1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:03,040 Take one. 2 00:00:04,440 --> 00:00:05,480 Shall we? 3 00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:06,680 Take a minute. 4 00:00:08,440 --> 00:00:09,600 Look around you. 5 00:00:11,240 --> 00:00:12,960 You probably never think about it, 6 00:00:12,960 --> 00:00:16,440 but we are living in a time of incredible ingenuity. 7 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:20,480 Our lives are filled with fiendishly clever bits of tech 8 00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:23,680 that basically make the modern world tick. 9 00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:28,400 The problem is, we're now so used to these devices 10 00:00:28,400 --> 00:00:32,680 that we have forgotten to remember how clever they are. 11 00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:35,600 SPEAKER: I don't have an answer for that. 12 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:38,040 I'm Professor Hannah Fry, 13 00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:40,320 your hammer-wielding, 14 00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:44,440 tech curious tour guide 15 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:47,800 to the secret genius of everyday objects. 16 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:50,520 There is one law of physics that you need to know. 17 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:52,720 In each episode... 18 00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:54,280 Whoa! 19 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:57,400 ..I will take one seemingly ordinary item... 20 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:01,600 Oh! Immediately smoking. 21 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:04,680 ..and I'll look at it in frankly... 22 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:05,920 Yeah! 23 00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:07,560 ..obscene detail... 24 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:09,320 Two googly eyes. 25 00:01:09,320 --> 00:01:12,680 It has 180 degree view. 26 00:01:12,680 --> 00:01:15,920 ..meet the people who helped make it... 27 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:18,320 This is the very first air fryer. 28 00:01:18,320 --> 00:01:21,880 ..and follow the twisty, turny journey through the history 29 00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:23,440 of its invention. 30 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:27,040 If you overshoot the turning point, don't try to do this. 31 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:29,040 It's wobbly, Johnny. 32 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:30,320 Yeah, it's just wind. 33 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:34,000 Warm up your fingers, folks. 34 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:36,600 This time, it's the doorbell. 35 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:39,080 Yes? 36 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:43,640 But this isn't just any old standard ding-dong. 37 00:01:43,640 --> 00:01:46,920 This is a marvel of modern technology. 38 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:48,480 The smart doorbell. 39 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:53,120 And if you're as addicted to online shopping as I am, 40 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:54,960 it means you can keep an eye on your postie 41 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:56,520 wherever you are in the world, 42 00:01:56,520 --> 00:01:59,800 and keep an eye out for intruders. 43 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:04,920 This all-seeing device is taking over our doorsteps. 44 00:02:04,920 --> 00:02:09,120 But how did a garage tinkerer, who hit the jackpot... 45 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:12,400 In 2018, sold to Amazon for $1 billion. 46 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:14,440 ..some Soviet spy tech... 47 00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:17,360 Are you sure you haven't just made a sort of futuristic disco ball? 48 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:19,880 ..and a student desperate for a drink... 49 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:22,440 We did not think this was a big deal at the time. 50 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:26,000 We just were having fun and we were thirsty. 51 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:29,040 ..create the technological phenomenon 52 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:31,200 that is the smart doorbell? 53 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:44,920 In the UK, a package gets delivered over 100 times a second. 54 00:02:44,920 --> 00:02:47,480 That is a lot of ding-dongs. 55 00:02:47,480 --> 00:02:49,920 Whether it's Nest, Blink or Arlo, 56 00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:53,800 millions of us have hooked up our homes with a smart doorbell 57 00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:57,080 so we can see, hear 58 00:02:57,080 --> 00:02:59,080 and speak to people... 59 00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:01,080 Hey, can you chuck it over the wall? 60 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:02,880 ..without even going to the door. 61 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:05,600 Yeah, it'll be fine, I think it's a pair of socks. 62 00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:09,800 And there is no bigger smart doorbell company than Ring. 63 00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:15,760 Last year, they sold an estimated 2.5 million doorbells worldwide. 64 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:19,360 So I've come to their LA headquarters, where today, 65 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:22,280 I'm meeting someone very exciting. 66 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:25,480 Oh, my God, did you actually build a fake human and put heat coils 67 00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:26,560 in it to test it? 68 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:28,600 Yeah. That's prime time. 69 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:31,280 Well, for a science nerd like me anyway. 70 00:03:31,280 --> 00:03:35,320 Meet Dave Ward, tester of hot fake humans 71 00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:37,760 and one of the company's earliest employees. 72 00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:40,160 Did people think you were crazy or were people 73 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:41,320 on board straight away? 74 00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:43,120 Yeah, I mean, rewind, it's 2012. 75 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:45,920 The idea of being able to see what was happening at your doorbell 76 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:47,080 just didn't really exist. 77 00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:48,720 And that was really the invention. 78 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:51,480 There is blood, sweat and tears in every one of these. 79 00:03:51,480 --> 00:03:53,600 What we've managed to cram into something so small 80 00:03:53,600 --> 00:03:55,480 is really quite fascinating. 81 00:03:57,520 --> 00:04:01,440 Inside your smart doorbell is a complex array of components, 82 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:04,840 from the motion sensor to the chime. 83 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:08,360 But let's start with the bit that gives us a virtual window 84 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:11,160 into the world outside our front doors. 85 00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:13,000 It's the camera. 86 00:04:18,280 --> 00:04:19,960 Welcome to my workshop, 87 00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:22,000 an all-American garage. 88 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:26,760 Basically a temple to tinkering and taking stuff apart. 89 00:04:26,760 --> 00:04:30,720 Right, now, the main part of this that makes it a smart 90 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:33,320 doorbell is the camera. 91 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:36,360 So let's get inside this little guy. 92 00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:37,640 That's the cover. 93 00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:41,760 That bit... Oh, and the battery. 94 00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:49,520 So here is the little camera right there. 95 00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:51,440 Really teeny tiny, cute little thing. 96 00:04:51,440 --> 00:04:54,040 Now, OK, this doorbell has to work 97 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:56,680 whether your front door happens to be in sunny California 98 00:04:56,680 --> 00:04:59,480 or in grey, overcast Glasgow. 99 00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:03,360 To see if this camera really can cope with whatever's thrown at it... 100 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:04,960 Just doing a connection here. 101 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:08,440 ..I want to compare my doorbell cam... 102 00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:10,360 OK, here we go. 103 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:13,360 Oh, God, that wasn't a good view. 104 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:17,800 ..to Emma our producer's fancy-schmancy broadcast cam. 105 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:22,320 If I come out here into the sunshine, 106 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:25,080 this is not perfectly exposed, perfectly exposed, perfectly 107 00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:27,000 exposed, straight into the sunshine. 108 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:29,440 I mean, my eyes haven't even adjusted yet. 109 00:05:29,440 --> 00:05:33,160 And yet this camera is still capturing all of me 110 00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:34,520 in that extremely bright light. 111 00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:36,360 Come over here. Come here. 112 00:05:36,360 --> 00:05:38,120 Look straight into the sun. Thank you. 113 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:39,280 How's that? 114 00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:44,360 Looks like that's 1-0 to this particular doorbell. 115 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:47,000 Although the overexposure does give me a rather 116 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:49,480 flattering angelic glow. 117 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:52,880 The other thing that you'll notice with this one is that actually, 118 00:05:52,880 --> 00:05:56,480 it doesn't matter how far away I am or close up, 119 00:05:56,480 --> 00:06:00,080 the focus is very good. 120 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:02,080 Let me try that with you. 121 00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:03,760 Oh! 122 00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:07,160 To be fair, these cameras are built for different jobs. 123 00:06:07,160 --> 00:06:09,920 Plus, nobody looks good that close up. 124 00:06:09,920 --> 00:06:12,880 Apart from maybe Scarlett Johansson. 125 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:16,360 But clearly, this tiny tech punches above its weight. 126 00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:19,600 Time to find out how a camera with no operator 127 00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:22,480 gets to be so clever. 128 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:26,720 So this is me yesterday, taking my dog for a walk. 129 00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:28,960 Your street looks well nice. 130 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:32,800 I live across the street from Gwen Stefani's brother. 131 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:36,920 That is Gwen Stefani's brother's neighbour 132 00:06:36,920 --> 00:06:39,240 and Ring camera guru, Elaine Smith. 133 00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:44,160 You can't change where this is placed, right, 134 00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:47,800 because this is fixed to a wall or to a door frame, and we've got 135 00:06:47,800 --> 00:06:49,720 to deal with whatever that condition is. 136 00:06:49,720 --> 00:06:54,000 There's a lot that goes into making sure that every part of the image 137 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:57,280 is actually in focus and clear for you to see. 138 00:06:57,280 --> 00:07:01,280 When you see a person walking by, what you're going to see 139 00:07:01,280 --> 00:07:03,560 is that person in focus every step of the way. 140 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:06,680 You're still going to see that tree in the background, that great depth 141 00:07:06,680 --> 00:07:10,240 perception and detail in that image from our cameras 142 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:13,080 versus what you're going to see from a traditional camera 143 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:15,040 that's looking for that focus point 144 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:18,160 and making everything else blur in the background. 