02x08 - Technology

[bunniefuu]

Today on DFTV, we head up

to battle with robots,

meet a glove wearing teenage inventor.

OK, I can't spell either

and race against time in the mountains.

Right now we're kind of. Yes,

Major funding for Dragonfly TV is

provided by the Best Buy Children's

Foundation. We're excited to see kids

like you exploring the world of science

and technology because what you're

learning is going to change the way we

live. Best Buy the future looks fun.

And by the National Science Foundation,

supporting education and research in

science, mathematics and technology.

The National Science Foundation.

America's investment in the future.

It's Dragonfly TV. Dragonfly

TV.

I'm Michael. And I'm Mariko. Today on

DFTV, we're into technology big time.

We've got a bike that glows in the dark.

And we'll meet up with Carl, a robot

builder who's sending his bot, Turbo

Gnome, into battle. But first, we'll

check out some junior Mountaineers who

are having a compass versus GPS showdown.

Just who will get lost first?

Hi, I'm Ravi, and today I'm organizing a

little hiking competition between my

friends. I'm

testing which method of navigation works

better. GPS, which is short for Global

Positioning System, or Orienteering,

which utilizes detailed maps and

compasses.

In just a few minutes. These two teams

are going to navigate the same five-mile

course through the Santa Monica

Mountains. The blue team gets only a

GPS unit, and the orange team gets only a

map and compass.

This all started because I love to hike,

and my mom decided to get me a GPS unit

for my birthday because, as she said, it

will keep you from getting lost out

there. Ohh

Great. Now I have this high-tech

navigator that actually receives signals

from satellites orbiting around the

Earth, telling me exactly where I am,

how fast I'm going, and what direction my

target is. So cool. I asked my

friend Gorby, who's a GPS fanatic, for

coordinates to his backyard. N 32

degrees,



Boy, was I surprised when the GPS told me

I needed to walk straight through a

house, then right off a

bridge.

It seemed GPS was really good at some

things, but not so good at others, and I

wondered if it really was better than the

good old map and compass. This is when I

decided to put my new GPS to a true test.

I got Gloria and his GPS loving buddies

together as a blue team. I guess we're

blue. Blue rules. Then I

called my friend Claire and her friends

who go orienteering all the time and made

them the orange team.

Finally. I constructed a course over

varying terrain with five waypoints, or

destinations, to put the two navigation

methods to the test. I noted the GPS

coordinates at each of the five

waypoints, which I will provide for the

blue team at the start of our little

race. Then, for the

orienteering team, I took the existing

national park trail map and used my

computer to add information about the

terrain that I saw on the trail. I also

put a red arrow exactly where the

waypoints are located on the trail. All

right, we're ready to start. Let's

go. .23 miles. I made the first waypoint

relatively easy because I wanted to give

the teams a quick confidence builder.

Look, it's the waypoint fly.

All right. There it is. First waypoint.

As we will at each waypoint, our GPS team

takes a 15-minute break to record the

time to this waypoint. So it's about 21

minutes. The distance traveled. The

distance was .4 miles.

And any observations. How do you think

the GPS worked, you guys?Well, it worked

pretty good. It was pointing us in the

right direction most of the time.

Meanwhile, the orienteering team was on

the move, setting out for waypoint one

with our map and compass. Good luck, you

guys. Here's

the road then, and it shows it on the

map. We just went along this road. We

went here and we've gotten to this. And

we can see flag. Now we want to go that

way to that way point, which is that flag

right up there. We had no problems with

our map and compass, but the G PS: team

was having a tough time getting oriented.

How it changed. Here's when the problems

start coming. Hey, it moved. Yes. Which

way is it pointing now?This way. Let's go

this way. Wait, Gorby,

it's been pointing mostly in this

direction, like northwest and northeast

mainly. So let's try going

basically north and see if it says we're

getting farther or closer. Here's where

we made our first long turn. The GPS

pointed towards way .2, but we chose this

track, which heads in the right general

direction, but not to way .2.

