-CUEVAS:
One of the most useful
prosthetics

has been the very humble
glasses, right?

So you have a sense,

you have a sense
of sight,

so then you use a lens
to compensate for that.

NARRATOR:
But this new device

takes visual prosthetics
to the next level.

The idea is to take
the information you capture

from a camera and bypass
the eyes and optic nerve

and go directly to the brain.

VALERO-CUEVAS:
The state of neuro engineering
is at its infancy

with very, very promising
avenues for growth.

One that has been for a very
long time a dream of engineers

is to be able to interface
with the nervous system.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Phil's group is the first
to receive FDA permission

to implant into
the brain of a blind person

a network of
wireless stimulators,

each just five millimeters
across.

PHIL TROYK:
You see the electrodes
sticking out there.

Even if they meet
the criteria--

the visual, the
medical criteria--

It's hard to find
someone that fits into

all of that criteria.

NARRATOR:
The team has qualified
their first participant--

Brian Bussard, who
lost his vision completely

several years ago.

Does the headband
match my shoes?

WOMAN:
It does, actually.

(laughing):
I was kidding.

NARRATOR:
Brian agreed to have

a group of these stimulators

surgically implanted in
his visual cortex.

When you're considering
designing something

that will be implanted
in a person,

One of the safety checks

is making sure that
whatever that thing is,

it doesn't actually
harm a person.

And how did you
sleep last night,

on a scale of one to ten?
Seven.

NARRATOR:
For the trial,

he is referred to
as the participant,

not the patient,
as his collaboration

with the entire team
is essential.

BUSSARD:
I was going to be the first one.

In my lifetime,

I get to be the first
of something that

could change people's lives
later on. You know,

NEIL ARMSTRONG:
It's one small step for man,

one giant leap for mankind.

ARMANI:
Artificial vision has

really been enabled by
advances in imaging technology.

The development of
incredibly tiny detectors

and incredibly tiny

communication-signaling
transmitters

have enabled these
implantable devices.

NARRATOR:
The implants in Brian's brain

are receivers for signals,
that in turn,

stimulate the brain.

The coil transmits signals

that they hope the brain
will interpret

as visual information.

MICHAEL BARRY:
Each of those 25 arrays has

16 electrodes that we can
stimulate on command.

And the goal is to use
those electrodes to

activate the healthy neurons
that are still there,

and just haven't been receiving
normal visual input for a while.

(pinging)

BUSSARD:
What do I see?

Probably the closest thing
I would say,

is if you had blips
on a radar screen.

NARRATOR:
The process requires creating

a new kind of visual language.

DAGNELIE:
Imagine getting these

funny flashing lights

from either a retinal or
a cortical prostheses

that don't look anything
like what vision used to be.

And then your brain is
beginning to discover

there's a message
to the madness.

There are some
patterning here,

and if I can try to find out
how things hang together,

then I can learn to understand
what's around me.

VALERO-CUEVAS:
People used to think,

well, we need to recreate

the signals from the eyes

into that same neural code.

But we've seen examples
where if you establish a,

an interface with those areas,

and you give them
a consistent input,

the brain will adapt

and interpret those
as best as it can.

NARRATOR:
As Brian continues to adapt,
the work has progressed

from the chair to a
smaller, cart-sized version

of the system,
connected by a cord,

with researcher
Michael Barry

pushing the cart and
following behind.

TROYK:
So we're putting on the
visible light glasses.

(voiceover):
The basic idea is to
capture images

with a camera technologically,

somehow convert those images

to the commands that go to
each of these little modules.

BARRY:
Stand up slowly,
but to your left.

BUSSARD:
The first real exciting thing
for me was

when we added a camera to it.

I went like this
with my hand,

and then I went like,
"oh, there's my thumb."

So that was the first time
in probably six years

that I had
a sensation of vision.

That was exciting.

It gave me a system.

GRANT:
So what we're going to
work on today

is a task of
finding an open chair.

Can you identify
which chair is open?

(clacking)

Right there.

Great job.
BARRY:
Yeah, good job.

TROYK:
What we're providing is

really a targeting system.

It says for whatever
the camera is detecting,

"Is something there?"

It says where something is,
but you don't know what it is.

Let me find the cart.
(laughs)

That way we don't
pull the cords.

Hey, so do you want to try
something infrared?

NARRATOR:
The team decides to expand
the testing to include

a camera that can
see wavelengths of light

beyond what humans can see.

BARRY:
So now we have the
thermal sensor.

ARMANI:
Why should you limit

your wavelengths to the
visible range?

Why not allow someone to see in
the thermal range?

infrared allows Brian
to distinguish people--

and animals--
by their body heat.