145 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:22,040 It's the super wide angle lens that makes almost everything 146 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:24,720 in the scene in focus. 147 00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:27,320 And it often gets pushed to the limit. 148 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:34,200 We've got to solve for rain and hail and spiders and spider webs. 149 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:35,760 Spiders' webs? Yeah. 150 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:38,640 I mean, spider webs are definitely a big problem for us. 151 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:40,880 Spiders seem to love our products for some reason. 152 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:44,600 When you've got something that close to the lens, you've got to adjust 153 00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:46,680 for the rest of the scene. 154 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:49,320 Do you have, like, a spider web mode? 155 00:07:49,320 --> 00:07:52,640 No, we probably need to develop that! 156 00:07:52,640 --> 00:07:55,560 The other challenges with the remote camera 157 00:07:55,560 --> 00:07:58,640 are the changing light conditions it has to deal with 158 00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:01,960 24/7, day or night. 159 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:07,720 We can go all the way down to what we call 0.35 lux, 160 00:08:07,720 --> 00:08:10,280 which is like a sliver of a moon in the sky. 161 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:12,200 A sliver of a moon in the sky. 162 00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:14,040 You'll have full true colour night-vision. 163 00:08:14,040 --> 00:08:15,600 How do you actually do it, though? 164 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:17,520 You have to have the right sensor. 165 00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:19,720 We have quite a large sensor that we're using now to take in 166 00:08:19,720 --> 00:08:23,240 as much light as possible in that low light situation. 167 00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:25,960 The camera sensor is the bit that takes in light 168 00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:29,240 via millions of tiny solar cells, 169 00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:32,280 which is then converted into the digital image. 170 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:36,880 The bigger the sensor, the more light it can take in. 171 00:08:36,880 --> 00:08:40,760 Your sensor is sensitive enough that you can actually get colour 172 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:42,600 even from that little amount of light? 173 00:08:42,600 --> 00:08:45,200 Yes. Amazing. 174 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:48,640 Camera technology is now so good, it can record 175 00:08:48,640 --> 00:08:52,920 incredible images without anyone even operating it. 176 00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:57,440 But where did the idea of an always on, 177 00:08:57,440 --> 00:09:00,320 24/7 remote camera come from? 178 00:09:02,680 --> 00:09:07,080 Well, it all started with a man and a horse. 179 00:09:07,080 --> 00:09:09,280 In the 1870s, 180 00:09:09,280 --> 00:09:11,880 photographer Eadweard Muybridge was tasked with proving 181 00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:15,000 that during the gallop, a horse lifts all four hooves 182 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:19,200 off the ground, something too fast for the naked eye to see. 183 00:09:19,200 --> 00:09:22,280 By taking 12 successive photos, he was able to create 184 00:09:22,280 --> 00:09:25,480 the first moving image. 185 00:09:25,480 --> 00:09:30,400 And then in 1888, a certain Thomas Edison asked his assistant, 186 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:33,080 William Dickson, to find a more efficient way 187 00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:35,440 to record movement. 188 00:09:35,440 --> 00:09:39,760 Dickson produced the Kinetoscope, a kind of early peep show box. 189 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:43,560 This is the original Edison Kinetoscope, in which the audience, 190 00:09:43,560 --> 00:09:46,720 one at a time, viewed the picture through a peephole. 191 00:09:46,720 --> 00:09:50,400 Film was passed between a lens and a flickering light to create 192 00:09:50,400 --> 00:09:52,960 the illusion of motion. 193 00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:56,880 By the 1920s, the race was on to create smaller tech 194 00:09:56,880 --> 00:09:59,480 that could broadcast live images, 195 00:09:59,480 --> 00:10:03,040 something that would later become known as television. 196 00:10:05,720 --> 00:10:10,400 One of those inventors in the race was genius Russian musical maverick, 197 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:16,000 Leon Theremin, best known for his frankly bonkers musical instrument. 198 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:20,600 Just like a crying cat! 199 00:10:20,600 --> 00:10:23,760 WARBLING SOUNDS 200 00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:27,320 Today I'm meeting Neil Smith, 201 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:31,200 tech expert and theremin enthusiast. 202 00:10:31,200 --> 00:10:35,280 I mean, he's like, he's the most unbelievable character. 203 00:10:35,280 --> 00:10:38,560 He was certainly out of the ordinary. 204 00:10:38,560 --> 00:10:41,560 Sort of a young prodigy. 205 00:10:41,560 --> 00:10:46,680 It's the 1920s, and young Leon has caught the eye of his university 206 00:10:46,680 --> 00:10:49,440 physics lecturer, Abram Ioffe, 207 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:52,840 who sets him the challenge of making a television system. 208 00:10:54,600 --> 00:10:58,120 OK, now, I think you have to imagine this in the context 209 00:10:58,120 --> 00:10:59,560 of the time, right? Yes. 210 00:10:59,560 --> 00:11:02,440 Because television wasn't even really a thing. 211 00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:07,240 There were people in many countries working on some sort of television 212 00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:09,320 system for broadcast. 213 00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:14,360 He read patents, and he picked up on all of the ideas 214 00:11:14,360 --> 00:11:17,560 that had been tried and failed. 215 00:11:17,560 --> 00:11:21,840 Armed with all this research, Leon invents a ground-breaking camera 216 00:11:21,840 --> 00:11:24,880 system that he calls Distant Vision, 217 00:11:24,880 --> 00:11:28,360 and which Neil is in the midst of trying to recreate himself. 218 00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:35,080 You sure you haven't just made a sort of futuristic disco ball? 219 00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:39,600 With over 300 individually hand machined parts, 220 00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:41,960 it's been a labour of love for Neil. 221 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:45,040 Do you know what? You are, and I mean this 222 00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:47,680 in the most complimentary way possible, 223 00:11:47,680 --> 00:11:51,040 the biggest nerd I've ever met! 224 00:11:53,200 --> 00:11:56,080 I absolutely love it. 225 00:11:56,080 --> 00:11:59,160 Building this was no small feat. 226 00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:02,480 No images of the inside workings of Leon's machine exist, 227 00:12:02,480 --> 00:12:05,080 as they were made secret by the Kremlin. 228 00:12:05,080 --> 00:12:06,920 More on that later. 229 00:12:06,920 --> 00:12:09,640 Talk me through it. OK. What on earth is going on? 230 00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:11,720 So this is the camera element. 231 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:15,360 And what happens here is, if you imagine there's a scene 232 00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:19,440 over there, the light from that scene comes in, 233 00:12:19,440 --> 00:12:23,680 reflects off these mirrors, and then it reflects off that mirror, 234 00:12:23,680 --> 00:12:28,160 and then it goes down to a photo sensor inside that tube. 235 00:12:28,160 --> 00:12:30,080 This one here? Yep. 236 00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:36,120 Leon's invention has two spinning mirror drums that work together 237 00:12:36,120 --> 00:12:39,640 to receive light and scan it across a tiny window 238 00:12:39,640 --> 00:12:43,040 in front of the photocell light detector - 239 00:12:43,040 --> 00:12:46,840 his version of the smart doorbell's camera sensor. 240 00:12:46,840 --> 00:12:51,080 Then a radio transmitter sends the image to somewhere else. 241 00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:53,880 In other words, transmits it. 242 00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:58,400 And because it's an electrical signal, it's nearly instantaneous. 243 00:12:58,400 --> 00:13:02,840 Even if you're ten miles away, you see it in real time. 244 00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:05,960 It's absolutely extraordinary. 245 00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:10,280 Essentially, Leon had created live TV. 246 00:13:10,280 --> 00:13:15,120 So this was like one of the first times ever, ever that, 247 00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:19,960 like, an image has been translated from one place to another 248 00:13:19,960 --> 00:13:24,920 without the process of, like, chemically changing film? 249 00:13:24,920 --> 00:13:27,680 Remarkable. Really remarkable. 250 00:13:27,680 --> 00:13:32,080 Neil's magnificent model isn't quite at live demo stage yet, 251 00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:35,960 but this is what Leon's moving images would have looked like. 252 00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:40,240 That's 100 lines of resolution, which might not look impressive 253 00:13:40,240 --> 00:13:44,120 compared to the 2,000 plus lines of our modern TVs, 254 00:13:44,120 --> 00:13:47,320 but it was revolutionary for its time. 255 00:13:47,320 --> 00:13:52,080 News of Leon's invention travelled all the way to the Kremlin. 256 00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:57,080 He was asked to do a demonstration, so he took one of his units 257 00:13:57,080 --> 00:14:02,600 and being flash, he put it on a tripod outside in the courtyard 258 00:14:02,600 --> 00:14:06,480 with a telephoto lens, and it was looking at the people 259 00:14:06,480 --> 00:14:08,840 that were coming up to this office. 260 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:11,560 Which unsurprisingly piqued the interest 261 00:14:11,560 --> 00:14:14,080 of a rather important man, Joseph Stalin. 262 00:14:14,080 --> 00:14:17,640 You know, the dictator running the Soviet Union. 263 00:14:17,640 --> 00:14:20,240 Stalin liked it so much that he said, 264 00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:22,360 "Let's pay him some money 265 00:14:22,360 --> 00:14:25,240 "and tell him never to talk about it ever again. 266 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:27,800 "And we'll use it for...purposes." 267 00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:29,640 Kremlin purposes? Mm-hm. 268 00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:33,040 It disappears from the public record. 269 00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:34,560 It's gone. 270 00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:36,040 What do you think happened? 271 00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:38,560 From what I've heard, it was used for all the things that you would 272 00:14:38,560 --> 00:14:40,400 use a CCTV system for. 273 00:14:42,160 --> 00:14:47,840 Leon had inadvertently invented a security system/spying tool 274 00:14:47,840 --> 00:14:51,440 and given it to one of the most dangerous men on the planet. 275 00:14:51,440 --> 00:14:53,320 It really was the cutting edge. 276 00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:57,000 But thus began a century of surveillance? 