ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Anirudh Sharma - Engineer, inventor
Inventor Anirudh Sharma is the founder of Graviky Labs, an MIT Media Labs spinoff.

Why you should listen

Anirudh Sharma's interest lies in deep-tech, science-based social entrepreneurship. He fuses cutting-edge sensor, wearable and man-machine interface technology. In 2010, Sharma invented a haptic shoe called "Lechal" to guide the blind. Lechal was the earliest wearable innovation designed for the visually challenged. During his tenure at Fluid Interfaces Group at the MIT Media Lab, Sharma worked on future fabrication and augmented reality with futuristic displays. After returning from MIT, he co-led the nonprofit consortium MIT Media Lab India Initiative with the goal of remodeling and perpetuating self-organized, design-led innovation into the grassroots in India.

Sharma also cofounded Graviky Labs to evolve his side project KAALINK, a retrofit technology which captures particulate carbon emissions from chimneys or diesel engines (without affecting the performance of the engine) before they enter the atmosphere. The captured pollutants are then recycled into inks, called AIR-INK. Forty-five minutes of automotive emissions is equivalent to produce 30 milliliters of black AIR-INK. The company has found its niche globally, replacing conventional black inks applied to arts, printing and fashion industry as a means to offset carbon. To date, Graviky has recycled roughly 250 kilograms of PM2.5 air pollution waste, which has produced 1,200 liters of AIR-INK. Sharma also loves folk, magic and indie artforms.

More profile about the speaker
Anirudh Sharma | Speaker | TED.com
TED@BCG Toronto