GRANT:
For this task,

you'll find there's
one occupied chair.

Well, there's Grace
right there.

Hi, Grace,
nice to meet you.

(chuckling)

(voiceover):
But you still have
the big donut

in the back of your head,
you still have

the wires for the camera.

If you walk too fast,
well, we can pull the coil.

You lose signal
and you got to stop and reset.

YANG:
There are a lot of
technologies that

work beautifully in a lab,
right?

Where you have a lot of space,
it's dedicated,

and everything works well.

But the reality is people move,
they have their lives,

they want to live the way
they want to live and be mobile.

Nice to meet you.

NARRATOR:
With the basic technology
working,

the team has
been building a system

that condenses
an entire cart of equipment

into a wearable device,

so Brian can go mobile.

The camera records images
that are translated by

a mini computer into signals
his brain can understand.

These are then sent
through a transmitter

and beamed
into Brian's implants,

reaching his visual cortex.

TROYK:
Okay, so I'm going to put
this on your belt, okay?

You should be good to go.
We're good to go.

TROYK:
You're freed up.

Trish was right there,
she moved.

(laughs)
Now she's right there.

I'm just gonna tell you,
you can walk to me.

I was gonna say,
she's right there.
Yeah, I'm right here.

Okay, so, I'm guessing
this is tables over here?

Or somebody or something.

TRACY BUSSARD:
So, as soon as he didn't have
that starting and stopping

of trying to keep the cart
right behind him...

Yeah, he just decided
to just walk

around the room and see what
all was here.

(clicking)

I'm free!

Becoming untethered
was a big step.

It gave me the flexibility

to move and try and
figure it out quicker,

or on my own.

Okay, there's
something here.

(clacking)
Is this another table?

BARRY:
So now we have the
thermal sensor.

(beeping)

There's somebody
right there.

You found me.
Yay!

NARRATOR:
Watching Brian see his wife--
without his eyes--

is a powerful validation of
all their hard work.

The moment today when
he had on the mobile unit

and he walked to his wife
and saw her,

I just thought that was really
a special moment.

She didn't make a sound,

but you went to her,
you found her in the room.

YANG:
You think, "Oh my gosh,
this man has lost his vision,

"and now he can see
something with the help of

this engineering system
strapped to him."

All of these things
have come together.

All that iteration
and testing and protocols.

It's pretty amazing.

TROYK:
This person is volunteering
themselves,

they're putting
themselves at risk.

They're doing so not because
they expect to get vision back,

it's for advancement
of knowledge.

It's for what we learn now

will make possible
what will become

standard of care
100 years from now.

There's somebody
right there.

(voiceover):
Just from a human standpoint,

I think we should be wired
that we want to

leave the world a
better place

than it was when we
got here.

NARRATOR:
The following day,
the team gathers

to review their progress
with the mobile system.

TROYK:
Did it accomplish the goal

of making you feel more
autonomous and liberated?

Well, full disclosure,

if it would've been
nice out yesterday,

it would've been
"Oops, I made a left-hand turn

to go out the door."
(laughter)

Now it's okay.

Well, what do we
prioritize next?

Probably the next...

step would be
is if we can combine

either the two cameras
into one,

or even adding the
second visual camera

so we can get depth
into it.

From an engineering perspective,

engineering is
not just a technology

stemming from
math and science.

And the question
we're asking is:

how can an artificial
interface like this

be used to provide
useful sensory information

for someone who has blindness?

We do have now the interface,

albeit in somewhat simpler form
than some would like.

But we do have the interface,

and we are now
answering the questions.

YANG:
It's such a high risk,

high payoff
engineering challenge.

Giving vision to someone
who's visually impaired

is just such a holy grail
engineering strategy,

and they've done it.

Our aspirations are high,

and we only get there by

making step-by-step
incremental progress.

(panting)
There he is, hey, buddy.

I think we're
proud of the fact

that maybe
we got there first.

BUSSARD:
Good boy.

TROYK:
I think we're done.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
We're here today,

with the world around us
as it is,

because we are
hard-wired to invent...

design,

and build tools.

As we continue to boost
our abilities with technology,

it's anyone's guess
what we'll create

in the future.

STELTZNER:
When we go to create
something new,

we're stepping into
the unknown.

NARRATOR:
With creativity
and collaboration,

we can solve even the most
difficult problems.

ARMANI:
Science fiction has always

inspired the world.

And it is the job
of engineers

to convert that inspiration
into innovation

and invent the solutions.
(machine beeps)

NARRATOR:
Building stuff,

to benefit all.

♪ ♪

(blasting off)

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