277 00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:59,440 Absolutely. And maybe more? 278 00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:01,040 And maybe more. 279 00:15:01,040 --> 00:15:04,520 As the Kremlin put the kibosh on Leon's TV tech, 280 00:15:04,520 --> 00:15:08,720 the man who got all the glory with his rival system in 1926 281 00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:12,800 was John Logie Baird, crowned the father of television, 282 00:15:12,800 --> 00:15:14,560 just to rub it in. 283 00:15:14,560 --> 00:15:18,200 And over the next few decades, the technology really took off. 284 00:15:18,200 --> 00:15:20,280 And here it is, 285 00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:22,480 the greatest advance in television, 286 00:15:22,480 --> 00:15:26,440 so beautiful, it enhances any decor. 287 00:15:26,440 --> 00:15:28,400 Although not everyone approved. 288 00:15:28,400 --> 00:15:31,560 Well, I think it'll have a fairly detrimental effect 289 00:15:31,560 --> 00:15:33,840 on the knitting industry. 290 00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:37,360 With TV came the rise of a very different type 291 00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:40,960 of live broadcast, one more aligned with the way 292 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:44,640 Stalin allegedly used Leon's original device. 293 00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:47,360 Footage transmitted on a private system, 294 00:15:47,360 --> 00:15:50,200 otherwise known as CCTV. 295 00:15:50,200 --> 00:15:54,720 Here, one man watches all the major intersections of the city. 296 00:15:54,720 --> 00:15:57,320 Phasing the traffic lights to fit the volume of vehicles 297 00:15:57,320 --> 00:15:58,800 throughout the day. 298 00:15:58,800 --> 00:16:02,920 By the 1960s, closed circuit TV surveillance was being used 299 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:07,440 for everything from catching railway vandals to Thai royal visits. 300 00:16:07,440 --> 00:16:12,200 And by the 2000s, CCTV was in cities across the world. 301 00:16:12,200 --> 00:16:15,240 Eventually the tech became so cheap and simple, 302 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:18,960 we started to use it to monitor our homes. 303 00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:23,960 But it wasn't until 2011 that a frustrated inventor would find 304 00:16:23,960 --> 00:16:26,840 an entirely new use for CCTV. 305 00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:29,720 The camera doorbell. 306 00:16:29,720 --> 00:16:33,160 So whenever anyone asks what I do, or customs forms, 307 00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:35,400 when I go into countries, I always just put, "Inventor." 308 00:16:35,400 --> 00:16:37,840 And it's very funny because the customs agent, you know, 309 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:40,720 they'll usually look back and then they'll say, like, "What?" 310 00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:43,400 And now I say, I invented Ring, and they're like, "Holy shit!" 311 00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:44,960 I'm like, "Yeah." 312 00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:47,640 That's right. Meet Jamie Siminoff. 313 00:16:47,640 --> 00:16:52,160 The Ring doorbell all began as an idea in his head 314 00:16:52,160 --> 00:16:55,640 from a garage much like this one. 315 00:16:55,640 --> 00:16:58,800 I was a tinkerer, like, I've always had a garage or a basement. 316 00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:01,040 Everything I look at, I'm always trying 317 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:02,800 to see how I can make it better. 318 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:04,440 Hidden away, creating, 319 00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:08,800 Jamie kept missing deliveries as he couldn't hear his doorbell. 320 00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:11,800 I'm like, "Oh, there must be someone making a Wi-Fi video doorbell 321 00:17:11,800 --> 00:17:15,120 "or even like a Wi-Fi doorbell," and just nothing existed. 322 00:17:15,120 --> 00:17:19,920 Obviously, there was only one solution, to create a doorbell 323 00:17:19,920 --> 00:17:24,280 that was also a camera, which he called the Doorbot. 324 00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:27,240 And so literally the first Doorbot that I built, 325 00:17:27,240 --> 00:17:29,320 I mean, this is the manufactured version. 326 00:17:29,320 --> 00:17:32,280 I literally built it, soldered it, you know, hammered it out 327 00:17:32,280 --> 00:17:34,680 on my bench on nights and weekends. 328 00:17:34,680 --> 00:17:36,280 It's like I built this stupid thing 329 00:17:36,280 --> 00:17:38,720 and I put it on the front of my house. 330 00:17:38,720 --> 00:17:42,960 The missed delivery problem was solved, but he soon realised 331 00:17:42,960 --> 00:17:47,280 there was an even bigger upside to seeing who was at the door. 332 00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:50,960 My wife is like, "Oh, this makes me feel safer at home." 333 00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:53,960 I invented a different way to do home security and no-one 334 00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:55,920 had ever done that. 335 00:17:55,920 --> 00:18:00,240 His ingenuity caught the eye of producers on one of the biggest 336 00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:03,440 TV shows in America. 337 00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:06,120 I get a call from a random number, pick it up. 338 00:18:06,120 --> 00:18:07,560 The guy's like, 339 00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:09,960 "That thing's awesome, you've got to be on Shark Tank." 340 00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:12,280 OK. I'm like, "We're gonna be on Shark Tank," at home. 341 00:18:12,280 --> 00:18:15,240 Like, "We're gonna be on Shark Tank!" 342 00:18:15,240 --> 00:18:18,720 Shark Tank is quite a lot like our Dragons' Den. 343 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:23,680 But being American with bigger teeth, bigger budgets, 344 00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:25,920 and a much nastier bite. 345 00:18:27,240 --> 00:18:28,800 I was going to win. 346 00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:30,440 I worked really hard at doing that. 347 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:33,120 And I was, yeah, I was going to win Shark Tank. 348 00:18:33,120 --> 00:18:36,680 Here, the small fry live in constant terror 349 00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:39,680 of the larger denizens of the deep. 350 00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:43,600 Unfortunately, his confidence was slightly misplaced. 351 00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:46,560 And then in the first, like, five minutes, Mark Cuban's like, 352 00:18:46,560 --> 00:18:49,440 "Jamie, great idea. Can't see it getting that big. 353 00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:51,480 "I need big things. I'm out." 354 00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:52,920 I'm like... 355 00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:55,280 So I thought Mark Cuban was, like, for sure going to invest. 356 00:18:55,280 --> 00:18:57,720 They just were like, "How much does a regular doorbell cost? 357 00:18:57,720 --> 00:18:59,640 "OK, well, yours is 200 bucks. 358 00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:02,160 "Well, a regular doorbell can't be $20 and yours is 200. 359 00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:03,480 "How big is the doorbell market? 360 00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:05,520 "How many doorbells are sold a year?" Well, not that many. 361 00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:07,400 "Well, then you can only sell a percentage 362 00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:08,800 "of not that many." 363 00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:10,320 Or as they say on Dragons' Den... 364 00:19:10,320 --> 00:19:11,760 I'm out. I'm afraid I'm out. 365 00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:12,920 I'm out. 366 00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:15,560 I walked out of there just like, I was just like, 367 00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:17,640 I almost, like, blacked out. 368 00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:22,120 But when the show finally aired, people loved the Doorbot. 369 00:19:22,120 --> 00:19:27,320 So this was like a legit big show, 13 minute TV commercial on us. 370 00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:30,440 And so being on Shark Tank was almost like a stamp of approval. 371 00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:34,520 And we immediately saw that people want this product. 372 00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:37,520 We became, I think it's one of the fastest growing 373 00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:39,120 hardware companies in history. 374 00:19:39,120 --> 00:19:41,720 Some might say they'd hit the jackpot. 375 00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:44,680 So we did Shark Tank and then we launched Ring at the end of that. 376 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:46,160 That was three million. 377 00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:48,280 The next year was 30 million, the next year was 170, 378 00:19:48,280 --> 00:19:49,840 the next year was 480. 379 00:19:49,840 --> 00:19:51,320 And it didn't stop there. 380 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:55,600 In 2018, early 2018, sold to Amazon for $1 billion. 381 00:19:55,600 --> 00:19:58,280 Not bad for a garage tinkerer. 382 00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:01,480 By adding a camera, Jamie had turned a simple doorbell 383 00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:04,360 into a whole new form of home security. 384 00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:10,640 Our next component is the part of your doorbell that gets to work 385 00:20:10,640 --> 00:20:13,920 before the camera has even woken up. 386 00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:17,800 It's the clever tech that can detect within milliseconds when there's 387 00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:21,760 someone or something at the door. 388 00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:24,000 It's the motion sensors. 389 00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:29,840 Motion detection just gives you that next level of security. 390 00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:33,920 I'm back with doorbell don Dave Ward at Ring HQ 391 00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:38,360 to find out about the first line of doorbell defence. 392 00:20:38,360 --> 00:20:42,120 This motion sensor, then, is the only point of it to be able 393 00:20:42,120 --> 00:20:44,600 to tell that there's an intruder coming? No. 394 00:20:44,600 --> 00:20:46,600 One of the big things is battery. 395 00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:50,800 The camera is the biggest drain on the battery, so they only want it 396 00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:53,600 to turn on when absolutely necessary. 397 00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:55,880 We're deciding whether we should wake the device up. 398 00:20:55,880 --> 00:20:57,680 So we start with passive infrared. 399 00:20:57,680 --> 00:20:59,360 So that's a sensor. 400 00:20:59,360 --> 00:21:02,200 And it's allowing us to detect the movement of heat. 401 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:04,840 Do you mean to say that you're triggering the doorbell 402 00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:06,760 via your body heat? Absolutely. 403 00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:09,840 As you walk towards that, we're detecting that heat signal. 404 00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:14,520 To cover a full 180 degree field of view, 405 00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:18,920 the doorbell has not one but two passive infrared sensors. 406 00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:22,480 Time for my favourite hot fake human. 407 00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:25,200 So one of the things that we wanted to be able to do is to be able 408 00:21:25,200 --> 00:21:28,040 to test the device as we were having it in an environment. 409 00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:31,800 So we created a humanoid that moves across an environment, 410 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:32,920 which is great. 411 00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:35,520 So, a moving person or a replica of a moving person. 412 00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:38,280 And because they're not real humans, they can be subjected 413 00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:41,080 to all conditions and work all the hours. 414 00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:43,920 Is that just to stop some poor soul having to walk backwards 415 00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:45,240 and forwards in front of a camera? 