Anirudh Sharma: Ink made of air pollution

Anirudh Sharma: Tinta produzida a partir da poluição do ar

Filmed:
474,007 views

E se pudéssemos captar a poluição do ar ao nosso redor e transformá-la em algo útil? O inventor Anirudh Sharma compartilha como criou a AIR-IN, uma tinta preta utilizável, produzida a partir de PM 2,5 de poluição. Saiba como novos materiais à base de carbono podem substituir procedimentos antigos em atividades como moda, impressão e embalagem, e tornar assim o mundo um pouco mais limpo.
- Engineer, inventor
Inventor Anirudh Sharma is the founder of Graviky Labs, an MIT Media Labs spinoff. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
Every year, more than four
to five million people die
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Todos os anos, morrem mais
de 4 a 5 milhões de pessoas
00:15
due to exposure to outdoor air pollution
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devido à exposição à poluição do ar
em todo o mundo.
00:18
around the world.
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Esta placa de Petri que estão observando
00:20
This petri dish that you are looking at
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00:23
contains approximately
20 minutes' worth of pollution
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contém cerca de 20 minutos
de poluição captada por pirólise.
00:26
captured off a pyrolysis plant.
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00:29
This is PM 2.5.
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Este é o PM 2,5.
00:31
These particles --
you can see it right now,
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Podemos ver essas partículas agora,
00:33
but when they're out there
in the air, you won't see them.
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mas, quando estão lá fora,
no ar, não conseguimos vê-las.
São tão minúsculas que nosso pulmão
00:36
These are so tiny that our lungs --
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não consegue filtrá-las,
e elas acabam dentro do nosso corpo.
00:38
our bodies cannot filter them,
and they end up in our bodies --
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00:43
give us asthma and lung cancer
if not treated in the right time.
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Podemos ter asma e câncer do pulmão
se não formos tratados a tempo.
00:47
On a trip back to India,
when I was a student in 2012,
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Em uma viagem de volta à Índia,
quando eu era estudante, em 2012,
00:50
I took this picture.
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tirei esta foto.
00:51
This picture stuck in my head.
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Ela ficou em minha mente.
00:53
On one side, you see this exhaust
of a diesel generator,
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Por um lado, vemos o escapamento
de um gerador a diesel,
00:57
the same generator
which is a sign of human progress,
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o mesmo que é sinal do progresso humano
e da rápida industrialização
01:00
which is a sign of rapid industrialization
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01:03
and what we have become
as a society in the last 100 years,
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e o que a sociedade se tornou
nos últimos 100 anos para gerar energia.
01:06
generating energy.
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01:08
But on the other side,
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Mas, por outro lado, vemos esta mancha
triangular preta muito interessante,
01:09
you see this very interesting
triangular, black-colored swatch,
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01:12
that is produced by the same
residual particulate waste
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produzida pelo mesmo lixo
de partículas residuais
01:16
created by the emissions of the generator.
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criadas pelas emissões do gerador.
01:20
Now, this picture gave me an idea
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Essa foto me deu uma ideia
01:22
and got me thinking about rethinking
both pollution and inks,
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e me fez repensar a poluição e as tintas,
01:27
because it was making
that black-colored mark.
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porque estava causando aquela marca preta.
A realidade é que a maior parte
da tinta preta que costumamos usar
01:29
Now, the reality is that most of the black
ink that we use conventionally
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01:33
is traditionally produced
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é geralmente produzida
01:34
by conventionally burning
fossil fuels in factories.
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pela queima convencional de combustíveis
fósseis em fábricas no mundo todo,
01:38
There are factories around the world
that are burning fossil fuels
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que as queimam para produzir
o preto do carvão
01:41
to produce carbon black,
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e as tintas pretas que usamos diariamente.
01:43
to make black inks that we use
on an everyday basis.
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01:46
But given that millions
of liters of fossil fuels
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Mas, já que milhões de litros
de combustíveis fósseis
01:49
are already being burned out there
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são queimados por nossos carros,
motores e escapamentos,
01:51
by our cars, our engines
and our exhaust out there,
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01:54
what if you could capture that pollution
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e se pudéssemos captar essa poluição,
01:57
and use it to recycle and make those inks?
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reciclá-la e produzir essas tintas?
02:00
I decided to give this experiment a shot.
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Decidi tentar essa experiência.
02:03
I went back to my lab back in Boston
and conducted a small experiment.
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Voltei a meu laboratório em Boston
e realizei uma pequena experiência.
02:07
In Boston, I couldn't find
much pollution to play with,
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Como não consegui poluição
para o teste em Boston,
recorri ao uso de uma vela.
02:10
so I resorted to using a candle.
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02:12
This was an experiment.
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Essa foi uma experiência:
02:14
I burnt a candle,
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queimei uma vela,
02:15
built this contraption
that would suck in that candle soot,
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construí esta engenhoca
para sugar a fuligem dessa vela
02:19
mixed it with some
vegetable oil and vodka,
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e misturei-a com óleo vegetal e vodca,
02:21
because to a DIY hacker,
these were really easily available.
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coisas fáceis de se encontrar
para um adepto do "faça você mesmo".
(Risos)
02:25
(Laughter)
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Depois de misturar tudo,
02:26
And after mixing them,
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02:27
you could churn out
a very rudimentary form of ink
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produzimos uma forma de tinta
muito rudimentar
02:30
that would go into a cartridge,
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que, introduzida em um cartucho,
permitia imprimir com ela.
02:32
and now you could print with it.
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02:34
This was my "Hello, World!"
of experimenting
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Foi minha experiência de "Olá, mundo!"
com a impressão usando a poluição.
02:37
with printing with pollution.
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02:41
This is the same pollution
that I showed you in the petri dish,
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É a mesma poluição que mostrei
a vocês na placa de Petri,
resultado de qualquer combustível
fóssil queimado pelo mundo afora.
02:44
which is the result of any fossil fuel
that is being burned out there.
