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Physicist Breaks Down Superhero Physics From Movies & TV 

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Physicist Breaks Down Superhero Physics From Movies & TV 

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Physicist Breaks Down Superhero Physics From Movies & TV | WIRED

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Physicist Breaks Down The Science Of 11 DC Superhero Scenes | How Real Is It?

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Physicist Breaks Down The Science Of 11 DC Superhero Scenes | How Real Is It?

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Physicist Breaks Down The Science Of 11 DC Superhero Scenes | How Real Is It?

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Physicist Breaks Down The Science Of 10 Iconic Marvel Scenes 

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Physicist Breaks Down The Science Of 10 Iconic Marvel Scenes 

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Physicist Breaks Down The Science Of 10 Iconic Marvel Scenes | How Real Is It?

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Neil DeGrasse Tyson Explains the Science of Marvel

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Neil DeGrasse Tyson Explains the Science of Marvel

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Neil deGrasse Tyson Breaks Down the Science in Marvel Movies

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Heaps of Superheroes on Minute Explained

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Heaps of Superheroes on Minute Explained

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In a hurry, but want the essential info? Minute Explained has got your back! Join us as we discuss and explain characters, props, weaponry and vehicles across all platforms of ‘geek-pop’ culture. From Star Wars to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) as well as other Disney properties and beyond -…

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Seeker empowers the curious to understand the science shaping our world. We tell award-winning stories about the natural forces and groundbreaking innovations that impact our lives, our planet, and our universe.

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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Heaps of Superheroes on Science Friction

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Heaps of Superheroes on Science Friction

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science friction rusty ward comic books technology

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Become superhuman. My series Science Friction breaks down the real science behind comic book and sci-fi superheroes and tells you how to attain those abilities for yourself. Do you want your own Iron Man armor? Or would you like to transform yourself into a super-soldier like Captain America?

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Heaps of Superhero Stuff on Because Science

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Heaps of Superhero Stuff on Because Science

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The Physics of Superheroes book by James Kakalios

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The Physics of Superheroes book by James Kakalios

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Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible Season 1 Episode1 Part 1

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Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible Season 1 Episode1 Part 1

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Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible Season 1 Episode1 Part 1

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The Primordial Soup: Superman, Spiderman, and the motivation of superheroes.

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The Primordial Soup: Superman, Spiderman, and the motivation of superheroes.

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The Primordial Soup: Superman, Spiderman, and the motivation of superheroes.

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So I was puttering around on Facebook recently and I found this. It’s a quote from the trailer of the upcoming Batman vs. Superman film (super excited for that) and it’s from Ma Kent ba…

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Science and superheroes: how close are we to creating real superpowers?

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Science and superheroes: how close are we to creating real superpowers?

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There are, according to the Marvel Super Heroes role-playing game (a source I am choosing to accept as 100% canonical), five general origins for all superheroic powers: Altered Humans (Spiderman, Fantastic Four), High-Tech Wonders (Iron Man, Batman), Mutants (X-Men,) Robots (The Vision) and Aliens (Superman and gods like Thor).

Until quite recently all five of the general origins of super powers seemed entirely beyond reach. But is the high speed advance of science in the 21st century bringing those superpowers based upon it - Altered Humans, High Tech Wonders and Robots - any closer?

Significant physical alterations have seemed largely impossible until very recently. Even breakthroughs in genetics hint at nothing like the weapon-x program that gave Wolverine his admantium bones and Deadpool his accelerated healing. But quantum biology, championed by physicist and broadcaster Jim Al Khalili, suggests an enjoyably speculative direction for extreme human alterations. If quantum tunnelling can explain the high speed transformation of tadpole to frog, surely it's conceivable quantum effects might also allow a human body to regenerate from a gunshot or samurai sword attack.

Martial arts have been altering humans to pseudo-superheroic levels of power for centuries, with changes more psychological than physical. It seems the US military are at least interested in discovering if the Shaolin monks are skilled in more than just theatre, with a number of research studies underway to militarise ancient Buddhist techniques of mindfulness. Are we producing Jason Bournes and American Ultras in a CIA training facility somewhere? If we aren't I imagine it's only because numerous attempts have so far failed.

The speed of technological advancement creates an obvious downside to "high tech" superpowers. Had Lee Majors's Million Dollar Man been upgraded to the height of early 1970s technology, he would today be the Betamax of superheroes when placed beside, say, a Mark VIII Iron Man suit.

Given our huge industrial base, general robotics might seem a relatively easy challenge to tackle, but has proven much harder than expected. And human/robot interactions of the kind made to look easy in Iron Man are in fact fiendishly hard, at least without the risk of dismembering your pilot. But the news of robotic exoskeletons being used to overcome disabilities shows both that science is already delivering great boons, ad that a full red and gold flying suit of armour might one day be mine ... MUAHAHA!

