1
00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:08,240
here in the studio today we've got project owl who were the winners of the

2
00:00:05,759 --> 00:00:12,080
2018 call for code and they're pulling back the kimono to show us

3
00:00:10,559 --> 00:00:17,039
their ducks so ducks are small transmitters that

4
00:00:14,559 --> 00:00:21,199
allow a huge wi-fi mesh network to be deployed quickly and easily

5
00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:26,160
now they're not the kind of thing that you would use in your house but they can

6
00:00:23,359 --> 00:00:31,119
be invaluable during a disaster when cell service or other essential

7
00:00:28,080 --> 00:00:32,160
communications infrastructure might be

8
00:00:31,119 --> 00:00:36,800
down so let's take a look at how they work

9
00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:40,160
while also giving a big thanks to call for code founding partner ibm for

10
00:00:38,960 --> 00:00:47,439
sponsoring this video

11
00:00:50,480 --> 00:00:56,800
project owl started as a submission to call for code last year and call for

12
00:00:54,800 --> 00:01:00,640
code is a global challenge inspiring developers to create sustainable

13
00:00:58,480 --> 00:01:05,920
technologies to help communities prepare for and respond to natural disasters so

14
00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:11,119
the team was actually inspired by the floods caused by a hurricane in houston

15
00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:16,320
and the idea was to create a wi-fi network that could be distributed by

16
00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:21,759
what is essentially a bunch of rubber ducks so when the flood comes in

17
00:01:19,119 --> 00:01:24,240
a fleet of these ducts could just be dropped into the water and they would

18
00:01:23,439 --> 00:01:29,280
just float around and allow users to connect

19
00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:33,280
to an emergency wi-fi network now

20
00:01:30,159 --> 00:01:34,159
to be clear the goal was never you know

21
00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:39,840
like look out at t because we got this

22
00:01:36,479 --> 00:01:41,840
amazing fast wi-fi like it doesn't even

23
00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:46,240
give you an internet connection but what it does do is allow people to connect

24
00:01:44,159 --> 00:01:50,000
with an emergency response center and share crucial information like their

25
00:01:48,079 --> 00:01:53,360
location if anyone needs medical attention and so on and so forth

26
00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:58,240
so let's look at how they got this to work

27
00:01:55,680 --> 00:02:02,960
um this right here is a duck it's a shockingly simple device

28
00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:07,200
we've got an arduino dev board that's equipped with a wi-fi chip a lora chip

29
00:02:05,360 --> 00:02:11,440
and an antenna this is the actual housing they won't look like this

30
00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:15,920
and the way that these work is that in every deployment there's one

31
00:02:13,599 --> 00:02:20,640
main duck that acts as the primary connection point so that'll maybe be

32
00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:26,480
located in an emergency response shelter or at a hospital then from there the

33
00:02:23,599 --> 00:02:30,720
satellite ducts can be spread out around to send messages or relay them back to

34
00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:35,760
the main duct so the user would connect to the wi-fi

35
00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:40,160
on the nearest duct to their location and then their messages would be sent

36
00:02:37,519 --> 00:02:44,080
over lora which is a long-range low-powered transmission standard that

37
00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:49,840
allows the satellite ducts to maintain their connection from distances that are

38
00:02:46,480 --> 00:02:52,640
much further than traditional wi-fi

39
00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:57,200
thing is though even with lora you can't get too far away from the main duck and

40
00:02:55,440 --> 00:03:02,400
this is where another really cool thing about project owl comes in

41
00:02:59,519 --> 00:03:06,720
so a bunch of these satellite ducts can actually connect together to form a

42
00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:12,080
cluster duck creating a kind of mesh wi-fi network so

43
00:03:09,920 --> 00:03:17,519
if each duck has a range of about 400 meters the distance they can cover adds

44
00:03:14,319 --> 00:03:20,319
up really fast a dozen might cover a

45
00:03:17,519 --> 00:03:24,159
small community and as you get more that area just keeps on increasing