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Em 2015, decidi avançar
com essa experiência
02:49
In 2015, I decided to take
this experimentation forward
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02:52
and set up a lab in India
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e montei um laboratório na Índia
para trabalhar na captação
e reciclagem da poluição do ar.
02:54
to work on the capture and recycling
of air pollution.
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02:57
In the good times, the lab
used to look something like this.
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Nos bons tempos, o laboratório
costumava ser assim.
Mas as experiências nem sempre
eram controladas, e aconteciam desastres.
03:00
But experimentations
were not always controlled,
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03:02
and disasters happened.
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(Risos)
03:04
And while experimentation would happen,
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Durante as experiências,
o laboratório acabou ficando assim.
03:06
the lab would end up
looking something like this.
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03:09
Well, we knew where we wanted to go,
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Sabíamos para onde queríamos ir,
mas não sabíamos bem como chegar lá.
03:11
but we were not sure
how exactly to reach there.
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03:14
The passersby who used to go
by that lab through that building
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Pessoas que passavam em frente
ao laboratório naquele edifício
costumavam achar: "Esses caras
estão fabricando bombas",
03:17
used to, at times, think,
"These guys are making bombs in there,"
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porque havia muitos incêndios,
fios e fumaça naquelas proximidades.
03:20
because there was too much fire,
wires and smoke in the same vicinity.
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03:25
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
Decidimos nos mudar para uma garagem
e continuar as experiências.
03:27
We decided, let's move to a garage
and take experiments forward.
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03:30
We took a garage,
and during the early stages,
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Ocupamos uma garagem e, na fase inicial,
dirigíamos por Bangalore
com engenhocas como estas.
03:32
we were driving around Bangalore
with contraptions like these.
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Este é um protótipo da fase inicial.
03:35
This is an early-stage prototype.
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03:37
Imagine the looks people gave us,
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Imaginem como olhavam pra nós:
"O que eles estão fazendo?"
03:38
"What are these cars
driving around doing?"
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Este é um protótipo da fase inicial
de nosso sistema para captar a poluição
03:41
This is an early-stage prototype
of our system that would capture pollution
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03:44
that is being released from
a conventional diesel-based car.
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liberada de um carro
convencional movido a diesel.
03:48
This is an early stage of the technology.
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Essa é uma fase inicial da tecnologia.
Nós a aprimoramos
e criamos isto nesta versão
03:50
We advanced the technology
and created this into this version
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03:55
that would capture pollution
from static sources of pollution,
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que captava a poluição
de fontes estáticas dela,
como um gerador a diesel.
03:58
like a diesel generator.
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Como veem, toda a fumaça desaparece
logo que ligamos esta máquina.
03:59
If you see, all the fumes disappear
as soon as you turn this machine on.
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04:04
Without affecting
the performance of the engine,
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Sem afetar o rendimento do motor,
04:08
we are able to capture
95 percent worth of pollution
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conseguimos captar 95% da poluição
04:11
released from the diesel generator.
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liberada pelo gerador a diesel.
04:13
This is the particulate matter
that we are talking about that we capture,
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Este é o material particulado captado,
neste caso, em três a quatro horas
de funcionamento de um gerador.
04:17
in this case, within three to four hours
of operation of a generator.
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04:22
And while our experiments
and our research was advancing,
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Enquanto nossas experiências
e nossa pesquisa avançavam,
04:26
a very big company, a very big brand,
approached us and said,
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uma marca muito importante
veio conversar conosco:
04:29
"We want to take this idea
further with you guys,
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"Queremos levar essa ideia
adiante com vocês
04:32
and take this further
in a very big celebrated form."
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de uma forma muito
importante e respeitada.
04:36
They said, "Let's do a global art campaign
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Vamos fazer uma campanha de arte global
04:38
with the inks that you are making
off this pollution."
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com as tintas que vocês estão
fabricando com a poluição".
04:41
I'll show you what the ink looks like.
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Vou lhes mostrar o aspecto dessa tinta.
04:43
So, this pen is made by recycling
40 to 50 minutes of that car pollution
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Esta caneta é feita a partir da reciclagem
de 40 a 50 minutos da poluição do carro
04:49
that we are talking about,
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sobre a qual falávamos,
a mesma da placa de Petri.
04:51
the same pollution
that is in the petri dish.
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É um preto acentuado,
com o qual podemos escrever.
04:53
And it's a very sharp black
that you can write with.
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Portanto, vou escrever...
04:55
So I'm going to write ...
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05:00
PM 2.5, that's incorrect.
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PM 2,5 e riscar.
05:03
So this is a very sharp black
that is generated by the same pollution.
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Este é um preto muito acentuado,
gerado pela mesma poluição.
05:08
After much work on the lab-level research,
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Depois de muito trabalho
na pesquisa laboratorial,
05:10
we got an offer from a big corporation
to do a very big trial of this idea.
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tivemos a oferta de uma grande empresa
para um teste importante com essa ideia.
05:14
And it happened to be a brand,
and we didn't think twice.
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Acontece que era uma marca,
e não pensamos duas vezes.
05:17
We said, "Let's go ahead."
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Dissemos: "Vamos em frente".
05:19
Inventing in the lab is one thing
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Mas inventar no laboratório é uma coisa
05:21
and taking ideas and deploying them
in the real world is completely another.
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e pegar as ideias e implementá-las
no mundo real é totalmente diferente.
05:26
During early stages,
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Durante as fases iniciais,
05:27
we had to resort to using
our own houses and own kitchens
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tivemos que utilizar nossa casa e cozinha
como fábricas produtoras de tinta,
05:31
as our ink-making factories,
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05:33
and our own bedrooms and living rooms
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e nossos quartos e nossas salas
05:35
as the first assembly line
for making these inks.
