英国皇家科学院圣诞讲座：让火花飞（2014）

-哈里森 -哈里森
- Harrison. - Harrison.
哈里森 你父母在场吗
OK, Harrison, and you have a parent.
那是你妈妈吗
OK, is that your mam there?
是我的老师
Er, it's teacher.
老师 行 哈里森
Teacher, OK, right, Harrison.
老师可以和哈里森一起去吗
Teacher are you OK to go with Harrison?
行吗 可以吗
Yep. Is that OK?
很好 行了
Brilliant, OK.
接下来 你跟朱迪一起过去
So what's gonna happen, you're gonna go with Judy,
外面等着的出租车
we're gonna put you in a taxi
会带你和你的老师去壳牌中心
which is waiting for you and your teacher now
之后我们会跟你现场连线
and then we're gonna link up live with you at the Shell Centre
你来玩游戏
and you get to play the game.
好的
All right.
很好 谢谢你哈里森
Brilliant, thank you very much, Harrison.
在哈里森前往南岸的这段时间
OK, whilst Harrison is on his way to the South Bank,
我们要来考虑这个疯狂的计划
we need to think about the steps we need to take
都需要哪些步骤
to take our crazy idea
才能在摩天大楼上完成这个游戏
to actually playing a game on the skyscraper.
我们要在一小时内想好
And we need to do it in less than an hour.
作为一名工程师 当我遇到
Now, I'm an engineer and when I'm faced with problems
无法解决的难题时
that I think are just too big to solve
我会把问题分解成可以解决的
I like to break that problem down into steps
若干个小问题
that I think I can solve.
所以我们来分解吧
So, let's break it down.
首先 我们需要把大楼变为一块屏幕
First, we need to turn the building into a screen.
然后我们需要为游戏编程
Then we need to be able to code that game.
所以我们需要用到一些软件
So we need some software as well.
第三步 我们需要制♥作♥一个控制器
Then third, we need to make controller,
类似于手柄 来控制游戏
some sort of game pad in order to play that game.
然后连线身在壳牌中心的哈里森
Then we'll be going live to Harrison at the Shell Centre
来操作游戏
to play that game.
希望他可以乘坐出租车到达
And hopefully he'll be there in that taxi that was waiting for him,
然后等我们的消息
so he'll be waiting for us.
我们还有不到一小时来完成
So we've got less than an hour to do all that.
首先 我们从第一步开始
OK, right, let's get started with step one.
这一步的关键就是找到一种方法
Now the key to this is finding a way to turn that building
把大楼变成一个巨大的屏幕
into a giant screen.
我们可以让屏幕显示任何东西
And we can put anything on screens.
我们可以在屏幕上
We could put on my screen here
展示一张壳牌中心的图片
a lovely image of the Shell Centre,
或是长颈鹿的照片
or images of giraffes,
我们甚至可以放
or we could even put the photographs
你们今晚的照片
that were taken of you guys this evening.
很好
Brilliant.
太棒了 看到自己了吗
That's good, excellent, are you recognising yourselves?
很好 有一些同学
Excellent. Some of you,
看起来在这里很高兴 不错
some of you look very happy to be here, that's good.
屏幕的远近与大小
And it doesn't matter how far away those screens actually are
其实都无所谓
or how big or how small those screens are.
它们都被互联网所控制
They're all controlled by the Internet.
包括一些很大的屏幕
And that includes the big screens.
在皮卡迪利广场购物时
You know the big screens that you see
你会看到很多巨大的屏幕
when you're out maybe shopping in Piccadilly Circus,
比如这块皮卡迪利广场旁的大屏幕
like this big screen out near Piccadilly Circus.
我们在这里就能控制它
We could control that from right here.
这就是我们正在做的
And that's exactly what we're doing right now.
看看你们的照片在哪里 在皮卡迪利广场
Look at where your photographs are, Piccadilly Circus.
这是照片直播秀
This is a live picture.
公交车上的人将会在皮卡迪利广场
It's brilliant so the people on this bus will be looking
看到你们的照片 太棒了
at your faces at Piccadilly Circus.
相信今晚你们会给很多购物者带来欢乐
I think you're going to be cheering up a lot of shoppers this evening.
看起来真棒
They look brilliant.
你们出名了 出现在了大屏幕上
So you're famous, you're out there already on a giant screen.
