Original subtitles

[narrator] On this episode of How Tech Works,

this big yellow ball could very well

be the best way to survive a tsunami.

We'll meet its inventor, and check out his escape plans.

And... could this robot explorer

unlock the mysteries of the deep dark sea?

[intro music]

Hello! My name is Basil Singer,

and you are in for one phenomenal episode

of How Tech Works.

Today we're going to see what happens

when you put an entire skate park in a box

that you can take home with you.

We're also going to take flight

from the top of the Rocky Mountains

using nothing but the wind

and a little parasail technology to get us safely back

on solid ground.

But first,

when it comes to being a wave worrier,

sometimes you really need to think outside the box,

and opt for a sphere instead.

If you're not quiet catching my drift,

take a look at what one Japanese inventor came up with

as the ultimate survival capsule for a tsunami.

[futuristic music]

[narrator] Today Yuichiashizawa is taking one for the team.

[together] One, two, three, go!

[narrator] He's demonstrating the Noah capsule,

a direct reference to Noah's ark.

It may look funny,

but the idea behind it is dead serious.

It's a miniature habitat to help people survive

an earthquake or the watery grip of a tsunami.

We don't have a shell like a turtle has.

Human beings are very fragile and easily injured.

So the Noah capsule can be like the turtle's shell.

[narrator] Shoji Tanaka was already working on it

when the massive earthquake and tsunami hit Japan.

He lost friends in the disaster.

We lost 20,000 people in that earthquake.

I wanted to save even one more life.

That's why I'm hoping Noah

can be used to help the Japanese people.

[narrator] The tragedy motivated him to continue with his idea,

even though people were skeptical.

If you think about a shelter, it's normally underground.

It's difficult to imagine this sphere as a shelter but...

people have seen the result,

so they're starting to understand how it can be used.

[narrator] Tanaka got the concept

from spherical pressure tanks that hold water and fuel.

And of course the egg,

and I knew sphere theory, it's physics.

The sphere is the strongest shape

for any amount of pressure.

[narrator] Turning his idea into a reality wasn't easy.

You can't just call up a natural disaster to test it

because you can't test like that.

That's why it's been very difficult.

[narrator] The team at Cosmo Power

has done the next best thing.

They've subjected the capsule to all sorts of punishment.

We've dropped three-ton stones onto it,

dropped iron onto it

and we've even hit it with a big hammer,

and finally we tested it at 20 tons of pressure.

[electronic music]

[narrator] Dropped into water, even with a slap,

it immediately floats to the surface.

And they've tested it for leaks of course.

The first prototype leaked,

but now it's waterproof.

[narrator] At 70 kilograms,

two people can lift and move it.

To increase the odds of survival

the capsule is yellow,

so it's easy for rescuers to spot.

A hook on the top allows the rescuers

to throw a rope to it, and it's got two air-holes.

We tested it repeatedly to know it would be safe

and we found two air vents is enough

for four people to breathe.

[narrator] Caps on the air-holes prevent water

from coming in during bad weather.

And there's a small window

that can be opened for extra air.

Believe it or not,

the standard capsule is designed for four people.

And even though it's round,

the capsule stays upright when people are inside.

And thanks to storage beneath the floor,

the space holds water, food and possessions.

That extra weight holds the sphere right side up.

And a bar provides stability.

We have a steel bar in the center

and if you get into the capsule and grab it,

you'll be in balance, it's like a natural gravity.

[narrator] Of course, seeing is believing.

Let's check in with Yuichi,

who's floating in the capsule on his own.

How you doing up there?

[Yuichi] I'm just leaning against the wall,

relaxing, just like I can sleep.

So doing good huh?

Do you get any water there leaking?

[Yuichi] Two or three drops from the window.

Just dripping, ah.

Can you see us?

[Yuichi] I can see somebody's hand!

[man] He's doing good.

He says that it's really comfy there.

[narrator] Surviving the sea is one thing.

But surviving the return to dry land,

that may be another.

[plastic scraping]

[upbeat music]

People can survive for a week in the capsule.