And we're getting farther away. I think

we're supposed to go back that way. We've

lost like 12 minutes. With the GPS team

back on track, the Orienteers arrive at

waypoint one. Where's waypoint?

Remember, the stars were staggered by 30

minutes to keep the team separated.

As the Orienteering team takes off on

waypoint one, the GPS team hits some

harder terrain. Yeah, this is steep here.

And waypoint two. Look, there's a slide

right ahead of us.

Next, the GPS team descends into the

rocky valley below. Surrounded by these

high Cliff walls. Wow, these cliffs are

huge. Really. It says we have a weak

signal. We need a clearer view of sky.

This is another problem with GPS.

Unless it's connected to the satellite, a

GPS can't show you that much.

Show me the way. Do you have a

signal, Edward?No, not. Well, I still

think we're going the right way because

last time you checked, it was going sort

of this way, you know?Yeah. Hey,

we have a signal. We do?Yeah. Wonderful.

Hey, pace the flag. We didn't

even need the DPS.

Meanwhile, we made our first navigational

error. We thought we'd found the rocky

descent to waypoint 2, but actually we

found a dead end. Is there supposed to be

a flag over here?Wait, Claire, how

many... Did we pace ourselves?They're

facing this way?Hold on. Looks like I

just... There were quite a few. For all

we know, we could be right here.

We kept zig-zagging our way to waypoint

two, while the DPS team dropped into a

tree-covered mess. We're not really

on a trail anymore. Mom, we've kind of

stumbled off. So right now we're kind

of lost. Lost

in the middle of nowhere?This is not

good. Let's hope these teams can find

their way out of this mess.

OK, I'm betting on the Compass kids. The

GPS group is lost. No way. I'll take

technology any day. But don't mind us,

you guys. Make your own guess and stick

around to see who makes better time. So

even if the GPS group is off track, they

still get to work with a really cool

device. The radio signals that this GPS

receives start off with less power. than

a 100-watt light bulb. And that signal

comes from a satellite more than 12,000

miles overhead. So by the time the radio

signal even reaches your handset, it's



started. No wonder you can lose a signal

if you're not out in the open. Exactly.

Ohh And remember, if you're navigating

any science, we want to hear all about

it. We'll tell you how later on.

So most kids like hopping on their bikes.

But at night you have to worry about

being seen by traffic. Which leads us

right to our riddle. How would you make a

bike visible at night without using a

headlight or reflectors?Take your own

guess and we'll be back at the end of the

show to give you the answer.

Kick.

I'm Carl. This is my fighting robot,

Turbo Gnome.

It's got two 14-inch wheels. That makes

it go pretty fast. Put one wheel in

forward, one wheel in reverse, that makes

it spin. And the weapons come out from

centrifugal force.

He's armored with black sand that's a

very strong, bulletproof plastic.

Turbo Gnome is powered by remote control.

That means that I can be outside of the

arena and be safe from the robot when

it's fighting.

Now for the moment of truth, it's battle

time.

We're up against Amy's robot, Bug Bite.

It strengthens its wedge design. But its

weakness is that it doesn't have a

weapon. Let's get ready to tap.

In a battle, you've got two minutes to

destroy your opponent. You can win by

damaging the other bot or damaging it to

your opponent.

I guess that's all that's left of Harold.

She got my machete, too. I think next

time I'll come back with a new, better

robot. Uh oh, back to the Troy

board. Welcome to my laboratory. I spend

a lot of time here.

I've been working on the new bot for

about two months here. In bot fighting,

there are weight classes like in boxing.

I'm designing a lightweight, so my bot

has to stay under 60 pounds.

My own weapon needs its own motor. That

means more weight. To keep the weight

down, I eliminated one of the batteries

and some of the armor. I've built these

two weapons. Now it's time to see which

one's more destructive, this one or this

one.