46
00:03:22,640 --> 00:03:28,560
so um why don't we try it out

47
00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:32,640
charlie here is part of project owl so he's going to turn on the main duck

48
00:03:30,640 --> 00:03:37,440
which we have over at the end here so just open it up and click it on and

49
00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:42,319
i'm going to turn on one of our satellite ducts

50
00:03:38,879 --> 00:03:44,640
so i click this it says mama online and

51
00:03:42,319 --> 00:03:49,519
then each of these is run off a battery pack that's super simple it's just three

52
00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:53,920
double a's that'll power it for up to 12 hours and in the future they figure

53
00:03:51,599 --> 00:03:57,760
these could be powered completely off of solar energy

54
00:03:55,360 --> 00:04:02,000
all right so we should be in business let's see just how well this is going to

55
00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:07,120
work in an emergency i fire up my wi-fi here got my screen recording running we

56
00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:08,879
go ahead and see sos mama emergency

57
00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:13,519
portal i think if i saw that in an emergency i would

58
00:04:10,239 --> 00:04:16,560
probably connect to it and boom

59
00:04:13,519 --> 00:04:18,239
owl emergency network on espanyol you're

60
00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:22,079
connected to the owl emergency network sending an sos message will send your

61
00:04:19,759 --> 00:04:25,840
gps location to first responders and emergency message you can add details

62
00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:28,800
about your emergency and the closest facilities to you are located at

63
00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:34,400
willowbrook shopping center where'd you get that from you guys just picked something

64
00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:37,440
okay that is a nearby mall indeed and perhaps a place you know they've got a

65
00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:42,880
big parking lot that could be set up with tree edge of sorts so i can go ahead i

66
00:04:40,240 --> 00:04:47,120
can add some details uh first name where are you what's your emergency flood

67
00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:49,120
landslide trapped building collapse and violence

68
00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:53,600
um it's really bad we need first aid food

69
00:04:51,199 --> 00:04:56,400
evacuation financial aid hygiene for sure

70
00:04:54,720 --> 00:05:03,199
all kinds of good stuff in here we go ahead and send our sos and we can send updates

71
00:04:59,919 --> 00:05:05,759
as well pretty cool stuff

72
00:05:03,199 --> 00:05:09,919
of course though this is Linus tech tips and a simple little demo like that here

73
00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:14,240
in the studio is not going to be enough for us we supposedly have enough

74
00:05:12,720 --> 00:05:18,000
satellite ducts to cover a small community so uh

75
00:05:16,240 --> 00:05:22,960
let's do it shall we so for our hypothetical example here uh

76
00:05:20,479 --> 00:05:27,120
some kind of emergency has taken place let's say

77
00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:32,160
a flood and we have fled to high ground actually it's not even that unrealistic

78
00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:35,520
fun fact our office is located right adjacent to an enormous flood plain

79
00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:38,560
so the more you know so basically we're up

80
00:05:37,759 --> 00:05:43,440
here we're panicked we're scared and we have

81
00:05:40,960 --> 00:05:48,320
no connectivity whatsoever either because it's been taken out or because

82
00:05:45,759 --> 00:05:51,600
everybody's spamming it at once and signals are not going through

83
00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:54,720
so this right here is our main duck and it's connected to the wi-fi right here

84
00:05:53,280 --> 00:05:58,960
and this is sort of our base of operations for the afternoon so in order

85
00:05:57,199 --> 00:06:02,320
to cover as much air as possible we've got one of our satellite ducts right

86
00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:06,479
here that is going to go up and hopefully not be obstructed by any

87
00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:10,160
buildings or stuff so should we let it go

88
00:06:07,919 --> 00:06:17,089
yep oh that's that really wants to go

89
00:06:18,560 --> 00:06:21,560
god

90
00:06:25,199 --> 00:06:32,560
i'm just going to pop a couple more around the neighborhood to get