Customers are already lining up.

Shoji Tanaka has a thousand orders now

and four hundred capsules are already delivered.

He plans to work with the local governments

to provide the capsules to entire communities.

And he's also working on bigger and better designs.

I am thinking about designing a much bigger capsule

that would help 30 people survive for a month.

[narrator] For a man content with saving one life,

Shoji Tanaka may end up saving many.

We continue now with another water-based story.

But we're no longer surviving the dangers of the sea,

instead we're about to unlock its many mysteries.

And this is possible thanks to an incredible

robot explorer called the Wave Glider.

Now the Wave Glider is about to begin

its record-breaking journey

across the Pacific Ocean autonomously.

[futuristic music]

[narrator] They might not look like hardy ocean adventurers

but these robotic explorers,

roughly the size of a surfboard, have ocean scientists drooling.

It's the first vehicle

that's been able to operate in the ocean

for indeterminate amounts of time

not constrained by having to get back

for its crew to have to eat food,

see their families

or for the vehicle itself to need refueling.

And it allows a new type of ocean research

that's really never been possible before.

[narrator] Today they going to be put into the ocean

just outside of San Francisco bay,

and steered through sometimes perilous waters

headed towards Hawaii

and ultimately, Japan and Australia.

We have four vehicles crossing the Pacific ocean,

which you're hitting every possible

ocean environment on the way across.

Every sea state, every wind state,

currents of every force that we have,

the Pacific Ocean has it.

And with these vehicles crossing you going to hit

every one of those and all that data gathered,

is data we can analyze to use in our systems.

[narrator] What's also cool is the secret

to the Wave Glider's success, something called persistence.

And by that we mean not that it keeps on trying,

although it does, but that it can stay out

in the ocean for long periods of time.

[narrator] Because it uses wave power to move forwards

and solar power to operate its electronics.

[man] So the way the Wave Glider works

is purely mechanical conversion of wave motion

into forward motion for the vehicle.

Just like flippers,

a whale moving his fluke up and down,

the Wave Glider moves its fins up and down and swims.

So now the only thing that's left

for the electronics to do is steer it.

[narrator] The vehicles will send data,

such as salinity, temperature and wave data and oxygen levels.

They'll also monitor algae blooms

and maybe even hurricanes as they develop off shore.

It's really about sort of opening a window

into a part of the world

that's difficult for humans to observe.

We get most of the information about the ocean

on a regular basis from satellites

hundreds of miles away looking down,

making amazing inferences about what's happening on the ocean,

but they're not really there.

They can't actually measure what's happening.

Wave Gliders can.

[narrator] Four hours from San Francisco,

the odyssey is about to begin.

-Y'all good? -I'm ready.

This is an incredible experience.

It's new technology that's really

just becoming its own entity

and we're working with major oceanographic institutes,

large commercial clients

and the technology is green,

it's wave-powered technology.

It's just a very, very exciting time

for us to be able to monitor the world's oceans.

[man] The future is in unmanned systems,

and the Wave Glider allows a unique opportunity

to analyze an unmanned system that has a persistence at sea

that we haven't seen before.

And that is something we would love to leverage

into a military environment.

[narrator] All four successfully set sail.

We know the vehicle is going to make it.

What people do with the data is really the exciting part.

If it turns out that this set of instruments

actually suggests a scientific discovery

that would be pretty amazing,

you know, we're doing this as an equipment demonstration

to bring awareness of this new device,

but if actually turned out that through the data,

we were able to, or scientists, it wouldn't be me,

were able to learn something,

or see something that requires further investigation,

that will really be exciting.

[narrator] Now, hundreds of scientists

will wait to see what these robotic explorers will discover.

Coming up on How Tech Works.

Why go to the skate park when the skate park can come to you?

And extreme athlete and inventor Will Gadd

has been granted his wish and it's called Speed-flying.

[electronic music]

Welcome back to How Tech Works. I'm Basil Singer.

Over the last ten years or so,

skateboarding has exploded

from a counter-culture mode of transport

into something fairly mainstream.