Every designer needs assistance to help

with the tests. They're making noise! Our

opponent today, a k*ller pumpkin.

We'll attack the competition with both

weapons two times. For each test, we'll

circle the 10 biggest chunks with the

different colored chalk for each trial.

Then we'll measure the distance from the

original spot to the chunks. Garrett will

write the measurements down. The better

the f*cking guts fly, the more powerful

the weapon. Let's go test them. The test

of science.

Weapon one.

It was spraying all over. There were a

lot of little pieces of that one.

Weapon one, test two.





one. 12.

I think blade number two's gonna go

further because it's wider and it

isn't sharper.

Yeah, it's pretty well called. Weapon

two. Yes, woo! Die,

pumpkin.

Battery was dead, I guess. Right

there. I got two feet.

Let's just call that six. Eight feet.

I thought weapon two would throw the

pieces a lot further, but actually weapon

one threw them. The average for blade one

was about 27 feet. The average for blade

two was only six feet. Weapon two was so

much heavier that it drained the

batteries a lot faster too. From what

I've seen today, I think I'll use weapon

one in competition.

It's smashed!

Meet Bot Dragonfly.

I decided to use this blade against my

competitor 2x4 because the pumpkin test

said that it's the best blade. I'm gonna

use this to keep him away and hopefully

tangle up the spinner. Let's go! Go, go,

go!

My strategy was to get in there and break

a spinner, but instead it flipped him. I

didn't know that would happen. The crowd

goes wild!

Yay! Fire up the spinner, hit him again,

look for the basket. Get him, pull

the spin up faster. Get him, get him.

All right, let's go in the towel, guys.

We ripped our wheel off, sheared the

bolts that hold the bearings, and bent

our blade. Did we win?I hope so. No, we

didn't win, 'cause we were immobilized.

Whenever we hit 'em. Whoo! 2x4 will win

the match. Let's hear it for 2x4!

I guess we can always redesign it and

make it better for next time. I won't

stop until I'm the most feuded seventh

grader in Robotic Combat. Yeah!

Carl is so into engineering that he

created an after school robot building

class which he teaches himself. And if

you're interested in bot battles, there

are clubs all over the country that you

can check out. Speaking of robots, scope

out what these guys built.

We surveyed the health of Florida's coral

reef. We got on Dragonfly

TV. You can be on

DFTV too. And here's how.

Surf on over to the Dragonfly TV website.

It's at PBS Online at pbskids.org.

Or you can ride us at Dragonfly TV,





OK, now it's time to go back to our

riddle. How can your bike be seen at

night without using a headlight or

reflectors?Lexi and Jennifer have a few

good ideas of their own.

We're each trying to make our bikes

easier to see at night. I'm painting mine

with glow in the dark paint. And I'm

attaching glow sticks to my bike. OK,

painted bike has been absorbing the

garage light. It should be ready to go.

This will be so cool. Yeah, totally.

Could you even see my bike?No, not at

all. But you know these glow sticks?

They're starting to fall off. You know, I

really think there's another way to use

lights to make your bike show up atnight.

So the paint faded and the glow sticks

kept falling off. But keep your bright

ideas coming and the answer will be on

its way soon.

What country has solar powered pay phones?

Canada. Saudi Arabia.

Uganda. All of the above.

All of the above.

Let's go.

Hi, I'm Ryan Patterson, and I invented a

sign language translator glove.

Just what is a sign language translator

glove?It's this. A glove that

a person wears who can't speak, and when

they do sign language, it translates it

to a display so that people who don't

know sign language can read what they're

saying. There's a high demand for human

interpreters, so I thought if I could

build an electronic interpreter, it would

make them more independent, give them

more freedoms, make things easier for

them. This invention will conquer the

world. When I was

like this tall, I was dragging out

extension cords, playing with electrical

outlets, which isn't a good idea. You can

get yourself hurt doing that. When I was

in 3rd grade, I started doing a lot with

electronic components, chips, circuit

boards. And then I was introduced to my

mentor who has taught me a ton about

electronics. Oh, he just he just

picked it up. This was not a spoon

fed thing. The way the glove works is

everybody signs a little bit differently.

