[Music]
okay I'll admit this is not a question
that would have crossed many of your
minds but it is the kind of question
that keeps me occupied how do you
integrate electronics like this into a
cup if you do get to thinking about it
you'll find it's really very tricky
there too even simple things you know
like a switch and a wireless transmitter
is difficult it's because a cup is a
curved surface and it needs to be
dishwasher safe in these little green
boards of electronics that we have
seemingly everywhere today they're flat
and they're really not going to survive
a dishwasher cycle so today this cup is
not connected to the Internet of Things
actually despite all the hype the only
objects that are connected to the
Internet of Things right now are some
cameras some thermostats quite a few
cars perhaps and one of those really
really expensive fridges but tomorrow
our thirst for information means that
almost everything will be today because
those little green boards are rigid and
flat we can clearly pick out what is
electronics and what has no electrical
functionality tomorrow we will want our
electronics integrated into our devices
without any design compromise to
accommodate them the technology to allow
this already exists this transformation
has already begun I think there are two
ways the manufacture of simple
electronics will evolve and for the
foreseeable future I expect both to have
an important role although I bet number
two wins in the end
the first is high for scale production
it's mass manufacture of identical parts
in a centralized location think of how
we print newspapers ink onto paper
repeating for thousands and
thousands of copies this is a wonderful
analogy because electronics can be made
in exactly this way with roll-to-roll
presses churning out simple electronic
circuits by the million and this is the
scale required since some estimates
suggest will connect twenty billion new
devices to the Internet of Things by
2020 the printing technology already
exists but where we've needed a leap is
in the functionality of the inks since
printing began inks have had just one
functionality it's the wavelengths of
light that they reflect there are color
recently though inks with additional
functionalities have been created for
example conductivity to make printed
wires some inks when they're dry are
semiconducting materials allows us to
print transistors key components in
signal processing or overlays or many
kinds of sensor some inks are
high-quality dielectrics means they can
print capacitors crucial for energy
storage designing such inks and the
components made with them I want my
colleagues and I do we quite literally
print electronics manufacturing
electronics on this scale gives us new
possibilities we can tag literally
anything we like with a little
electrically functional sticky label and
connect it to the Internet which is
great if you're a logistics company or
you don't like queuing at the
supermarket checkout but it is still the
addition of electronics to an existing
object it doesn't solve the design
problem and nor does it give me that cup
with some building electronics printed
electronics may have the answer to this
though because the same electrically
functional links more or less can be it
puts into another type of printer one
that's very different from that
roll-to-roll press it's a very common
type of printer that many of you here
will have at home or in your office to
print your documents or your photos a
digital printing technique called inkjet
as the name suggests inkjet works by
firing or jetting tens of thousands of
tiny droplets every second
usually onto paper inkjet is already
extensively used in industrial
manufacturing it's used to make obvious
things like magazines and printed
packaging and some less obvious things
like perhaps your wallpaper in fact the
total market size for inkjet printing is
well in excess of 50 billion dollars
with predictions of double-digit growth
in the coming years these industrial
inkjet printers they can print onto flat
surfaces but they can also print onto
curved surfaces they can print onto
paper but also plastic or ceramic which
means if we load them with electrically
functional inks we can print a
customized electric circuit onto an
object during manufacturing giving it
features specific to that object and
unique to what the designer has in mind
and this is a huge leap ahead in terms
of creating the Internet of Things
because it's no longer an identical
circuit tagged to the object but it is a
customized electronic circuit puts in
line with the manufacturing these inkjet
printers so they're still 2d printers
they can print the electronics but they
cannot print the object itself for that
we need a newer digital printing
technique called 3d printing or additive
manufacturing these 3d printers they
print out an object literally layer by
layer by layer a guided by a digital
model designed on a computer these 3d
printers can create objects of almost
any form or shape or geometry including
objects that are impossible to create by
conventional manufacturing and crafting
techniques I believe the second way the
manufacturing of simple electronics will
go is the marriage of these two
techniques of digital print inkjet and
3d and the breakthrough will be the
ability to just print out an
electrically functional object the whole
approach is based on digital models
these can be easily edited cast
myzel scaled with this manufacturing
method no two objects need to be
completely identical individual pieces
tailored for specific customers can be
made just as easily as large numbers of
perfect replicas and the key thing for
me as this technology starts spreading
we'll be able to manufacture our objects
locally rather than in faraway expensive
production facilities okay I'm off to
print myself a new cup I'll have a
switch for the kettle built-in maybe a
temperature sensor coupled to a light
emission device it can tell me if the
drinks too hot
more likely too cold might even have a
data logger in it anyway none of that's
important what is important is that when
I'm done I'll upload the file you will
be able to download it you can edit it
to your taste you can change its color
you can change its size you can change
its electrical functionality and then
print your own thank you
[Applause]