It's not an exoskeleton, but it is pretty cool: the maiden flight of the JB-9, said to be the world's first personal jetpack. Guardian

But as anyone who has tried getting through a full day of use on an iPhone 6 will tell you, power supply is the achilles heel of even the coolest gizmos and gadgets. Iron Man's armour is powered by what appears, from movie schematics, to be a tokamak fusion reactor. We can make these, in fact we're building one in France. The only problem is it needs to be roughly the size of the Shakespeare's Globe theatre to produce even a smidgeon more energy than it takes to run.

Skipping the weak human elements of any high-tech design helps simplify things immensely. But it does raise the minor question, how will a robot think for itself? Artificial Intelligence has been a dream of computer scientists from Alan Turing onwards, and after many decades of negligible to slow progress, 2015 became a watershed year for AI. Google's "DeepMind" literally taught itself to play Atari Breakout (and 50 other classic video games) in just 120 minutes...I never managed to clear a whole level after year! More recently a DeepMind computing system called AlphaGo beat a champion player of the ancient Chinese game go by five games to nil.

It's fascinating because nobody, even its creators at Google, really knows how DeepMind plays these games so well. Previous AI champions like IBMs Watson triumphed at single games like Jeopardy after detailed human programming, but DeepMind and other deep learning systems are doing something much more mysterious. Where that might take us is truly hard to know, but for the first time the idea of an emergent AI taking over the internet and igniting a nuclear holocust is a tentative possibility. Sadly, given the rather slower progress on robot bodies, if it wants to manifest physically like The Vision it will have to forego the spray painted body of Paul Bettany in favour of Pepper, the cutting edge of humanoid companion robots.

It seems we're still a step or two away from scientific super-powers. But here in 2016 they are steps that we are tantalisingly close to taking. And who knows what unforeseen powers technologies like drone swarms or human cloning might lead to. The real question is will they make us superheroes...or villains?

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Science and superheroes: how close are we to creating real superpowers?

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There are, according to the Marvel Super Heroes role-playing game (a source I am choosing to accept as 100% canonical), five general origins for all superheroic powers: Altered Humans (Spiderman, Fantastic Four), High-Tech Wonders (Iron Man, Batman), Mutants (X-Men,) Robots (The Vision) and Aliens (Superman and gods like Thor).

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My friend lives way up the coast from Sydney. My friend's name is Riley and he's 13 years old. He's smart, funny and really interested in new technology. I met Riley through my work with making technology for people with disabilities. Riley was born with cerebral palsy.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Yeah, and the shoes?
NARRATION
He has a sister, Paige, Tiny the dog and his brother, Chase.
Chase
A lot of people see Riley as different but in my eyes, he's always the way he has been and he's just a normal brother to me.
Paige
Yeah, and he's cheeky and he's smart.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
(LAUGHS) Yeah.
Riley's mother
He pretty much gets everything that he wants 'cause he basically drives everyone insane to get it.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
(LAUGHS)
Riley
My motto in life is never give up.
Riley's mother
And you don't, do you, buddy?
Riley
(GRUNTS) No.
NARRATION
Riley speaks with the aid of a special computer. It tracks the movement of his eyes as he looks from one letter to the next, spelling out what he wants to say. And Riley has lots to say and a lot of ambition.
Riley
I want to be a technology engineer when I grow up.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Yeah?
Riley
I want to be just like Jordan because I am great at technology.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
That's kind of cool. (LAUGHS)
Riley
The hardest thing for me is not having some independence.
Riley's father
Riley wears a Second Skin suit. So, every day, he has the hand splints on and that just helps to keep his hand in a comfortable position. He wears a full suit to school which helps with his posture of his back and keep him centred.

Riley's father (to Riley)

So I think we'll wear this one. What do you think of that one?
Riley's father
A lot of people don't know how to approach a disabled person. You don't have to feel scared or worried you're going to say the wrong thing, because sometimes to approach and say hello is all you need, you know?
Riley's mother
When Riley was little, he used to play a game of trying to turn the telly on. He'd try to turn the lights on, the microwave. And he'd sit there, just staring at something to try to get it to turn on or turn off or whatever he wanted it to do. One particular time - I don't know why - but a channel changed and he thought he was a superhero after that.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
I've been thinking about a technology. If we can get it working, you're going to be controlling technology through your eyes. It's going to be a form of telekinesis. You know, the idea that you can, without touching an object, be able to move an object, be able to turn on an object and be able to control that technology. And I think that idea, it's like a superhuman power. I'm not really entirely sure yet if we can make this work but we're going to try, and I need your help through this entire process. Are you good with that?
Riley
Yeah.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Yeah?
Riley
Shit, yes.