416 00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:47,360 You need to do it more than once, I can tell you that. Really? 417 00:21:47,360 --> 00:21:49,480 Thousands and thousands and thousands of times. 418 00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:52,520 But the problem with passive infrared is that many things 419 00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:56,120 can give off heat, like a raccoon 420 00:21:56,120 --> 00:21:57,960 or even a car. 421 00:21:57,960 --> 00:22:00,120 Your car is rolling away. 422 00:22:00,120 --> 00:22:03,920 So to stop the camera being woken up by these false alarms, 423 00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:07,440 there's another way to make sure it's a human. 424 00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:11,280 So radar gives us now depth, so we can understand... Mm! 425 00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:14,440 ..not only the fact that we've now got human shape in there, 426 00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:17,240 but we can see whether it's coming towards us, 427 00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:21,360 whether it's moving away from us, maybe it's behind something. 428 00:22:21,360 --> 00:22:23,040 CAT PURRS 429 00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:25,960 If I wanted to rob someone's home... 430 00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:28,440 I hope you don't, by the way. HANNAH LAUGHS 431 00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:31,520 I don't. I mean, I'm six foot tall and ginger, you know what I mean? 432 00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:34,240 I'd get spotted a mile away. Well, you know. 433 00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:38,560 OK, let's say... Yeah? ..could I coat myself in ice packs 434 00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:41,680 HANNAH LAUGHS 435 00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:41,680 ..and then maybe hide 436 00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:44,920 behind, I don't know, a tree cut out and approach the door? 437 00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:47,760 Would it set off the sensor? It would still set the sensor off. 438 00:22:47,760 --> 00:22:51,040 I guess I'm more suited to science than a life of crime. 439 00:22:52,040 --> 00:22:55,280 Infrared and radar are pretty good at sorting the hedgehogs 440 00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:57,520 from the humans... 441 00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:57,520 LAUGHTER 442 00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:02,280 ..but there is a third fail-safe - image detection using AI. 443 00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:04,040 LAUGHTER 444 00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:07,120 An algorithm runs to give us object classification, 445 00:23:07,120 --> 00:23:10,760 so we've got a model that identifies the difference between a human 446 00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:13,240 and other objects. And a leaf. And a leaf. 447 00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:16,600 Are you getting any false positives now? Absolutely. Absolutely we do. 448 00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:19,040 A human from a distance, slightly different. 449 00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:21,440 Maybe it's similar to an animal, for instance, 450 00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:23,200 depending on the angle it looks at. 451 00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:26,520 So you've got these three different sensors - the heat detection, 452 00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:30,760 the radar depth detection and then the image detection. Absolutely. 453 00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:34,440 And none of those are perfect but, put together, they work really well. 454 00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:37,120 Three imperfect things create a great experience 455 00:23:37,120 --> 00:23:38,920 is the best way to describe it. 456 00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:41,760 To understand exactly how these smart doorbells 457 00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:45,040 manage to use heat to detect movement, 458 00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:47,480 I've got my tools out again. 459 00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:51,360 In here, this is where all the detection happens. 460 00:23:51,360 --> 00:23:54,360 This little frog-shaped guy right in there. 461 00:23:54,360 --> 00:23:57,760 And you'll notice that he has two googly eyes 462 00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:00,960 pointing off in slightly different directions. That's deliberate. 463 00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:05,400 That's to make sure that it has a 180 degree view. 464 00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:10,280 Froggy's googly eyes are actually our passive infrared sensors, 465 00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:12,040 or PIR. 466 00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:16,040 The hotter something is, the more infrared radiation is emitted, 467 00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:20,280 which I'm able to demonstrate with this handy infrared camera. 468 00:24:21,280 --> 00:24:24,000 You can see that I'm very hot and sweaty 469 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:27,000 in this Californian garage with no air-con. 470 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,520 Now, this is essentially just a fancy version 471 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:31,280 of what's going in here. 472 00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:35,280 But what is it that's allowing the googly eyes to detect heat? 473 00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:40,040 It's this very special substance called PZT, 474 00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:43,200 or lead zirconate titanate. 475 00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:47,400 Tiny pieces of PZT are hidden inside these motion detectors. 476 00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:50,200 Just a little, little bit of it just there. 477 00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:51,920 That little band of it. 478 00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:56,360 When PZT absorbs the infrared radiation from a warm object 479 00:24:56,360 --> 00:25:00,120 like a person, this material changes temperature, 480 00:25:00,120 --> 00:25:04,040 creating tiny atomic movements within it - 481 00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:08,440 enough to generate a small electrical voltage. 482 00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:12,040 It's got a battery, just to add some juice to the system, 483 00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:15,440 and then this little disc of PZT over here, 484 00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:19,680 which should detect a temperature change. 485 00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:22,280 So if I pop this little... 486 00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:24,400 Ooh! 487 00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:24,400 HANNAH CHUCKLES 488 00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:27,760 The heat from the flame... 489 00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:31,920 ..is changing the temperature of this substance, 490 00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:36,040 which in turn causes just this slight little change 491 00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:40,360 to the electrical current - just enough that it can be detected 492 00:25:40,360 --> 00:25:44,720 by this circuit to turn that little light on. 493 00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:46,480 You can see it with the lighter. 494 00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:49,440 That is quite satisfying, isn't it? 495 00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:53,280 This thing is so sensitive that it can detect a temperature change 496 00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:57,240 as small as one millionth of a degree. 497 00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:01,360 Ooh, I can do it with my finger as well. Look at that. 498 00:26:01,360 --> 00:26:06,040 These tiny pieces of PZT in my doorbell's motion sensors 499 00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:09,040 pick up the teeny changes in temperature 500 00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:13,280 from up to nine metres away and alerts my doorbell. 501 00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:20,360 Oh, I think I might have melted everything. 502 00:26:20,360 --> 00:26:22,920 Which is why I was only allowed inside the garage 503 00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:24,760 and not in the house. 504 00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:28,280 All motion sensor doorbells use infrared, 505 00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:33,280 but where did the idea of harnessing it to detect motion come from? 506 00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:39,360 Well, back in 1800, astronomer William Herschel 507 00:26:39,360 --> 00:26:42,760 used a prism to split sunlight into its colours 508 00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:45,520 and found a form of invisible radiation 509 00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:48,040 beyond the visible light spectrum. 510 00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:53,520 Now, our eyes are sensitive to a particular range of frequencies 511 00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:55,760 which we call visible light. 512 00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:58,760 But visible light is merely a small part 513 00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:00,720 of the electromagnetic spectrum. 514 00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:03,760 He had discovered infrared. 515 00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:07,080 And, most intriguingly, he realised it emitted 516 00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:09,760 more heat than visible light. 517 00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:13,400 Experimentations continued through the 19th century, 518 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:15,680 but it wasn't until the 20th century 519 00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:19,360 that we really found a purpose for it - war. 520 00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:25,440 ARCHIVE: These soldiers could have considered that the trees 521 00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:28,120 and the darkness gave them reasonable concealment, 522 00:27:28,120 --> 00:27:30,440 but to a man wearing electronic binoculars, 523 00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:32,040 they're all clearly visible. 524 00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:36,680 So how did this high-tech military kit get into our homes? 525 00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:39,960 It just all comes down to mid-century suburbia. 526 00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:43,280 In the late '60s in the USA, 527 00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:47,360 a mix of economic and social pressures sent crime rates soaring. 528 00:27:47,360 --> 00:27:50,520 People who had achieved the dream of owning their own home 529 00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:55,040 were becoming increasingly concerned about people breaking into it, 530 00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:58,360 about all the murderers and burglars who were potentially on the prowl, 531 00:27:58,360 --> 00:28:04,160 and so there was a big increase in the demand for house alarms. 532 00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:08,720 Burglar alarms that detected motion were available 533 00:28:08,720 --> 00:28:10,840 but notoriously unreliable. 534 00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:13,920 I've got some of them here. Just take a look at the, mwah, 535 00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:17,680 beautiful technology that was available in the 1960s and '70s. 536 00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:20,200 First up, you've got these little sisters here. 537 00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:22,520 This is a photoelectric relay system. 538 00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:26,520 One side, one unit has a little light beam coming out. 539 00:28:26,520 --> 00:28:28,680 You can just see that there. 