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.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Instead of having those problematic[br]swirling air patterns,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
what we have is we can create[br]these walls of air

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that come down in between [br]the passengers

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to create these [br]personalized breathing zones.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So you'll notice that if the[br]middle passenger here

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is sneezing again,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but this time, we're able to[br]effectively push that down

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to the filters for elimination.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And the same thing form the side,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we're able to directly[br]push those pathogens down.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So if you take a look again now[br]at the same scenario

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but with this innovation installed,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you'll notice the middle passenger[br]sneezes,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and this time, we're pushing [br]that straight down into the outlet

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
before it gets a chance[br]to infect any other people.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So you notice the two passengers[br]sitting next to the middle guy

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
are breathing virtually[br]no pathogens at all.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Take a look at that [br]from the side as well,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it's a very efficient system.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And in short, with this system,[br]we win.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When we take a look[br]at what this means,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
what we also see is that[br]this not only works

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
if the middle passenger sneezes,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but also if the window seat [br]passenger sneezes

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or if the aisle seat[br]passenger sneezes.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And so with this solution, what does[br]this mean for the world?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When we take a look[br]at this from the computer simulation

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
into real life,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we can see from with this[br]3D model that I built over here

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
essentially using 3D printing,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we can see those same air flow patterns[br]coming down right to the passengers.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In the past, the SARS epidemic[br]actually cost the world