Now you won't have to travel to the skatepark

to get your kicks and do your tricks anymore

because you can take the skatepark with you.

[electronic music]

[narrator] There's something changing

about going to the skatepark these days

because now the skatepark can come to you!

It's called Freshpark.

[Roger] Well you build a fresh park every day.

These ramps are portable.

They're foldable,

they're linkable,

and everything folds up and goes away so no-one runs over it.

It's a park in a box.

I don't know how I came up with that name,

but it's a whole skatepark, and we put it in a box.

[electronic music]

[narrator] In his first life,

Roger Hickey was a world downhill skateboarding champion.

Probably the thing I like most about skateboarding

is its being an individual sport, if I win or lose,

it's all up to me.

From 1980 on,

I went and won 20 world championships in a row.

[narrator] In his second life,

he was a master builder of trade show booths.

You become an expert at folding stuff up,

and being able to ship it, and being able to store it.

[narrator] And that's when the brainstorm hit.

[Roger] And with the trade show booths,

it was something I knew very well.

The skateboarding was something that I loved,

I just kinda morphed skateboarding

into trade show booths,

and created a trade show booth version

of a skatepark.

I was just very lucky

that I could take two things that I lived

and did my whole life, and just smash 'em together

and somehow I'm just blessed to have this company.

[narrator] But there were a few obstacles along the way.

And we're not just talking quarter-pipes and grind-rails.

He had lots of critics,

even guys he'd skateboarded with his whole life.

They said nobody's ever going to ride a plastic fold up ramp,

and so not only did I not get any support from anybody else,

I didn't get any support from any of my friends

which might have just fueled me to prove them wrong.

[narrator] And prove them wrong he did.

Out of the Freshpark headquarters

in Huntington beach,

they're now making 28 different products

and selling them world-wide.

Hi guys, welcome to Freshpark.

Come on in, we'll show you around.

[narrator] The first thing that hits you is the boxes ,

lots and lots of boxes.

I went through 31 prototypes,

literally got it done to where it was strong and it was nice,

and it was a done product, and I all of a sudden realized

that it cost so much money to ship,

that I couldn't sell any so I had to re-invent

the whole thing to fit a box that could actually ship.

[narrator] The parts are made of cold-rolled steel,

and to say they're durable, according to Roger,

is an understatement.

They're designed to spread

the load stresses throughout the structure.

Here we can do our stress test,

we can see if everything folds correctly,

and we can get a general idea

of how everything's gonna work and fit together.

[Roger] The engineering on these ramps

is built almost like an airplane wing.

Where from the outside it doesn't look that strong,

but I always tell people:

if I told you an eighth-inch sheet

of aluminum can lift 80000 pounds

you'd never believe it

but that's what an airplane wing is,

it's just engineering.

And so the engineering in these is made to crush on itself,

you literally would have to crush the steel,

and we've parked cars on it that are 7000 lbs.

[narrator] Little did Roger know,

that Freshpark would soon morph

into a game-changing outlet for youngsters.

Today, Freshpark is moving into a very special neighborhood.

The Miramar marine corp base in San Diego.

And it's a welcome site for the teens here.

[woman] It caters to what the teens and youth want

their park to look like, it's not set in stone.

They have the input and feedback to develop it the way they want.

And for military youth and teens,

that sometimes is a rare occasion for them,

because they have no control over where they're PCS'ing next.

So for them to have a piece and a say

in what they want to do is a pinnacle for them.

When I first started this,

I thought it'd be cool to have some of these

and bring 'em out of our garages.

I never in my wildest dreams

could have wrote a business plan

where we have Freshpark in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Alright, skate time!

[electronic music]

This being an individual type sport,

they get individual pride and individual confidence,

and it just helps them grow.

And it's nice to be able to provide a tool

that would help kids like that,

to stay entertained and stay out of trouble.

[narrator] With programs like this,

Roger has seen his fresh idea soar to unexpected heights.

I don't even know how to put it into words,

but it's the craziest ride I could ever be on.