540 00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:34,760 And this gets placed opposite the sister unit - the receiver. 541 00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:36,800 I haven't hooked this up to an alarm. 542 00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:39,760 I've actually hooked it up to an electric pencil sharpener. 543 00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:41,880 I'm in a wood shop. When in Rome. 544 00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:45,760 A beam of light travels across to the receiver, 545 00:28:45,760 --> 00:28:49,920 but if you break that beam, an alarm is triggered. 546 00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:51,640 SHARPENER WHIRS 547 00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:55,040 And then there's my ultrasonic battery-powered one. 548 00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:58,600 So, you face this against a wall 549 00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:03,200 and then an ultrasonic beam bounces out from here, hits the wall, 550 00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:05,000 and then comes back. 551 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:07,800 As long as nothing passes between the wall and the unit, 552 00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:09,520 everything is hunky dory. 553 00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:12,280 And now you will see why I was sharpening those pencils. 554 00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:15,040 Because imagine that you have a leaf, 555 00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:19,280 some particularly bulbous dust or an enthusiastic hamster 556 00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:22,000 that happens to break the barrier of this thing... 557 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:25,040 ALARM SOUNDS ..then it's an absolute nightmare. 558 00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:28,040 And now, over here, imagine that some person walks past 559 00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:31,080 and knocks this, and then that's going off as well. 560 00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:33,760 A whole neighbourhood is struggling, 561 00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:37,320 the burglars are running amok, they can do whatever they want, 562 00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:39,720 and it's an absolute... It's... 563 00:29:39,720 --> 00:29:42,040 It's an absolute nightmare. 564 00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:47,520 With false alarms rampant, the industry was in desperate need 565 00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:50,520 of an alternative type of motion sensor. 566 00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:53,120 Luckily, one clever man had just the solution 567 00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:56,360 that would revolutionise the home burglar alarm. 568 00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:58,920 There was a guy called Herbert Berman. 569 00:29:58,920 --> 00:30:01,840 Now, since about the Second World War, Herbie had been 570 00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:05,520 working in military research, and so he knew that the military 571 00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:09,320 had a perfectly effective motion detection system 572 00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:11,760 that used infrared. 573 00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:15,520 It would send out a beam of infrared radiation, 574 00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:19,520 wait for that beam to bounce back and use that to detect 575 00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:22,200 if objects passed in front of the field of view. 576 00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:27,120 The military system pumped out so much infrared 577 00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:31,040 it needed expensive cooling towers to handle the heat. 578 00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:35,840 But Herbie, he knew that those systems were complete overkill 579 00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:38,640 for the suburban setting, and that meant 580 00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:43,040 that he could design a system that didn't spit out infrared at all, 581 00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:47,760 but just detected the existing infrared radiation 582 00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:51,040 that was being given off by warm bodies 583 00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:53,280 as they passed in front of the system. 584 00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:57,520 And so, in the early 1970s, he submits a patent... 585 00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:03,520 ..for the first-ever passive infrared detection system - 586 00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:06,560 the Intrusion System, as he calls it. 587 00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:11,560 By only having to detect infrared energy rather than emit it, 588 00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:15,680 this system proved far cheaper and simpler to run than the fancy 589 00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:20,000 military versions, and therefore perfect for a burglar alarm. 590 00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:22,240 And this has got all of the components 591 00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:24,120 that you already recognise. 592 00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:26,680 He's got a heat sensing element. 593 00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:30,840 Essentially, this is now a motion detector. 594 00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:35,440 PIRs, or passive infrared, became the motion sensor of choice 595 00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:39,280 for burglar alarms - far more reliable than those early systems. 596 00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:43,040 But these days it's also become a staple in everything 597 00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:48,040 from automatic supermarket doors to those magical self-flushing toilets. 598 00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:55,560 Computer brains, cameras and sensors make our doorbell smart, 599 00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:59,320 but it wouldn't be a doorbell at all without our next component. 600 00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:01,440 It's... 601 00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:01,440 DING-DONG 602 00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:03,120 ..the chime. 603 00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:09,240 I'm back at Ring to meet their sound sommelier. 604 00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:12,040 Are you a doorbell connoisseur? 605 00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:13,760 I am, in a way. 606 00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:15,760 That is John Modestine, 607 00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:19,360 Jamie, creator of Doorbot's original right hand man 608 00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:22,040 and a fine chime expert. 609 00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:27,760 How much thought did you put into the chime right at the beginning? 610 00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:31,280 We intentionally had a couple of simple requirements. 611 00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:33,800 One was that it was a new and unique sound, 612 00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:37,760 but secondarily, it couldn't be so different and alien 613 00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:40,760 from what people would expect the doorbell to sound like, 614 00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:43,040 so we need to kind of fit in the middle there. 615 00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:46,040 The sound we landed on, we launched on our first doorbell, 616 00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:48,280 called Doorbot, and it sounds like this. 617 00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:50,240 JINGLE PLAYS 618 00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:50,240 Beautiful. 619 00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:52,280 Yeah. It's just buttery smooth. Yeah, it is. 620 00:32:52,280 --> 00:32:55,520 And then you have this very harsh... TINNY JINGLE PLAYS 621 00:32:55,520 --> 00:32:57,920 You know? It's much sharper. Yeah. 622 00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:02,480 Is it just me or does it sound like John prefers the original chime? 623 00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:04,760 TINNY JINGLE PLAYS 624 00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:08,120 Yeah, if you notice, they're similar notes, 625 00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:12,240 but the frequency range on the Ring doorbell is much, much higher, 626 00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:16,280 and that was strictly informed by the speakers within the devices. 627 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:19,480 So, Doorbot had a much bigger speaker 628 00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:22,720 and allowed for much deeper, rich tones. 629 00:33:22,720 --> 00:33:25,680 But the Ring doorbell had a much smaller speaker. 630 00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:28,040 But it doesn't even look like a speaker. 631 00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:29,840 So why did they change it? 632 00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:32,520 Jamie really pressured me and the team to get this 633 00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:36,200 as small as possible so it didn't protrude off the wall, 634 00:33:36,200 --> 00:33:39,040 so that it would be more aesthetically appealing 635 00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:42,040 and really match the architecture and styles of homes. 636 00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:44,520 It might not have been their first choice... 637 00:33:44,520 --> 00:33:46,440 TINNY JINGLE PLAYS 638 00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:49,840 If you'd known how many thousands and thousands and thousands of times 639 00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:52,280 you'd hear this sound in your life... Oh, my gosh. 640 00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:55,040 ..do you think that you would have fought a bit harder? 641 00:33:56,040 --> 00:33:57,840 Maybe. 642 00:33:56,040 --> 00:33:57,840 HANNAH LAUGHS 643 00:33:57,840 --> 00:34:00,080 It's tough to say. 644 00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:03,240 But it certainly served them well. 645 00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:05,680 We came up with something... 646 00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:07,440 TINNY JINGLE PLAYS 647 00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:10,920 ..and we launched it and it's rung true to this day. 648 00:34:10,920 --> 00:34:13,600 I didn't even mean to do that. It's good, though. 649 00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:17,360 And if I might just chime in one last time... 650 00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:19,600 TINNY JINGLE PLAYS 651 00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:22,600 ..love it, hate it, you certainly won't forget it. 652 00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:26,760 But how did we get to the sound of today's ding-dong? 653 00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:33,040 Before doorbell chimes, visitors used to announce their presence 654 00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:35,120 by simply knocking on doors... 655 00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:38,280 ..using knockers... 656 00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:40,360 ..or even calling out. 657 00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:42,040 Is anybody home? 658 00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:43,800 Not today, love. 659 00:34:43,800 --> 00:34:46,520 By the 18th century, wealthier households 660 00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:49,280 too posh to pummel their doors started using 661 00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:52,080 mechanical bell pull systems... BELL RINGS 662 00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:54,760 ..for a more refined visitor experience. 663 00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:57,880 But in the 1830s... 664 00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:57,880 BUZZER SOUNDS 665 00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:01,800 ..an entirely new type of chime came to town. 666 00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:06,920 I want to tell you a humdinger of a story. 