9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So can I get a show of hands[br]how many of you in this room 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 have been on a plane[br]in this past year? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That's pretty good. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well, it turns out that[br]you share that experience 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with more than 3 billion people[br]every year. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And when we put so many[br]people in these metal tubes 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that fly all over the world, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 sometimes, things like this[br]can happen 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and you get a disease epidemic. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I first actually got into this topic 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when I heard about [br]the Ebola outbreak last year. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And it turns out that although Ebola[br]spreads through 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 these more range-limited,[br]more tropical routes, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There's all these other sorts[br]of diseases 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that can be spread through[br]the airplane cabin. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The worst part is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when we take a look at some[br]of the numbers, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's pretty scary. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So with H1N1, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there was this guy who decided [br]to go on the plane 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and in the matter of a single flight, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 actually spread the disease[br]to 17 other people. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then there was[br]this other guy with SARS 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 who managed to go [br]on a 3-hour flight 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and spread the disease[br]to 22 other people. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That's not exactly my idea[br]of a great super power. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When we take a look at this,[br]what we also find is that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's very difficult to [br]pre-screen for these diseases. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, when someone actually[br]goes on a plane, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they could be sick 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and they could be in this latency period 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in which they could actually[br]have the disease. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And they could, in turn,[br]spread the disease 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to so many other people[br]in the cabin. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And how that actually works is that[br]right now 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we have air coming in from[br]the top of the cabin 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and from the side of the cabin[br]as you can see in the blue. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then also, that air goes out[br]throught hese very efficient filters 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that eliminate 99.97 percent[br]of pathogens near the outlets. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And what happens right now,[br]though, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is that we have this [br]mixing air-flow pattern. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So if someone were to actually sneeze, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that air would get swirled[br]around multiple times 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 before it even has a chance[br]to go out through the filter. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I thought, clearly,[br]this is a pretty serious problem. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I didn't have the money[br]to go out and buy a plane, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so I decided to build[br]a computer instead. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It actually turns out that with[br]Computational Fluid Dynamics, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 what we're able to do is create[br]these simulations 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that give us higher resulutions 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 than actually physically going in[br]and taking readings in the plane. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And how, essentially, this works [br]is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you would start out with[br]these 2D drawings -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 these are floating around[br]in technical papers around the Internet. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I take that and I put it into [br]these 3D-modeling software, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 really building that 3D model. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then I divide that model[br]that I just built into these tiny pieces. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And then I tell the computer where[br]the air goes in and out of the cabin, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 throw in a bunch of physics, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and basically sit there and wait until[br]the computer calculates the simulation. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So what we get with the conventional cabin[br]is this: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you'll notice the middle person sneezing, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and we go "Splat!", [br]right into people's faces. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's pretty disgusting. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And from the front, you'll notice[br]those two passengers 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 sitting next to the central passenger, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 not exactly having a great time. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And when we take a look[br]at that from the side, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you'll also notice those pathogens[br] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 spreading across the lenth of the cabin. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The first thing that I thought was,[br]"This is no good." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So I actually conducted [br]more than 32 different simulations 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and ultimately, I came up[br]with this solution right here. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is what I call a[br]patent-pending Global Inlet Director. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 With this, we're able to reduce[br]pathogen transmission 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 by about 55 times 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and increase fresh air- inhalation [br]by about 190 percent. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So how this actually works is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we would install this piece[br]of composite material 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 into these existing spots[br]that are already in the plane. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So it's very cost-effective[br]to install 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and we can do this directly overnight. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 All we have to do is put[br]a couple of screws in there 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and you're good to go. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the results that we get[br]are absolutely amazing.