[narrator] And for this guy who used to skateboard

downhill at nearly 65 miles an hour,

that is quite a kick-flip.

[electronic music]

For our last story today,

we'll meet someone who gets his thrills

from attempting the impossible

and the dangerous

and also the slightly crazy.

Will Gadd is his name,

and extreme sport has been his game for many years.

Now, Will wants to know what it feels like to fly like a bird

and he's invented a gadget small enough

to fold inside a rucksack that just might do the trick.

[narrator] In the Rocky Mountains,

there's a new creature hitting the skies.

Whoohoo!

[narrator] It's athlete Will Gadd defying gravity

in a new extreme sport called Speedflying.

[Will] So Speedflying is using a paraglider-like wing

to fly down mountains or hills

quite close to it, kind of like a snowboarder

going down and using the features of the hill,

and the wind to fly down in an interesting way.

[narrator] It's interesting because flying

close to the ground can be,

well unpredictable.

Whenever you're close to the ground in aviation

it's generally considered dangerous.

It's a lot easier to hit the ground

when you're close to it.

[narrator] Will is no stranger to danger.

As one of Canada's top ice climbers,

he's scaled glaciers, giant waterfalls,

and even in remote caves.

The big problem with ice climbing

is that there's this thing called summer.

[narrator] And when the ice melts,

he takes to the skies.

[Will] I set world distance records for paragliding

and one of those flights I was in the air ten hours.

[narrator] But today he's learning how to Speedfly,

so he can fly like the birds.

[Will] I took up Speedflying because in a way it's what

I always want to do with paragliding

which is fly off peaks.

And I used to have these dreams when I was a kid

of flying along like a bird right over the ground,

and Speedflying is just like that.

It's the closest to sort of bird-like flying

of anything I do.

[narrator] For today's flight,

they need the perfect conditions.

The wrong gust of wind could lead to disaster.

[Will] She's a little windy.

It's a little bit windy.

Thinking there might be a good chance

for turbulence at the bottom when we're landing.

Possibly lots of lift and crashing into the ground.

-I like checking my anemometer. -What are we at, buddy?

-Twenty nine. -It'll build.

-Yeah. -Thirty.

Now you look down in the trees it's totally dead, eh?

Here comes the next cycle, it's like waves,

you've got to figure out whether the frequency

and intensity of the waves

is something you'll enjoy dealing with,

or you'll just be like, this is no fun.

[narrator] Even though the wind's a bit on the rough side,

Will takes a leap of faith.

[upbeat music]

[groans]

A little bit of a bounce there. [laughs]

[narrator] That looks painful

but at least they didn't land in the river.

And that was just a practice hill.

Now it's time to hit the Rockies.

[upbeat music]

Going flying!

[Will] Speedflying wings generally don't glide as well

but they go a lot faster.

And they're a lot more stable, so you can fly them closer

to the ground with better odds of not hitting the ground.

A paraglider is less stable in general than a speed wing.

Wing in a bag, eh?

Get down.

You're done! Like that.

Climb up a mountain with that, how great is that?

This is your business class executive seat here.

A pretty nice flight,

hang out in that,

go off the top.

[narrator] They start the long hike up

to the top of the mountain.

So how high are we going?

What 800 meters give or take?

That sounds good.

[narrator] Finally they hit their launch pad.

[Will] I'm not going to be wanging it super hard low,

you guys want to do that

but that's not my skill level and I know that.

OK, you guys ready? Have fun!

[upbeat music]

[Will] The best moment in almost any form of flying

is when you take off.

And all that junk stays on the ground

and you're just flying.

[Will] Too late to change anything now, going in.

[upbeat music]

Yee ha!

[Will] Landing for me is always bittersweet

because it's the end of the flight.

But when you come back and land, it's always this great moment.

Ye ho!

Flare hard!

Yeah boy!

Return to earth, that feels good too.

Great to get a flight with you.

Likewise, finally! We've been trying for a while.

Awesome!

You've been watching How Tech Works.

I'm Basil Singer, and I'll see you next time!

[ending music]