ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Nick Sears - Inventor
Working with his father, Ron Sears, Nick Sears is designing and building the Orb, a rotating LED display that uses persistence of vision to produce moving images in 3D space.

Why you should listen

Nick Sears is a classic tinkerer -- his resume  lists jobs that run the gamut from writing a mobile messaging framework to building a DC-DC switching voltage regulator. Along with his dad, Ron Sears, he's got a pretty neat father-son project going on: the Orb.

It's inspired by Buckminster Fuller's 1962 proposal for the Geoscope, which called for "a 200-foot-diameter sphere covered with 10 million computer-controlled light sources to be suspended over the East River in full view of the United Nations." But by making the sphere spin, the Sears realized, they could use persistence of vision and LEDs to create a bright display with a three-dimensional effect using far fewer light sources.

Sears is now a student in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU. He and his father presented the Orb version 2 at Coachella in 2008 and continue to tinker with it.

More profile about the speaker
Nick Sears | Speaker | TED.com
TED2007

Nick Sears: Demo: The Orb

Nick Sears demonstra a Esfera

Filmed:
533,035 views

O inventor Nick Sears demonstra a primeira geração da Esfera, uma tela rotativa de persistência de visão que cria imagens em 3D com brilho. Um pequeno e interessante conto sobre a invenção.
- Inventor
Working with his father, Ron Sears, Nick Sears is designing and building the Orb, a rotating LED display that uses persistence of vision to produce moving images in 3D space. Full bio