(LAUGHTER)
Dr Jordan Nguyen
I've got to try and create a technology that will allow Riley to turn on and off things without touching them - a real superpower. The most reliable voluntary movement Riley has are his eyes, so anything I design will depend on that. The part I don't know yet is how do I get Riley's eyes to operate a switch? The part I do know is that the eyes have a very direct connection through the optic nerve to the brain. It's inside your skull. It weighs about a kilo and a half and has the texture of a loaf of tofu, but your brain is a supercomputer, much more powerful than any computer in the world today. Your brain is one vast electrical processor. Electrical signals control your every movement to walk, talk, or even move your eyes. Riley's cerebral palsy means his main reliable control is in the movement of his eyes. So the question is, how do I harness the electrical power of Riley's eyes? I've come to meet someone who's going to show me a technology that could help harvest that electrical power of Riley's eyes - Associate Professor Danny Eckert.
Associate Professor Danny Eckert
Hello, Jordan. Welcome.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Danny.
Associate Professor Danny Eckert
Welcome to the sleep lab.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Oh, thank you.
NARRATION
Danny runs a lab that diagnoses sleep disorders.
Associate Professor Danny Eckert
So I'm going to just scrub a little bit behind your ears here.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Yep.
Associate Professor Danny Eckert
Nice and red, just how we like it.
NARRATION
Danny does this by reading the electrical signals generated inside the heads of his sleeping patients when they move their eyes. It's called electrooculography, or EOG.
Associate Professor Danny Eckert
We use these electrodes.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
(FLINCHES FROM ELECTRODES) Oh! I'm kidding.
Associate Professor Danny Eckert
Brilliant.

(BOTH LAUGH)
Dr Jordan Nguyen
The look on your face then was great.
Associate Professor Danny Eckert
I managed to spread that cream well into your hair after that.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
OK. Good. (LAUGHS)
Associate Professor Danny Eckert
And there's more to come. Right there. We'll use your ear to hang that one on. OK, Jordan, can you hear me OK next door?
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Yeah.
Associate Professor Danny Eckert
Great. Look to the left for me. And look to the right. Left. Right. Left. Right. And you can see this was the left eye movement, this was the right eye movement.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
What my idea is is to take these signals, these styles of signals, look for these patterns when Riley's going to be looking left, looking right. We need to design a system that can pick up these same signals and can recognise when those signals are being made and then use those signals to control technology, to control lights in the home, to control the TV. In which case, we're going to need all of this sort of stuff, all of this equipment and we're going to have to miniaturise it, make it really small and really portable. (LAUGHS) That's kind of the idea that we got going at the moment.
Associate Professor Danny Eckert
What an incredible application - to be able to control devices just moving your eyes.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Mm.
Associate Professor Danny Eckert
(LAUGHS)
NARRATION
Danny confirms that we can detect electrical signals from inside your head when you move your eyes. I've developed similar technology in the past, but this is totally new and creates a whole different set of complex challenges. I'll get my interns to help.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
What we need to do is to pick up on the electrical activity from inside Riley's head when he's moving his eyes in different directions. So we take that signal, we're going to transmit that into this system. This is what we have to make - the portable EOG. This has to pick up on those signals then transmit them to a computer. Now, this computer will then be able to turn on a light, turn on the TV, turn on whatever we want it to, and that's what we want to achieve. If we can build this thing, this portable EOG system, we give Riley his superpower.
Nick
So my part in the process will be developing all the software that we need for the communication. We've got many, many layers involved in the communication process to get the signals from Riley's head...to actually turn on devices in a home setting. So...it's not easy, in any sense. It's gonna be interesting trying to get everything to work.

So, how much motor control does Riley actually have?
Dr Jordan Nguyen
His eyes.
Nick
Right.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
And when he came in for the first time to be tested for one of these different eye-tracking devices, that's when I met him and I asked if he wanted to have a go with virtual reality and this is him using a virtual reality device.
Louise
Are they his gross motor skills? So, no fine motor skills at all? Controllable and reliable?
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Ah, yeah. Yeah, correct.
Louise
My role in the project is to design a lot of the electronics and to get the electronics to work with Nick's software. We are in for a lot of obstacles that could come our way. We are working with a lot of quite small voltages, a lot of components, and they're all very sensitive to power surges.
NARRATION
After about a week's work, we've built something that is kind of like a cross between an EOG machine and a radio transmitter.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
This is the prototype technology the team have made. Time to see if it works. This box simulates the electrical signals from your brain and body. As it happens, I've set it to mimic the electrical signals of a heartbeat. Why? Because I know what the electrical signals of a heartbeat look like. What makes the sound of a heartbeat is actually the heart valves opening and closing, like doors opening and slamming shut. Boom-boom. But what makes those little doors operate are tiny, tiny electrical signals. So if this device works, those little signals will be sent over to that computer.