667 00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:09,520 It's about an American guy called Joseph Henry, 668 00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:12,360 who was one of the great scientists of the 19th century. 669 00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:15,520 But unlike the other guys like Faraday and Darwin, 670 00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:17,400 you've probably never heard of him. 671 00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:22,760 Joseph Henry was obsessed with the recent scientific discovery 672 00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:24,680 of electromagnets. 673 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:29,440 Now, as the name might suggest, electromagnets are just magnets 674 00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:32,680 that can be turned on or off with electricity. 675 00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:34,360 Sort of say what you see. 676 00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:38,120 And you can make one yourself using just a nail, 677 00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:40,080 some copper wire and a battery. 678 00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:42,600 Allow me to demonstrate. 679 00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:44,920 You've got a nail with some wire around it. 680 00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:46,880 Doesn't do anything interesting. 681 00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:49,080 It's just a boring combination of two metals. 682 00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:53,520 However, if you pass electricity through this wire, 683 00:35:53,520 --> 00:35:58,080 you should expect a magnetic field to form. 684 00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:02,760 A magnetic field that is capable of overcoming 685 00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:04,760 the effects of gravity. 686 00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:10,520 HANNAH LAUGHS 687 00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:12,280 Look at that! 688 00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:16,680 I'm not actually faking excitement. 689 00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:19,720 No wonder this was a scientific curiosity. 690 00:36:19,720 --> 00:36:22,360 No wonder all the cool kids in the science circles 691 00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:24,360 were playing around with this. 692 00:36:25,360 --> 00:36:29,520 Magnets have been attracting the coolest kids for nearly 200 years. 693 00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:32,040 And, just like me, Henry was hooked. 694 00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:35,920 He continues experimenting with electromagnets, 695 00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:38,040 making them bigger and stronger. 696 00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:44,160 Eventually, he builds one that can lift a tonne in weight... 697 00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:47,360 ..which is a world record at the time. 698 00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:50,760 And that leaves him absolutely convinced 699 00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:54,360 that these things can have a practical use. 700 00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:58,040 The trouble was convincing everybody else of their potential. 701 00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:04,040 Until, that is, he realises that the way to get his electromagnet noticed 702 00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:07,680 is to turn it into something that everyone will want. 703 00:37:07,680 --> 00:37:09,560 # Ooh, la, la. # 704 00:37:09,560 --> 00:37:12,040 Go on, then, tell us what we made you make. 705 00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:16,360 So this is a replica of Joseph Henry's electromagnetic doorbell. 706 00:37:17,520 --> 00:37:22,640 That is inventor Ruth Amos and her latest cracking creation. 707 00:37:24,040 --> 00:37:26,720 So Joseph Henry was obsessed with electromagnets 708 00:37:26,720 --> 00:37:30,480 and his party trick is, he liked to rig up a doorbell - 709 00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:33,720 button, electromagnetic chime, 710 00:37:33,720 --> 00:37:35,760 and then he would press the button 711 00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:37,520 and everyone would be genuinely amazed 712 00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:40,560 at the fact that he had this chiming doorbell. 713 00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:42,960 Wow. Things were simpler back in the 1830s. 714 00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:45,360 You could just get a horseshoe, some copper wire 715 00:37:45,360 --> 00:37:46,640 and entertainment for hours. 716 00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:49,040 All right, so talk me through the design, then. 717 00:37:49,040 --> 00:37:51,520 OK, so, we've got the button... Mm-hm. 718 00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:54,440 ..a little bell, and the way that this works is, 719 00:37:54,440 --> 00:37:57,040 if you can see here, we've got an electromagnet, 720 00:37:57,040 --> 00:37:59,520 and when the button is pressed, 721 00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:03,280 the circuit will complete, which will mean this little... 722 00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:05,840 Arm? ..arm... Lever? ..thing... 723 00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:09,760 ..will be drawn towards the magnet, which obviously dings the bell. 724 00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:13,520 Now, that is a single ding, and what we have is a chime, 725 00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:16,040 and what happens is, as the electromagnet 726 00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:20,520 pulls the little lever towards it, that disconnects the circuit, 727 00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:23,040 and so that stops being magnetic. 728 00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:26,360 The little lever goes back down and then the circuit starts again 729 00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:29,200 and it becomes magnetic, and so, literally, the little lever 730 00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:31,240 goes back and forward and chimes the bell. 731 00:38:31,240 --> 00:38:34,000 So this is quite useful. You could have a bell, it could ring 732 00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:36,800 in different rooms, you could wire it up reasonably simply, 733 00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:39,160 and then you would know if someone was at your door. 734 00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:41,320 You wouldn't miss your important guests. 735 00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:44,200 All the fancy rich people must have been clapping their hands with glee. 736 00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:48,240 But let's see if it actually works. 737 00:38:49,240 --> 00:38:50,760 Beautiful. 738 00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:56,960 I'm channelling my 1830s ancestors. 739 00:38:56,960 --> 00:39:00,040 It is connected. Let's see. OK, here we go. 740 00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:04,120 BELL CHIMES QUIETLY 741 00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:04,120 Oh, yeah, OK. Let me... 742 00:39:05,480 --> 00:39:07,280 Try again. 743 00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:09,360 No, not hitting the bell now. 744 00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:10,840 Go! 745 00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:13,320 BELL CHIMES 746 00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:17,040 It works! Yay! 747 00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:20,320 The look of glee on your face is absolutely amazing. 748 00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:24,880 I mean, you would be impressed, wouldn't you? Can you imagine? 749 00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:28,480 There's someone at the door in the east wing! 750 00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:29,840 HANNAH LAUGHS 751 00:39:29,840 --> 00:39:33,040 Turns out some copper wire and an old horseshoe 752 00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:35,560 really is hugely entertaining. 753 00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:39,880 Henry's electromagnetic chime was the world's first 754 00:39:39,880 --> 00:39:42,040 electric ding-dong. 755 00:39:42,040 --> 00:39:43,760 By the end of the century, 756 00:39:43,760 --> 00:39:47,000 it had become the must-have gadget among the wealthy elite. 757 00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:51,280 Incredibly, doorbells based on Henry's tech 758 00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:54,280 kept ringing well into the 1960s, 759 00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:57,280 when smaller, integrated bells took over 760 00:39:57,280 --> 00:39:59,840 and the range of sounds expanded. 761 00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:03,040 Hi, Helen. Gee, you look nice. 762 00:40:03,040 --> 00:40:05,880 Now there's a man who knows what buttons to press. 763 00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:11,280 By the 1970s, we'd gone far beyond just a simple ding-dong 764 00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:14,280 and Big Ben doorbells were all the rage. 765 00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:16,280 BIG BEN CHIMES 766 00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:22,040 And with today's digital doorbells, you can, 767 00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:24,520 to the delight of your door botherer, 768 00:40:24,520 --> 00:40:27,280 belt out pretty much any sound under the sun. 769 00:40:27,280 --> 00:40:28,760 Hello? 770 00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:37,280 Today's doorbell lets us see and answer our front doors 771 00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:41,760 from another room, another house, or even another country. 772 00:40:41,760 --> 00:40:47,080 Our next component is the clever tech it uses to speak to the world. 773 00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:49,520 It's the communication chip. 774 00:40:56,040 --> 00:40:59,280 I'm back at Ring's LA headquarters. 775 00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:02,240 Do these doorbells catch Santa as he goes around? 776 00:41:02,240 --> 00:41:05,200 I'm sure it has. There's a lot of things these have caught. 777 00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:10,520 That is chief technology officer and Santa catcher Dr Mike Balog, 778 00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:12,760 who wants to show me just how swiftly 779 00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:15,240 the doorbell can communicate with the world. 780 00:41:15,240 --> 00:41:17,280 And Santa, obviously. 781 00:41:17,280 --> 00:41:18,760 Merry Christmas! 782 00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:21,280 That time we say from glass to glass, 783 00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:25,320 from the image at the sensor to your phone, is really important. 784 00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:28,440 So the glass on the front of this? On the front of the lens? 785 00:41:28,440 --> 00:41:30,760 To the glass on the front of your mobile device. 786 00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:33,600 And how long do you aim for that to be? In the two second range. 787 00:41:33,600 --> 00:41:35,960 Less than that, right? Wow. OK. 788 00:41:35,960 --> 00:41:39,040 I really like that there's, like, this kind of chain of things 789 00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:42,040 that happen to turn this thing on. So the PIR sensor, 790 00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:45,760 the radar's kicking in, the image recognition kicking in. 791 00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:47,560 But then what happens? 792 00:41:47,560 --> 00:41:51,040 Once we determine that we want to actually record something, right, 793 00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:56,120 the image processor on this side will begin to capture the video 794 00:41:56,120 --> 00:41:58,520 and then it'll talk to the communication chip. 795 00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:01,040 And then the data will flow between the two of them 796 00:42:01,040 --> 00:42:04,120 and the communication chip will then encrypt the data and send it 797 00:42:04,120 --> 00:42:07,040 up to the cloud. How many people have got these on their doors? 