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

00:19
In 1962, Buckminster Fuller
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Em 1952, Buckminster Fuller
00:21
presented the particularly audacious proposal for the Geoscope.
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apresentou uma proposta particularmente audaciosa para o Geoscope.
00:25
It was a 200-foot diameter geodesic sphere
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Era uma esfera geodésica de 60 metros de diâmetro
00:28
to be suspended over the East River in New York City, in full view of the United Nations.
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a ser suspensa sobre o Rio East na cidade de Nova york, sendo vista inteiramente das Nações Unidas.
00:33
It was a big idea, for sure, and it was one that he felt could truly inform
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Era uma grande idéia, com certeza, e ele sentiu que ela poderia realmente informar
00:39
and deeply affect the decision making of this body
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e definitivamente afetar o processo de decisões deste grupo
00:43
through animations of global data, trends
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através de animações com dados, previsões
00:47
and other information regarding the globe, on this sphere.
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e outras informações relativas ao mundo, nesta esfera.
00:51
And today, 45 years later,
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Hoje, 45 anos depois,
00:54
we clearly have no less need for this kind of clarity and perspective,
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nós claramente ainda temos a necessidade deste tipo de clareza e perspectiva,
00:57
but what we do have is improved technology.
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mas o que temos são tecnologias melhoradas.
01:00
Today we don't need one million light bulbs to create a spherical display.
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Atualmente, não precisamos mais de um milhão de lâmpadas para criar uma tela esférica
01:03
We can use LEDs.
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Podemos usar LEDS.
01:05
LEDs are smaller, they're cheaper, they're longer lasting, they're more efficient.
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LEDs são menores, mais baratos, duram mais e são mais eficientes.
01:10
Most importantly for this, they're faster.
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E o mais importante é que são mais rápidos.
01:12
And this speed, combined with today's high-performance micro-controllers,
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E esta velocidade, combinada com a alta-performance dos micro-controladores atuais
01:16
allows us to actually simulate, in this piece,
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permitiu que realmente simulássemos, nesta peça,
01:19
over 17,000 LEDs -- using just 64.
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mais de 17.000 LEDs -- usando apenas 64.
01:24
And the way this happens is through the phenomenon of persistence of vision.
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E a maneira que isto acontece é através do fenômeno da persistência da visão.
01:28
But as this ring rotates at about 1,700 rpm -- that's 28 times per second.
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Mas como este anel gira a 1.700 RPM -- o que é 28 vezes por segundo.
01:33
The equator's speed is actually about 60 miles per hour.
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A velocidade equatorial é, na verdade, 96 km/h.
01:36
There are four on-board micro-controllers
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Há quatro micro-controladores embarcados
01:38
that, each time this ring rotates
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que, cada vez que o anel gira,
01:41
it, as it passes the rear of the display,
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assim que passa por trás da tela,
01:43
it picks up a position signal.
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ele capta um sinal de posicionamento
01:45
And from that, the on-board micro-controllers
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e a partir disto, os micro-controladores embarcados
01:47
can extrapolate the position of the ring at all points around the revolution
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podem extrapolar a posição do anel em todos os pontos ao redor da volta completa
01:52
and display arbitrary bitmap images and animations.
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e mostrar imagens e animações arbitrárias.
01:55
But this is really just the beginning.
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Mas este é apenas o início.
01:58
In addition to higher resolution versions of this display,
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Além de versões com maior resolução desta tela,
02:01
my father and I are working on a new patent-pending design
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meu pai e eu estamos trabalhando em um novo projeto com patente pendente
02:04
for a fully volumetric display using the same phenomenon.
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para uma tela totalmente volumétrica usando o mesmo fenômeno.
02:07
It achieves this by rotating LEDs about two axes.
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Ela consegue isto ao rotacionar os LEDs em dois eixos.
02:10
So as you can see here, this is a, eleven-inch diameter circuit board.
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De forma que, como podem ver aqui, esta é uma placa de circuito impresso de 28 centímetros.
02:13
These blocks represent LEDs.
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Estes blocos representam LEDs.
02:15
And so you could see that as this disc rotates about this axis,
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E você também pode ver que enquanto o disco gira neste eixo,
02:19
it will create a disc of light that we can control.
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irá criar um disco luminoso que podemos controlar.
02:22
That's nothing new: that's a propeller clock;
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Não há nada de novo nisto, é um relógio de propulsão.
02:24
that's the rims that you can buy for your car.
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É como as calotas que você compra para o seu carro.
02:27
But what is new is that, when we rotate this disc about this axis,
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Mas o que tem de novo, é que quando rotacionamos o disco neste eixo,
02:32
this disc of light actually becomes a sphere of light.
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agora o disco de luz realmente se torna uma esfera luminosa.
02:35
And so we can control that with micro-controllers
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Assim, podemos controlar isto com os micro-controladores
02:37
and create a fully volumetric, three-dimensional display with just 256 LEDs.
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e criar uma tela tridimensional, totalmente volumétrica, com apenas 256 LEDs.
02:43
Now this piece is currently in process --
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Esta parte está, atualmente, em progresso --
02:45
due out in May -- but what we've done is we've put together a small demo,
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e estará pronta em Maio, mas o que nós fizemos foi criar uma pequena demonstração,
02:50
just to show the geometric translation of points into a sphere.
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apenas para mostrar a translação de pontos dentro de uma esfera.
02:54
I've got a little video to show you,
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Eu tenho este pequeno vídeo para mostrar-lhes,
02:56
but keep in mind that this is with no electronic control,
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mas não se esqueça de que este não tem controle eletrônico,
03:00
and this is also with only four LEDs.
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e que ele tem apenas quatro LEDs.
03:02
This is actually only about 1.5 percent of what the final display will be in May.
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Isto é, realmente, apenas 1,5% do que será a tela final em Maio.
03:05
So, take a look.
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Então, vejam.
03:09
And here you can see it's rotating about the vertical axis only, creating circles.
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E aqui você pode vê-la girando apenas sobre o eixo vertical, criando círculos.
03:17
And then, as the other axis kicks in,
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E assim que o outro eixo entra em ação,
03:19
those actually blur into a volume.
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o volume cria-se gradualmente.
03:21
And the shutter speed of the camera
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E a velocidade de disparo da câmera
03:23
actually makes it slightly less effective in this case.
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faz com que ele seja menos eficaz neste caso.
03:26
But this piece is due out in May.
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Mas este produto estará pronto em Maio.
03:28
It'll be on display at the Interactive Telecommunications Spring Show
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Estará a mostra no evento Interactive Telecommunications Spring Show
03:31
in Greenwich Village in New York City -- that's open to the public,
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em Greenwich Village na cidade de Nova York -- estará aberto ao público,
03:33
definitely invite you all to come and attend -- it's a fantastic show.
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definitivamente, convido todos vocês para vir e presenciar -- é um evento fantástico.
03:37
There are hundreds of student innovators with fantastic projects.
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Há centenas de estudantes inovadores com projetos fantásticos.
03:41
This piece, actually, will be on display
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Este produto, na realidade, estará a mostra
03:43
down in the Sierra Simulcast Lounge
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no Lounge Sierra Simulcast
03:45
in the breaks between now and the end of the show.
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nos intervalos entre agora e o final do evento.
03:47
So I'd love to talk to you all, and invite you
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Eu adoraria conversar com todos vocês, e convidá-los
03:49
to come down and take a closer look.
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a comparecer e ver de perto.
03:51
It's an honor to be here. Thanks very much.
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É uma honra estar aqui, muito obrigado.
03:53
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
Translated by Alexandre Marcondes
Reviewed by Luis Glehn

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Nick Sears - Inventor
Working with his father, Ron Sears, Nick Sears is designing and building the Orb, a rotating LED display that uses persistence of vision to produce moving images in 3D space.

Why you should listen

Nick Sears is a classic tinkerer -- his resume  lists jobs that run the gamut from writing a mobile messaging framework to building a DC-DC switching voltage regulator. Along with his dad, Ron Sears, he's got a pretty neat father-son project going on: the Orb.

It's inspired by Buckminster Fuller's 1962 proposal for the Geoscope, which called for "a 200-foot-diameter sphere covered with 10 million computer-controlled light sources to be suspended over the East River in full view of the United Nations." But by making the sphere spin, the Sears realized, they could use persistence of vision and LEDs to create a bright display with a three-dimensional effect using far fewer light sources.

Sears is now a student in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU. He and his father presented the Orb version 2 at Coachella in 2008 and continue to tinker with it.

More profile about the speaker
Nick Sears | Speaker | TED.com

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