但我们需要了解屏幕的工作原理
But I think we need to understand how screens like this one work.
如果摄影师将这些屏幕不断放大
So if our cameraman was to zoom in even further onto these screens,
我们会看到类似这样的东西
we'd see something that looked a little bit like this.
大量的LED 也就是发光二极管
We'd have hundreds or LEDS or light emitting diodes
排列成网格状
all arranged in a grid.
这是一块32乘32像素的屏幕
So on this screen we have 32 by 32 pixels or picture elements
我们可以用它呈现出任何图案
and I should be able to display anything on this screen.
我应该可以向大家展示
So I should be able to just show you
一些电脑中的信息
some information that I have already on my laptop.
或者展示出我的相册
Or I could just show you what's in my picture gallery
或是电脑桌面的内容
or what's on my desktop.
你们可以看到这些LED
And you can see all of these LEDS are reacting
正在展示电脑中的信息
to what I'm doing on the laptop.
如果想把摩天大楼变成一块大屏幕
So if our aim is to turn our skyscraper into a giant screen
先将这块小屏幕的原理搞清楚
I think working out how our small screen works
第一步就解决了
is pretty sensible first step.
而如何让网格状的灯泡亮起来呢
But how do we turn a light bulb on if you have a grid of lights?
如果进一步放大
If we zoom in even further,
取其中4乘4像素的区域
and take just a 4x4 section of our grid
可以看到基础的原件
we can see the basic elements
就是这些小灯泡
which are really just some light bulbs.
我们需要一个装置来控制开关
Then we need a mechanism of making them turn on and off.
我可以为每一个灯泡制♥作♥一个开关
Now I could just build a switch for every light bulb I have
这里可以 因为我只需要做16个
and that's OK for this because I would only need 16,
而这块32乘32像素的屏幕
but for my screen here I would need 32x32
就需要1024个开关
which is 1024 switches
而那块皮卡迪利广场的大屏幕
and for the Piccadilly screen we've just seen,
则需要成千上万个开关
I'd need hundreds of thousands of switches,
这可不是很有效率
so it's not very efficient.
所以我们需要了解
So I think we need to understand
屏幕是如何呈现出图像的
how screens actually display an image.
我需要个人来帮我
So I need a volunteer to come and help me do this.
请你过来
Yes, you down here.
你叫什么
What's your name?
查理 好的 查理
Charlie, OK, Charlie.
站在这里
You stand here.
查理 这里有一盏亮着的灯
Ok, now Charlie. We got a light here that alright swithed on.
如果想点亮这一盏
If we wanted to light this bulb,
我们需要怎么做呢
what do you think we would have to do?
有办法吗
You got any idea?
为它做一个开关吗
Make a switch for that bulb?
好的 我们有这两个
Yes. We have these two things here.
该怎么做呢
What could we do?
这里有个转盘或许可以
They have a dial on them so maybe...
好的 试着转动一下
Yeah, go on try moving that one then.
很好 如果我也转动这个的话
Brilliant. If I did the same with this one.
就会转到那边去 真棒
It moved across there, excellent.
我们从这里转到了这里 很好
We have managed to go from here to here. Good.
如果想回到那里
If we want to go back to there,
我们该怎么做
what would we have to do?
-再转一次那个 -转这个
- Move that one again. - Move this one again.
我们只需要给这个开关不同的指令
All we have done is just given this switch a different message.
其中的巧妙之处就在于
So, the clever thing about this is,
查理只需用这两个开关来控制
Charlie has only had to use two switches to do this.
这就是小屏幕以及更大屏幕的工作原理
This is how small screens work and much larger screens.
电脑会把图片分解成像素
The computer breaks down our picture into pixels
告诉开关该点亮那一盏灯
and tells our switches which lights to light up.
但这里还有个问题
But we have a bit of a problem here.
我们能让一盏灯亮
Because we can turn one light on
但如何让所有的灯同时亮呢
but how do we turn all the lights on at the same time?
你觉得我们该怎么做
How do you think we could do that?
用这个做得到吗
Can we do it with this?
我不太确定
Not sure if we could do it with this.
如果非常快速地转动 做得到吗
What about if you move that really fast? Would that work?
好的 可以
Well, yeah.
试一下 我们一起
Try it. Shall we try it?