Translator: Khrystyna Skira Reviewer: Hélène Vernet
Hello everyone.
I'm very happy to be here with you this midday today,
and to introduce my story and my project.
Who among you has never had an idea for an invention,
an idea which one day might revolutionize the world,
but who didn't have the means to realise it?
Most people have already had this ambition.
As for me, I had this ambition at the age of five, through tools.
As I watched my dad tinker, I found it very simple.
And with plastic screwdrivers,
I thought I could one day revolutionize the world.
It was very modest, in my garden.
But, well, I was only five years old, and it was merely a start.
Then came high school
in which we have other priorities such as, first, doing one's homework,
review one's Life and Earth Sciences class.
It's: "Keep calm, do your homework and no room for more".
That way, no questions would be asked.
But, fortunately for me, or rather unfortunately for my parents,
I was fond of tinkering, like taking apart my mom's hair dryer,
or my dad's razor without knowing, sometimes, how to put it back together.
I had this passion, and at the end, I could see that even at a young age,
I could succeed in doing things myself with my own hands.
And this has been a really important observation for me.
Ultimately, all those problems that the grown-ups have
in starting their companies - the administrative issues -
I ignored them; so I had some kind of naive side
which allowed me to be very, very quick in procedures.
So, at age 13, I registered my first patent.
It was a true adventure.
My first patent at the INPI was for a machine to brew tea.
Stated like this, it does not mean anything.
But in fact, it was a robotic arm that allowed you to put in a tea bag.
It calculated the type of tea, the heat,
then, after a while, it removed the tea bag,
and you had a perfectly brewed beverage.
So, I was 13 years old.
This reinforced my acknowledgement that even as kids, we could do cool stuff.
As I worked on my inventions and filed patents,
I was really enjoying myself in parallel with my school career.
It didn't prevent me from going to high school
and get my diploma just like everyone else.
One day, I had a big realization,
a realization we've all had early, that is: waking up.
To wake up every morning was rather frustrating.
We just can't manage to slip out of our comforter.
Yet one of the biggest decisions of our days is to get out of bed.
Pretty crazy!
I've had a hard time making this decision.
At times I made it, at times not, depending on the day.
I told myself, "What about trying to find a new way?"
Sound, radio, light already existed.
What about waking up with a scent alone?
In addition, why not with a scent we like and chose? A bit like capsules?
That's the reason why I created the olfactory alarm Sensorwake.
It's quite simple. It's this box here.
You see, it really looks like a classic alarm clock, except that here,
there's a slot in which we can insert a cartridge of our choice.
For example here, it's a wood fragrance, for someone who likes nature.
He will wake up in two minutes with this wood smell alone.
We have cola scent, seaside scent.
And for businessmen, there's even the dollar scent.
So the selection is practically infinite.
We can place a great selection of cartridges into the alarm.
One cartridge is 60 alarms.
Unlike coffee machines, everything is recyclable,
so there's no problem concerning that.
The scents do not contain any solvent, any VOC, volatile organic compounds,
so it's something that is 100% safe.
Developing it was very dear to my heart.
This began in the garage with the famous Arduino boards,
so no need to know a lot.
Progressively, it began to work well. I gave a lot of myself to this.
It was during my revisions for the final exams. I was 17.
I participated in a Google competition, the Google Science Fair.
I had the chance to be the first Frenchman
to be selected for the Google Science Fair that you'll soon see here.
It is an international science competition which gathers all the young researchers.
Google selects 15 projects annually to come to Silicon Valley.
So, I had the chance to be the first selected Frenchman.
This earned me first a great joy, a beautiful experience,
some practice of my English - not bad either -
but above all,
the recognition of an invention which sometimes is difficult to obtain.
It's good to invent, but it equally good to share it and communicate.
So, this earned me a dinner with Anne-Sophie Lapix,
a question to Najat at Le Petit Journal, a meeting with Stéphane Sommier,
so a true launching pad, a real exponential growth,
and, thanks to this science competition, a crazy experience - that's the word -
and also a preparation of myself
knowing that, even at a young age, we can make our dreams come true,
we can go beyond the possible,
and that a simple idea can become a concrete, rather sexy project,
that can be communicated,
and may one day, modestly of course, change and improve our everyday lives.
So what I invite young people to do today, is:
we have the chance to be in the 21st century,
youths can prove that they have the means to succeed.
Before, it was harder.
Historically, we don't know of many youths who could impose their idea.
Nowadays, we have many tools, such as the Arduino boards.
With the internet,
a simple idea can create a buzz, as we can see with Youtube videos.
Finally, to conclude,
I can remember a phrase which greatly impressed me,
which was somehow the Google Science Fair's slogan,
a phrase that I had to repeat many times in front of the camera.
It is: "It's your turn to change the world."
I think that in the 21st century, it's a phrase that truly resonates.
And for this TEDx too, "Beyond possibilities",
it really make sense.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)