91
00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:35,440
nice coverage of everywhere so on

92
00:06:32,560 --> 00:06:39,680
mama online and well let's just put it like right there

93
00:06:37,280 --> 00:06:39,680
i guess

94
00:06:45,280 --> 00:06:48,280
perfect

95
00:07:05,840 --> 00:07:08,080
hey

96
00:07:12,639 --> 00:07:17,840
all right so i've got a bunch of them around the neighborhood has anything popped up yet

97
00:07:18,479 --> 00:07:26,400
nope look right there oh damn it Linus

98
00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:26,400
survived what the hell does he want

99
00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:34,240
uh hello oh no way

100
00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:44,280
burger fries man you're a life saver

101
00:07:40,319 --> 00:07:44,280
there's no ketchup in here

102
00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:57,919
now although our example had a bit of silliness to it this is a very serious

103
00:07:55,520 --> 00:08:04,000
solution to a very real problem and our demo did show how easy it is to create a

104
00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:09,199
nice big network to bring connectivity to those who might have lost it

105
00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:13,599
so thanks to support from ibm project owl has actually been able to expand

106
00:08:11,039 --> 00:08:18,400
this and even do a field test in puerto rico so if a disaster like hurricane

107
00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:23,039
maria happened again they would be able to get connectivity quickly back to the

108
00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:27,039
island and there are lots of other potential uses like setting up basic

109
00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:32,959
networks in places that currently have no cell service whatsoever or even just

110
00:08:30,639 --> 00:08:38,399
using the lower tracking of the ducts to help find disaster relief supplies once

111
00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:43,599
all is said and done it is shockingly common for things like tents and

112
00:08:40,719 --> 00:08:49,920
shelters or even portable toilets to get put down amidst the hubbub and then

113
00:08:46,560 --> 00:08:51,680
kind of forgotten where exactly they are

114
00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:56,080
so none of this would have been possible for project owl without the boost that

115
00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:59,760
they got from call for code so here's the thing guys if you have an

116
00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:05,279
idea that you think could help communities prepare for respond to and

117
00:09:02,800 --> 00:09:09,519
recover from natural disasters then submit your solution into the 2019 call

118
00:09:07,920 --> 00:09:15,920
for code we're gonna have that linked below where the top prize is 200 000

119
00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:20,880
and additional support from ibm and their partners to make your solution a

120
00:09:18,399 --> 00:09:24,959
reality so thanks to ibm for sponsoring this video thanks to project owl for

121
00:09:22,720 --> 00:09:28,080
coming up here and thanks to you guys for watching

122
00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:31,600
if you guys dislike this video you can hit that button i guess but if you liked

123
00:09:29,680 --> 00:09:34,320
it hit like get subscribed or maybe consider checking out where to buy the

124
00:09:32,959 --> 00:09:38,080
stuff we featured at the link in the video description okay it's more of like

125
00:09:36,560 --> 00:09:42,959
a community thing i don't know we probably have community managers that watch this channel sure whatever at the

126
00:09:41,279 --> 00:09:46,160
link in the video description once it's available also down there is our merch

127
00:09:44,800 --> 00:09:50,320
store which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum which you

128
00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:53,040
should totally join i don't think the fishing line's going

129
00:09:51,440 --> 00:09:57,760
to break i don't know you could just give it like another couple hundred feet

130
00:09:55,839 --> 00:10:02,480
wanna just tie it to the park bench sure okay it's really tight

131
00:10:02,480 --> 00:10:11,200
wait did it take off yep it's off oh it's it's oh there it is

132
00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:13,920
oh okay

133
00:10:16,839 --> 00:10:22,959
um uh well oops

134
00:10:21,279 --> 00:10:27,040
so that's gonna end up in chilliwack somewhere well let's not cry over spilt

135
00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:31,000
milk yeah i think we could honestly just cut that whole thing out