Some people use different signs for

certain things. So you put on the glove

and you train it so that way the computer

learns how you sign it. Then I found that

it's not real convenient to take a

computer with you everywhere you go, so I

built a portable display.

Obviously, I can't sign nearly as fast

as people have done it all their life,

but OK, I can't spell either.

Brian always asks for electronic stuff

for Christmas. I requested a few odd

things for Christmas. An extension cord.

Multi-outlet. A plastic tube. A

rubber hose one year. What?We started

here with this quiet, shy little boy. You

know, we've gone from that to this. We

cleaned up real good here. thing. He

developed a glove that turned sign

language into text. Imagine what he'll do

now that he's finished high school.

I plan to hopefully manufacture it in the

future so that people can use it.

I filed a patent for it. It's waiting at

the U.S. Patent Office.

Technically, everybody's a scientist. They

have a question, and they go and figure

out an answer to it. There's an answer to

every question, and if there's not an

answer, then you should go and figure it

out yourself.

When Ryan was five, his family put an

addition onto their house, and he begged

his father to let him do it with the

electrical wiring. Being the go-getter

that he is, Ryan did all of it. And when

the inspector showed up to check it out,

he tagged along the entire time and tried

to explain to him everything he'd done.

But the inspector couldn't understand his

kid language. So he told his parents that

everything looked perfect, and he left

without realizing he had just okayed the

work of a five-year-old. I think I was

barely writing my name at 5:00. But what

counts is you've got it down now. I'll

teach you how later. Anyway, let's check

out and see if those GPS compass kids are

still lost.

To see which navigation method is better,

GPS or orienteering, I sent these two

teams out on the same five mile course

through the Santa Monica Mountains, the

blue team. utilizing only a GPS have

stumbled off the main trail looking for

waypoint four. So right now we're kind of

lost. While the Orange

Orienteering team, who started 30 minutes

after the GPS team, are having a hard

time getting their bearings to help

locate the second of five waypoints.

Balanced rock. You guys, you guys,

balanced rock. Balanced rock is that

thingy. There's balancing.

So when you're like lost, you just find

something that you know is completely

true. Like the balanced rock. Or take out

your compass. OK, this is magnetic north.

And everything seems to fall into place

after that. I call it stable datum.

Using balanced rock as a reference point,

we finally reached waypoint 2. Oh, there

it is, you guys! Come on! So from

waypoint 1 to waypoint 2 was 1 hour and



without a GPS signal, we navigated

blindly through the trees.

So what's the GPS say right now?That way?

Well, that's directly where the Creek is

going. Well, I guess we have to go either

over the Creek or over here next to

it. After some off-trail hiking, we

finally got back on track. Since we're

going more or less the right direction.

Oh, well, we missed this trail. That

would have been a lot easier. We found

waypoint 4. I see the flag. All right.

We recorded our data and observations,

and we're quickly on our way to the final

waypoint. It says that way. Let's go.

Meanwhile, the orienteering team

continues to make good time reaching

waypoint 3. We made it. I

thought I was going to die on those

rocks. And shortly after that, Waypoint



says Split Rock right there, and that's

where we are right here. And you can see

right through it. Both

teams make good time to the finish line,

making no navigational errors along the

way. Ohh

You guys made it. Congratulations.

The GPS team finished with a total time

of three hours and 11 minutes, while the

orienteering team made it in just two

hours and 49 minutes. Claire, Goreby and

I decided to make a graph, breaking it

down by waypoints to see how the

different terrain affected each team.