798 00:42:07,040 --> 00:42:10,120 Tens of millions, right? Definitely. That's a lot of data, then. 799 00:42:10,120 --> 00:42:13,520 So data centres have been strategically positioned 800 00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:17,040 around the world to spread the data load as equally 801 00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:18,840 and quickly as possible. 802 00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:23,760 Although, even then, certain days of the year prove difficult. 803 00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:27,280 For us, the big day is Halloween. 804 00:42:27,280 --> 00:42:28,640 Because of all the trick or treating? 805 00:42:28,640 --> 00:42:31,040 Yes! I really like that. 806 00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:32,760 That's really sweet. 807 00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:35,040 Do you have to actually do anything to prepare for it? 808 00:42:35,040 --> 00:42:39,560 So the teams actually spend a few months coming into Halloween getting 809 00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:42,600 ready to be able to have the system scaled 810 00:42:42,600 --> 00:42:44,440 and pressure-tested to make sure that everything 811 00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:46,480 is going to operate as intended. 812 00:42:48,800 --> 00:42:54,040 But we've seen up to 278% more concurrent live use sessions. 813 00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:58,280 So like the number of concurrent sessions streaming to the cloud. 814 00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:00,480 Like a massive load on the system? Massive. 815 00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:01,520 Extraordinary. 816 00:43:01,520 --> 00:43:03,000 Right. 817 00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:05,600 Sounds like more trick than treat to me. 818 00:43:05,600 --> 00:43:08,280 HE SCREAMS 819 00:43:08,280 --> 00:43:11,800 With every recorded video being automatically uploaded 820 00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:16,440 to the cloud, there are obviously concerns about how secure it is. 821 00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:19,800 The idea is that, you know, the video is encrypted in a way 822 00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:22,440 that only the communication chip is going to see it, 823 00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:25,040 and then the communication chip then talks to our cloud. 824 00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:28,040 I want to talk to you a little bit about the privacy of the footage. 825 00:43:28,040 --> 00:43:30,480 What's your sort of take on that? 826 00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:32,800 Privacy is very important for us. Right now, 827 00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:34,560 the way the system has been built, 828 00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:38,720 no employee can see any live views or drop into any calls. 829 00:43:38,720 --> 00:43:40,040 It's not possible. 830 00:43:40,040 --> 00:43:45,280 And the way that we have set up policies and access control, 831 00:43:45,280 --> 00:43:48,320 it's extremely restricted to even see recorded videos, right? 832 00:43:48,320 --> 00:43:50,320 We take that very seriously. 833 00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:52,520 All sounds very reassuring. 834 00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:56,440 And yet many doorbell companies have been susceptible to hackers 835 00:43:56,440 --> 00:44:00,320 and rogue employees accessing customers' private footage. 836 00:44:00,320 --> 00:44:04,200 So it's worth checking if you can get extra protection by ticking 837 00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:06,280 an encryption box in your settings. 838 00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:10,600 And it's no wonder opinion on these devices remains divided. 839 00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:13,920 I think, when it comes to smart doorbells, it's very easy to either 840 00:44:13,920 --> 00:44:16,760 get excited about the technology and what that allows you to do 841 00:44:16,760 --> 00:44:20,600 or, on the other side, to be really concerned about the erosion 842 00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:22,560 of privacy that they enable. 843 00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:27,680 In 2021, a judge ruled that cameras and a doorbell on a house 844 00:44:27,680 --> 00:44:33,520 in Oxfordshire unjustifiably invaded the privacy of a neighbour. 845 00:44:33,520 --> 00:44:36,480 The judge said Mr Woodard's devices broke data laws 846 00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:38,600 and contributed to harassment. 847 00:44:38,600 --> 00:44:42,360 Which does make you wonder - if you're caught on camera, 848 00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:44,000 what are your rights? 849 00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:47,720 Well, by law, if you use a doorbell camera, you have to tell people 850 00:44:47,720 --> 00:44:48,960 they're being filmed. 851 00:44:48,960 --> 00:44:50,440 Hi, kitty! 852 00:44:50,440 --> 00:44:53,880 Although in practice people often don't. 853 00:44:53,880 --> 00:44:55,520 Hi! 854 00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:58,480 And you can't share footage of someone without permission 855 00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:02,680 unless it's to show probable criminal activity. 856 00:45:02,680 --> 00:45:05,400 Which brings us to the flip side. 857 00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:09,680 Doorbell footage has also been used as evidence in solving everything 858 00:45:09,680 --> 00:45:13,160 from arson to high-profile murders. 859 00:45:13,160 --> 00:45:15,560 Not forgetting the admittedly less 860 00:45:15,560 --> 00:45:17,120 serious case of Mr Fry 861 00:45:17,120 --> 00:45:20,960 of Weymouth - no relation - who accused his takeaway delivery 862 00:45:20,960 --> 00:45:23,520 driver of eating his chips. 863 00:45:23,520 --> 00:45:26,040 Whether they do more harm or good, 864 00:45:26,040 --> 00:45:29,600 many of us have been seduced by the smart doorbell's ability 865 00:45:29,600 --> 00:45:33,240 to connect, which all starts with the communication chip. 866 00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:37,920 To find out how it works, 867 00:45:37,920 --> 00:45:40,120 I'm bringing out the big guns. 868 00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:44,640 Right. So here it is. 869 00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:45,800 Right here. 870 00:45:45,800 --> 00:45:47,640 The communication chip. 871 00:45:47,640 --> 00:45:51,360 Now, this is doing something very clever indeed called 872 00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:55,640 packetization, which I'll admit doesn't sound particularly sexy 873 00:45:55,640 --> 00:45:59,920 but IS absolutely fundamental to the way that the internet works 874 00:45:59,920 --> 00:46:02,640 and the reason you can chat to your postie from the other side 875 00:46:02,640 --> 00:46:03,680 of the world. 876 00:46:03,680 --> 00:46:07,200 It's taking all of the footage from your doorbell, all of the audio 877 00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:11,160 data, all of the video data, and then, rather than just spewing 878 00:46:11,160 --> 00:46:14,600 it out into the internet in one long stream, it is chopping 879 00:46:14,600 --> 00:46:19,520 it down into teeny, teeny tiny little packets of data. 880 00:46:20,560 --> 00:46:24,720 Smaller packets of data means that big files, like the video 881 00:46:24,720 --> 00:46:28,440 from your doorbell, can be sent across the internet much faster 882 00:46:28,440 --> 00:46:31,760 using a thing called packet switching. 883 00:46:31,760 --> 00:46:34,920 It's pretty high-tech, but I can show you how it works 884 00:46:34,920 --> 00:46:38,480 using my slightly less high-tech marble run. 885 00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:40,280 Now, down here, these little marbles - 886 00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:41,320 these are my packets. 887 00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:44,480 These are like the little bytes of audio and video data 888 00:46:44,480 --> 00:46:45,520 that need to be sent. 889 00:46:45,520 --> 00:46:47,240 And the run itself - 890 00:46:47,240 --> 00:46:49,520 this is like the structure of the internet, 891 00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:51,840 all of the different routes that data can travel. 892 00:46:51,840 --> 00:46:53,280 Some of this might be fibre optic cables. 893 00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:55,000 Some of this might be satellites in the sky. 894 00:46:55,000 --> 00:47:00,560 Now, in the bad old days, all the data would be sent in one big 895 00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:04,240 old chunk, one single string of ones and zeros. 896 00:47:04,240 --> 00:47:05,720 Which, as you can see, 897 00:47:05,720 --> 00:47:08,920 is extremely slow and constantly getting stuck. 898 00:47:08,920 --> 00:47:14,320 But with packet switching, each one of these packets can be sent 899 00:47:14,320 --> 00:47:18,800 through the internet with the address of my phone - a header, 900 00:47:18,800 --> 00:47:23,360 as it's known - knowing that it doesn't matter what route they take 901 00:47:23,360 --> 00:47:28,360 because they can be reassembled when they arrive at the other end. 902 00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:30,920 All within a millisecond of each other. 903 00:47:32,800 --> 00:47:37,000 So the chip in your phone now is doing this job of the reassembly, 904 00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:41,080 which reconstructs to a perfect H. 905 00:47:41,080 --> 00:47:47,280 Now, this chip manages to do this thousands and thousands 906 00:47:47,280 --> 00:47:49,320 and thousands of times, 907 00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:52,960 reconstructing your original doorbell footage 908 00:47:52,960 --> 00:47:57,640 on your phone within milliseconds, allowing you to have that seamless 909 00:47:57,640 --> 00:47:59,520 conversation with your postie. 910 00:47:59,520 --> 00:48:03,200 By making packet switching possible, 911 00:48:03,200 --> 00:48:07,400 the communication chip gives us live access to our doorbell footage, 912 00:48:07,400 --> 00:48:09,120 no matter where we are. 913 00:48:10,600 --> 00:48:14,520 But where did the idea of breaking up data so it could be sent 914 00:48:14,520 --> 00:48:16,800 around the world at speed come from? 915 00:48:20,680 --> 00:48:26,000 Well, in the 1950s, the nuclear arms race between the USSR and the US 916 00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:27,480 was hotting up. 917 00:48:27,480 --> 00:48:28,840 With today's artillery, 918 00:48:28,840 --> 00:48:32,600 we have extended the fist distances never before believed possible, 919 00:48:32,600 --> 00:48:36,360 giving it a striking force that staggers the imagination. 920 00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:41,000 As tensions rose, America decided to decentralise their high-level 921 00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:45,360 communication system to stop a nuclear hit from Russia taking out 922 00:48:45,360 --> 00:48:47,640 the whole network. 923 00:48:47,640 --> 00:48:50,520 Cue electrical engineer Paul Baran. 924 00:48:50,520 --> 00:48:56,440 It was a period of great danger with missile systems being built. 925 00:48:56,440 --> 00:49:00,120 Both countries had their missiles aimed at each other. 926 00:49:00,120 --> 00:49:04,000 Paul's solution was a network of connected computers that shared 927 00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:08,480 information using packets of data sent via different routes. 928 00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:10,760 In other words, packet switching. 929 00:49:10,760 --> 00:49:14,960 Though he called it hot potato routeing, which I much prefer. 930 00:49:16,760 --> 00:49:20,960 His work laid the foundation for ARPANET, an early version 931 00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:24,800 of the internet that both the military and universities use 932 00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:30,680 to share information and, in 1982, a young computer nerd would change 933 00:49:30,680 --> 00:49:35,240 the world forever when he used packet switching and that early 934 00:49:35,240 --> 00:49:39,440 internet system to talk to a vending machine. 935 00:49:40,560 --> 00:49:42,800 We did not think this was a big deal at the time. 936 00:49:42,800 --> 00:49:45,320 We just were having fun and we were thirsty. 937 00:49:46,800 --> 00:49:49,760 That is David Nichols. In the 1980s, 938 00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:52,280 he was a computer science grad student 939 00:49:52,280 --> 00:49:55,440 at Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania. 940 00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:57,200 We all loved our sodas. 