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como a primeira linha de montagem
para produzir essas tintas.
05:38
This is my cofounder Nikhil's own bedroom,
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Este é o quarto de meu cofundador Nikhil,
05:41
that is being used to supply inks
to artists all around the world,
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sendo utilizado para fornecer tintas
a artistas de todo o mundo,
05:45
who would paint with AIR-INK.
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que iriam pintar com AIR-INK.
Aqui está ele, entregando
AIR-INK aos portos,
05:46
And that's him, delivering
AIR-INKs to the ports
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05:49
so that the artists
around the world can use it.
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para que os artistas do mundo todo
possam utilizá-la.
05:52
Soon, we started seeing
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Logo começamos a ver
que milhares de artistas em todo o mundo
passaram a usar AIR-INK,
05:53
that thousands of artists around the world
started using AIR-INK,
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e começaram a aparecer
ilustrações como estas.
05:56
and artworks started emerging like this.
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Milhares delas, em preto e branco,
feitas com a poluição,
05:59
Soon, thousands of black-and-white,
pollution-made artworks
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começaram a surgir em uma escala mundial.
06:02
started emerging on a global scale.
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06:04
And believe me, for a group
of scientists and engineers and inventors,
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Acreditem, para um grupo de cientistas,
engenheiros e inventores,
06:08
there was nothing more satisfying
than that the product of their work
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não havia nada mais gratificante
do que o produto do trabalho
estar sendo usado por alguns
dos melhores artistas do mundo.
06:11
is now being used by some
of the finest artists around the world.
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06:14
This is the cover of "Contagious"
magazine last year,
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Esta é a capa da revista
"Contagious" do ano passado,
06:17
that was done by using the same ink
that we made back in our labs.
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feita com a mesma tinta
produzida em nossos laboratórios.
06:22
This is a famous painting
by the British artist, Christian Furr,
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Este é um quadro famoso
do artista britânico Christian Furr,
06:25
who painted it for the song
"Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones.
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que o pintou para a canção
"Paint It Black" dos Rolling Stones.
06:30
Now, there's more to this pen and this ink
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Há mais nessa caneta e nessa tinta
06:33
than just the popular
and pop-culture artworks.
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do que apenas as ilustrações
conhecidas e da cultura pop.
06:36
And now our goal is to create a company
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Nosso objetivo é criar uma empresa
que possa fazer algum dinheiro sujo,
quero dizer, só dinheiro,
06:38
that can actually make some black money --
I mean, just money --
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(Risos)
06:42
(Laughter)
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e tintas e processos de impressão
de alta qualidade
06:43
and high-quality printing
processes and inks
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06:45
that can replace
the conventional black inks
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capazes de substituir
as tintas pretas convencionais
06:48
that have been produced for the last
thousands of years around the world.
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produzidas pelos últimos milhares
de anos em todo o mundo.
06:52
Soon after our growing popularity
and artworks around the world,
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Logo após nossa popularidade crescente
e nossas ilustrações pelo mundo,
06:56
we started facing a very different
kind of a problem.
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começamos a enfrentar
um tipo de problema muito diferente.
06:59
We started getting spammed by polluters,
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Começamos a receber poluição
dos poluidores
que nos enviavam sacos cheios
de poluição para nosso escritório,
07:02
who would send us bags full of pollution
to our office address,
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perguntando: "O que podemos
fazer com esta poluição?"
07:05
asking us, "What can we do
with this pollution?"
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07:08
Our lab back in Bombay right now
has pollution samples
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Nosso laboratório em Bombaim,
tem agora amostras de poluição
07:11
that have come from London,
from India, from China, you name it.
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vindas de Londres, da Índia, da China,
de onde vocês imaginarem.
07:15
And this is just the beginning.
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E isso é apenas o começo.
07:17
This polluter sent us
this specific image, asking us
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Esse poluidor nos enviou
esta foto específica,
dizendo que eram sacos cheios de PM 2,5
07:21
that these are all bags
filled with PM 2.5,
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e perguntando se poderíamos reciclá-los
para ele e lhe pagar algum dinheiro.
07:24
and can we recycle it for him
if we paid him some money.
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07:28
Well, what would he have done
if we did not take that pollution?
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O que ele teria feito se não
aceitássemos aquela poluição?
07:32
He would probably find a nearby river
or a landfill and dump it over there.
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Provavelmente a descarregaria
em um rio ou aterro próximos.
07:36
But now, because we had the economics
of AIR-INK figured out on the other side,
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Mas, como tínhamos a economia
do AIR-INK do outro lado,
07:39
we could incentivize him to give us
this pollution and make inks from it,
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podíamos incentivá-lo a nos dar a poluição
e produzir tinta a partir dela
07:45
and turn it into even
more valuable products.
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e até transformá-la
em produtos mais valiosos.
07:49
Now, pollution, as we all know,
is a global killer.
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Todos sabemos que a poluição
é uma assassina global.
07:52
We can't claim that our ink
will solve the world's pollution problem.
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Não podemos afirmar que nossa tinta
resolverá a poluição mundial,
07:56
But it does show what can be done
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mas ela mostra o que pode ser feito
07:57
if you look at this problem
slightly differently.
157
465759
2643
se analisarmos esse problema
de modo diferente.
08:00
Look at this T-shirt
I'm holding right now.
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2551
Vejam esta camiseta aqui.
08:04
This is made from the same
AIR-INK I'm talking about.
159
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3686
Ela é feita com a mesma
AIR-INK da qual falei
08:08
It's made from the same pollution
that is inside this petri dish.
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3191
e com a mesma poluição
dentro desta placa de Petri,
08:11
And the same pollution we are all
breathing in when we are walking outdoors.
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4224
a mesma que todos nós respiramos
quando passeamos ao ar livre.
08:15
And we are on our way
to do better than this.
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2229
Estamos a caminho
de fazer melhor do que isto.
08:17
Thank you very much.
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1334
Muito obrigado.
(Aplausos)
08:19
(Applause)
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3301
Translated by Maurício Kakuei Tanaka
Reviewed by Maricene Crus