So what do you guys think?You guys see

anything weird?Yeah, two's

really high. Claire, though your

orienteering team had a better overall

time, Goreby's GPS team actually beat you

by 40 minutes on that one. Claire, what

do you think?That was because we

knew there are three major bends in the

road and we forgot to count those in the

beginning. And so we kept stopping to

look to see if the flag was there and

eventually we got to it. It just took us

a little bit longer than we expected.

Well, look at number four. So it took

your orienteering team only five minutes,

and Gorb, your GPS team took around five

times longer. Why do you think that

happened?We took a wrong turn 'cause the

GPS showed the direction we had to go,

and so we went that direction, and then

we came to a wall of brush and

stuff so we couldn't get past, so we had

to go back and take a different trail. So

next time I go hiking, I'm gonna bring a

map, a compass, and a GPS system.

Because it seems to me that both put

together will cancel out each other's

weaknesses. Yeah, that works. Hey, I'm

hungry. Does anyone have the corners for

the fridge?I don't know, but if you give

me a compass and a floor plan, I'll be

able to get there. You guys really take

this stuff seriously, don't you?

Magnetic compasses must work pretty well

because people have been using them for

more than 1000 years. Everyone from Marco

Polo to Magellan to those hiker kids. And

if you'd like to make one of your own,

here's an easy way of doing it. Stick a

needle into a piece of cork, then rub the

eye of the needle onto a magnet. As for

doing that for a while, place the cork in

the center of a bowl of water. When it

stops moving, it should be pointing

north. Yep, matches the compass. Sweet.

So now you guys won't get lost in your

kitchen. And you'll have no problem

finding the answer to our riddle. That's

right, we're heading off to Florida to

see one of the coolest ways to light up a

bike.

We light up a bicycle using the same

technology that makes wristwatches glow.

They're called electroluminescent panels.

We put them on the frame and the tire rim

so the whole bike will glow. There's a

battery pack under the seat to power the

panels. The panels make the bike visible

from up to 600 feet away. Plus, the

panels won't dim or fade like

glow-in-the-dark paint or reflectors

because they don't rely on another light

source to shine on them. But please

remember, while bicycling is fun, it can

also be dangerous. Always be aware of

what's around you. And if you have to

bike at night, or even in the day, make

sure you always wear a helmet.

Hey, did you guys know that Mother Nature

has her own lighting solutions?Some

insects and animals are bioluminescent,

which means that they're equipped with

chemicals that light them up in the dark.

And there are a lot of examples,

everything from fireflies to a seven-foot

squid that hasPulling bulbs

at the end of each arm. Yeah, the

chemicals inside this glow stick are

similar to those that light up insects

and animals. So when you bend a glow

stick, oh, like that, an inner

container breaks and the two chemicals

combine. Here's what happens when they

come into contact. Ready?Yeah, hold

on. Three, two,

one.

Oh my gosh. It's like red and then it's

orange. I could watch this all day long.

OK, so if you guys have any projects that

glow in the dark, or even if they don't,

make sure we find out all about it.

Because if you don't tell us, who will?To

find out more about Dragonfly TV, head to

PBS Online at pbskids.org or

write us at Dragonfly TV, 172 E



see what's coming up this season on

Dragonfly TV. We don't know how these

dunes got here, but we sure know that

they're great for dune diving. Dragonfly

TV heard we worked with crocodiles. We

dig sea turtles. We really do, right out

in the sand. Coming up soon on Dragonfly

TV. Well, it's time to wrap things up.

We'll be back soon. On Dragonfly TV.

Major funding for Dragonfly TV is

provided by the Best Buy Children's

Foundation. We're excited to see kids

like you exploring the world of science

and technology, because what you're

learning is going to change the way we

live. Best by, the future looks fun.

And by the National Science Foundation,

supporting education and research in

science, mathematics, and technology.

The National Science Foundation,

America's investment in the future.

I am the robot Don't have a

name I am the

robot Computer playing

I am the robot Remote

control I am the

robot Turn on and then

I'll go I am the robot

I am the robot I am the

robot