941 00:49:57,200 --> 00:49:59,280 You know, there was a culture of late night hacking. 942 00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:01,680 So you get a Coca Cola to keep yourself awake. 943 00:50:01,680 --> 00:50:03,200 CUCKOO! 944 00:50:06,200 --> 00:50:10,520 My office was about a three or four-minute walk away from 945 00:50:10,520 --> 00:50:12,920 the Coke machine in an adjacent building, 946 00:50:12,920 --> 00:50:14,440 and one night I was sitting 947 00:50:14,440 --> 00:50:18,000 there at my terminal and thinking, I want a Coke. 948 00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:20,480 But I also know that it runs out from time to time, 949 00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:22,600 and I'm going to walk over there and it may be out of Coke 950 00:50:22,600 --> 00:50:24,520 and I'm going to be disappointed. 951 00:50:24,520 --> 00:50:28,160 So, to avoid a long, needless trudge to an empty machine, 952 00:50:28,160 --> 00:50:30,400 David and his fellow classmates did 953 00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:32,800 what most computer students would do - 954 00:50:32,800 --> 00:50:34,600 they found a technical solution. 955 00:50:34,600 --> 00:50:39,960 The characteristic of a computer nerd is that they're happy to spend 956 00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:42,840 days working on a programme that will save them ten seconds 957 00:50:42,840 --> 00:50:44,000 every time they run it. 958 00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:48,520 This Coke conundrum was like catnip to a coder's brain. 959 00:50:48,520 --> 00:50:52,240 The machine used sensors to show how many sodas were in each column, 960 00:50:52,240 --> 00:50:54,880 and David's classmate came up with a plan. 961 00:50:54,880 --> 00:50:58,320 John Zsarnay had taken it on himself to take this idea and actually go 962 00:50:58,320 --> 00:51:00,440 build the hardware that would interface with the Coke machine. 963 00:51:00,440 --> 00:51:03,040 It was a microcomputer that fit in the ceiling 964 00:51:03,040 --> 00:51:05,160 up above the Coke machine. 965 00:51:05,160 --> 00:51:09,760 The computer hacked into the vending machine and found out how many sodas 966 00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:11,600 were in it. 967 00:51:11,600 --> 00:51:15,240 David was then able to write a programme that used packet switching 968 00:51:15,240 --> 00:51:18,760 to retrieve and send the information via ARPANET - 969 00:51:18,760 --> 00:51:21,000 that early internet system. 970 00:51:22,840 --> 00:51:25,360 So the protocol that we had in the Coke machine 971 00:51:25,360 --> 00:51:27,160 was a very simple one. 972 00:51:27,160 --> 00:51:29,960 You would send a packet that essentially asked, 973 00:51:29,960 --> 00:51:31,800 what's the state of this machine? 974 00:51:31,800 --> 00:51:35,600 And you'd get a packet back that would say, oh, there's this many 975 00:51:35,600 --> 00:51:39,440 columns of Cokes, this many buttons that you can push, 976 00:51:39,440 --> 00:51:42,280 and the first and third one are empty, but the rest of them 977 00:51:42,280 --> 00:51:44,280 have Cokes in it or whatever. 978 00:51:44,280 --> 00:51:47,680 Now anyone on the ARPANET could connect to the machine, 979 00:51:47,680 --> 00:51:50,640 whether you were in Pennsylvania or even California, 980 00:51:50,640 --> 00:51:55,160 although that would be a really long way to go for a fizzy drink. 981 00:51:55,160 --> 00:51:58,120 We didn't think it was interesting to anyone else on the world 982 00:51:58,120 --> 00:52:02,840 whether our Coke machine was full, but when we discovered we could let 983 00:52:02,840 --> 00:52:06,600 them know, of course we did it because that's too funny not to. 984 00:52:08,880 --> 00:52:13,520 David didn't know it back in 1982, but the moment his vending machine 985 00:52:13,520 --> 00:52:16,720 came online, it was the birth of what is now known 986 00:52:16,720 --> 00:52:19,960 as the Internet of Things. 987 00:52:19,960 --> 00:52:22,720 Many would say you're the inventor of the Internet of Things. 988 00:52:22,720 --> 00:52:24,560 I don't know that many would! 989 00:52:24,560 --> 00:52:27,040 Now, don't be modest, David. 990 00:52:27,040 --> 00:52:30,120 The Internet of Things refers to the billions of devices 991 00:52:30,120 --> 00:52:31,840 around the world that are controllable 992 00:52:31,840 --> 00:52:34,040 by you via the internet. 993 00:52:34,040 --> 00:52:40,000 Everything from light bulbs to TVs and, of course, your smart doorbell. 994 00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:42,360 Did I foresee all of this? I don't think so. 995 00:52:42,360 --> 00:52:44,680 When I left, the Internet of Things wasn't a thing. 996 00:52:44,680 --> 00:52:48,560 We had built an Internet of Thing without an S. 997 00:52:49,840 --> 00:52:52,000 Following on from David's Coke machine, 998 00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:56,480 many connected technologies were to follow, like the notorious 999 00:52:56,480 --> 00:53:00,760 Trojan Room coffee pot, a prototype camera installed in a room 1000 00:53:00,760 --> 00:53:04,720 at the University of Cambridge in 1991 to monitor 1001 00:53:04,720 --> 00:53:06,760 the all-important coffee supply. 1002 00:53:06,760 --> 00:53:09,440 Is it just me or is there a caffeine theme to all 1003 00:53:09,440 --> 00:53:10,800 of these inventions? 1004 00:53:10,800 --> 00:53:13,840 Every three seconds, an image is grabbed of the world's most 1005 00:53:13,840 --> 00:53:15,000 famous coffee pot. 1006 00:53:15,000 --> 00:53:18,960 The first live feed of an inanimate object. 1007 00:53:18,960 --> 00:53:23,920 Today, the Internet of Things is a near $1 trillion market... 1008 00:53:25,040 --> 00:53:28,680 ..and it's estimated that, by 2030, there will be 1009 00:53:28,680 --> 00:53:32,080 125 billion smart devices. 1010 00:53:34,520 --> 00:53:37,720 All passing through their own communication chip. 1011 00:53:40,240 --> 00:53:44,240 The smart doorbell offers a window to the world from a piece 1012 00:53:44,240 --> 00:53:47,040 of technology fixed to your front door. 1013 00:53:47,040 --> 00:53:49,280 But what if you gave it wings 1014 00:53:49,280 --> 00:53:52,360 so it wasn't stuck in one place at all? 1015 00:53:52,360 --> 00:53:54,400 This is the future. 1016 00:53:55,760 --> 00:53:59,840 We can already see and speak to visitors at the door, 1017 00:53:59,840 --> 00:54:05,400 keep an eye on security and even chat to our pets if we want to. 1018 00:54:05,400 --> 00:54:06,800 Down, boy! 1019 00:54:06,800 --> 00:54:09,040 So what's next? 1020 00:54:09,040 --> 00:54:11,400 Well, come fly with me and find out. 1021 00:54:11,400 --> 00:54:12,680 She was taught by John Nash? 1022 00:54:12,680 --> 00:54:16,280 Yeah! He was the assistant in her physics class. 1023 00:54:16,280 --> 00:54:20,560 That is former student of the Beautiful Mind himself and 1024 00:54:20,560 --> 00:54:23,440 Ring CEO Liz Hamren. 1025 00:54:23,440 --> 00:54:27,440 She's giving me a sneak peek of a futuristic new prototype. 1026 00:54:29,440 --> 00:54:30,560 Tell me about the drone, then. 1027 00:54:30,560 --> 00:54:31,880 It is for inside your house. 1028 00:54:31,880 --> 00:54:34,080 And it is also for when you are not home. 1029 00:54:34,080 --> 00:54:36,960 It's quite unusual to have an internal drone. It is. 1030 00:54:36,960 --> 00:54:39,160 You know, people are used to seeing drones outside, and what the idea 1031 00:54:39,160 --> 00:54:42,560 there was, people don't necessarily want cameras in every part 1032 00:54:42,560 --> 00:54:44,640 of the interior of their home. 1033 00:54:44,640 --> 00:54:46,520 So we were like, well, how can we solve this problem? 1034 00:54:46,520 --> 00:54:49,880 And so we came up with this idea of this Always Home cam. 1035 00:54:49,880 --> 00:54:53,520 The drone is controlled by the same app as your smart doorbell 1036 00:54:53,520 --> 00:54:58,040 and similarly only starts to record when sensors located 1037 00:54:58,040 --> 00:55:00,360 around your house detect motion. 1038 00:55:01,840 --> 00:55:04,280 So it will stay docked. 1039 00:55:04,280 --> 00:55:06,880 And then, when something happens where there's a sound or a break 1040 00:55:06,880 --> 00:55:11,400 or sensors trip, the camera can undock, fly over to that area, 1041 00:55:11,400 --> 00:55:13,320 and then show you exactly what's happening. 1042 00:55:13,320 --> 00:55:15,280 Can we see it in action? Absolutely. 1043 00:55:16,240 --> 00:55:20,480 As the Always Home cam is still in development, the flight 1044 00:55:20,480 --> 00:55:24,480 is being closely monitored by technician Stephen. 1045 00:55:24,480 --> 00:55:27,000 So this is like a predetermined path? Yes. 1046 00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:29,200 And it's flying a path that it knows. 1047 00:55:29,200 --> 00:55:33,920 This home drone is pre-programmed to know the path around your house. 1048 00:55:35,880 --> 00:55:39,840 The red dots represent the waypoints of its planned route. 1049 00:55:42,640 --> 00:55:43,760 So what if I get in its way? 1050 00:55:43,760 --> 00:55:46,720 It's not going to hit me in the head? It is not. 1051 00:55:46,720 --> 00:55:49,840 To avoid bumping into obstacles, like my head, 1052 00:55:49,840 --> 00:55:53,720 it's also equipped with its own navigation technology, a combination 1053 00:55:53,720 --> 00:55:57,200 of cameras and depth sensors represented by the green dots 1054 00:55:57,200 --> 00:55:58,320 on this screen. 1055 00:56:01,720 --> 00:56:03,840 So now you've interrupted its path. 1056 00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:04,880 It sees you. 1057 00:56:07,040 --> 00:56:10,680 Maybe not my wisest idea to test out this theory with my face. 1058 00:56:12,040 --> 00:56:13,840 And just... Oh! 1059 00:56:13,840 --> 00:56:14,880 Just let it go. 1060 00:56:17,160 --> 00:56:21,840 It might give you an added sense of security, but there is a downside 1061 00:56:21,840 --> 00:56:26,000 to this futuristic flyer - for your furry friends. 1062 00:56:26,000 --> 00:56:27,040 Oh! 1063 00:56:28,680 --> 00:56:31,000 It is not meant for when you are home. 1064 00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:33,120 And that includes everyone - includes your dogs and your pets. 1065 00:56:33,120 --> 00:56:35,560 Like, it's literally for no-one home. 1066 00:56:35,560 --> 00:56:39,520 Which seems like a slight flaw in the design, considering over half 1067 00:56:39,520 --> 00:56:42,560 of the population have a pet of some sort in their house. 1068 00:56:44,400 --> 00:56:47,800 Could you use this to spy on other people? 1069 00:56:47,800 --> 00:56:51,800 No, because it is again designed to be indoors. 1070 00:56:51,800 --> 00:56:53,880 We would never encourage anyone to be spying on other people 1071 00:56:53,880 --> 00:56:55,080 with our products. 1072 00:56:55,080 --> 00:56:57,920 If only Stalin had had Liz's morals. 1073 00:57:00,400 --> 00:57:05,040 Our doorbells have come a long way - from the electromagnetic buttons 1074 00:57:05,040 --> 00:57:08,840 of the 19th century to the super high-tech home security 1075 00:57:08,840 --> 00:57:10,240 combos of today. 1076 00:57:12,040 --> 00:57:14,240 I think there's a few different perspectives that are worth 1077 00:57:14,240 --> 00:57:16,200 considering when it comes to smart doorbells. 1078 00:57:16,200 --> 00:57:19,880 You can see the appeal of never missing a delivery and getting 1079 00:57:19,880 --> 00:57:21,400 additional peace of mind. 1080 00:57:24,000 --> 00:57:27,400 Although any technology that invites even more surveillance 1081 00:57:27,400 --> 00:57:31,520 into our lives does need to be properly regulated and controlled. 1082 00:57:31,520 --> 00:57:34,360 But I think that there's one thing we can say for sure about smart 1083 00:57:34,360 --> 00:57:38,120 doorbells, which is that, even if you didn't ask for them, 1084 00:57:38,120 --> 00:57:39,720 they are not going away. 1085 00:57:42,960 --> 00:57:44,560 It's the motorway. 1086 00:57:45,760 --> 00:57:48,120 They are the backbone of the country. 1087 00:57:48,120 --> 00:57:49,800 HORN BEEPS What's he doing in that lane? 1088 00:57:49,800 --> 00:57:50,840 Do you know what I mean? 1089 00:57:50,840 --> 00:57:53,600 It's the story of some wild swimming... 1090 00:57:53,600 --> 00:57:56,080 SHE GASPS 1091 00:57:53,600 --> 00:57:56,080 It's cold! 1092 00:57:56,080 --> 00:57:58,080 ..a Formula 1 legend... 1093 00:57:58,080 --> 00:57:59,840 I'm off the ground completely, 1094 00:57:59,840 --> 00:58:01,240 and there's no barrier. 1095 00:58:01,240 --> 00:58:05,080 ..and a 1960s road sign revolution. 1096 00:58:05,080 --> 00:58:08,880 The signs that existed - they were absolutely chaotic. 1097 00:58:11,080 --> 00:58:15,480 The Open University has produced a free poster exploring what lies 1098 00:58:15,480 --> 00:58:18,280 behind the genius of some everyday objects. 1099 00:58:18,280 --> 00:58:19,960 To order a copy, call... 1100 00:58:23,400 --> 00:58:25,440 ..scan the QR code or go to... 1101 00:58:29,120 --> 00:58:31,520 ..and follow the links to the Open University.