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Anirudh Sharma - Engineer, inventor
Inventor Anirudh Sharma is the founder of Graviky Labs, an MIT Media Labs spinoff.

Why you should listen

Anirudh Sharma's interest lies in deep-tech, science-based social entrepreneurship. He fuses cutting-edge sensor, wearable and man-machine interface technology. In 2010, Sharma invented a haptic shoe called "Lechal" to guide the blind. Lechal was the earliest wearable innovation designed for the visually challenged. During his tenure at Fluid Interfaces Group at the MIT Media Lab, Sharma worked on future fabrication and augmented reality with futuristic displays. After returning from MIT, he co-led the nonprofit consortium MIT Media Lab India Initiative with the goal of remodeling and perpetuating self-organized, design-led innovation into the grassroots in India.

Sharma also cofounded Graviky Labs to evolve his side project KAALINK, a retrofit technology which captures particulate carbon emissions from chimneys or diesel engines (without affecting the performance of the engine) before they enter the atmosphere. The captured pollutants are then recycled into inks, called AIR-INK. Forty-five minutes of automotive emissions is equivalent to produce 30 milliliters of black AIR-INK. The company has found its niche globally, replacing conventional black inks applied to arts, printing and fashion industry as a means to offset carbon. To date, Graviky has recycled roughly 250 kilograms of PM2.5 air pollution waste, which has produced 1,200 liters of AIR-INK. Sharma also loves folk, magic and indie artforms.

More profile about the speaker
Anirudh Sharma | Speaker | TED.com

Data provided by TED.

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