(HEARTBEAT EFFECT FROM BOX)

(ELECTRICAL ZAPPING, GRAPHIC OF ELECTRICITY CROSSING FROM BOX TO LAPTOP)

(HEARTBEAT EFFECT FROM LAPTOP, ELECTRICAL SIGNALS ON LAPTOP SCREEN)
Dr Jordan Nguyen
And there we have it. A heartbeat. Now, if we can do this with the tiny electrical signals of a heartbeat, we can do it with the tiny electrical signals from Riley's eyes.
Pilot, over aeroplane loudspeaker
Ladies and gentlemen, a very good afternoon. Hope you've made yourselves comfortable.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
So I'm on my way to Riley's and we've just tested this piece of software. This is the portable EOG set-up. This kind gentleman has decided he's going to help us doing the film work for us. What we have here is the electrical activity directly from my eyes going through the electronics and straight to the tablet PC. So you can see, if I make movement, you should be to see some signal changes.

(ELECTRICAL SIGNALS ON LAPTOP SCREEN)
Dr Jordan Nguyen
This is the electrical activity directly from my eyes. So now this all works with me. Let's hope it all works with Riley. Cool, huh?

(CALLS) Hello.

Dr Jordan Nguyen, to Riley

I'm going to put this one onto your temple. This is going to show us the electrical activity that's going on every time you move your eyes. So you've got this sticky stuff, that's going to hold it in place for us. Might be a bit of a weird feeling at first. (LAUGHS) I want you to look at that dot for me and align your head so that you're looking straight into that. 'Cause this is what you're going to use as your centre point. Up, we're going to place there. Yep? Alright, mate, I'm going to need you to practice this. So what we've got is, we've got four different commands. Up. Down. And then let's go to the right, you're just going to look over here. Right. Back. Left. Back. Right. Back. Down. Back. Track my hand. Centre. Up. Centre. See, we can see a change in your eye signals.
NARRATION
Riley needs to practice till his eye movements are distinct and I'll be needing as much data from his eyes as I can get for the next stage of my technology.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
If we're able to work out which signals you're doing each time, we're going to be able to control anything, any type of technology we can think of.
Riley
Oh!
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Alright? So start thinking about the things that you want to control...and start practising. You got it?
Riley
It's great, because Jordan and I are developing this technology project together.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
If you could do anything with this technology that we are going to make, what would you do?
Riley
I want to drive a car.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
You want to drive a car?
Riley
Yeah.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
You're only 13.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Alright, we're done for the day. What I saw in there was a really strong will and determination from Riley and that's going to be really encouraging. That's something that he has to continue all the way through so I need to make sure my technology keeps up with Riley. I don't want to let him down.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
So this is Riley's head and this portable EOG system, which is what we've got set up, and we've got the signal going to the computer, so this is the part that we've already done. Now we want the computer, when it has those signals, to control something like a light bulb or a TV or any sort of appliance. So this is the part where we need to make programs that are going to learn the difference between these signals that's being sent. If you look up and back, it kind of looks like when you were looking to the left. Look down. Yeah. You see, the signals are similar but there is a difference but it's not...it's not super easy to tell.
Nick
So because it's difficult as a human to tell the difference between those signals, we'll have to develop an artificial intelligence that will actually allow us to determine that - determine the difference and pick up those patterns.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Yeah.
NARRATION
What we've got is Riley's eyes and Riley looking in a certain direction and that gives us a stream of EOG data.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
And that's going to go through our artificial intelligence, and this needs to tell us whether he's looking left...whether he's looking right...whether he's looking up, or whether he's looking down. Now, that's the idea. We don't care what the signal is. We want the artificial intelligence to figure out that signal and tell us where he's looking. It's kind of like when you go to the airport and you've got your bags going through the check. You've got a box and you've got a guy just watching all of the bags that are coming through. He's only looking for things like knives and weapons. So this is exactly what this will do. It'll basically put a box around the signal and watches the stream of data and goes, "I don't recognise it, I don't recognise it." And then when it sees the signal that's it's seen before, it goes, "Ah, I recognise it. You're looking left."
Nick
It's very similar to how a human learns something in a classroom. Often it's done through repetition.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Mm.
NARRATION
Nick gets to work on our complex AI program that will analyse the EOG data we've got from Riley. Meanwhile, Maggie has come up with a brilliant design to hold the electrodes to Riley's head - a special headband.
Maggie
We need to make sure they're positioned correctly at the front of his temple and at the back of his ear. What I've come up with is a design that will allow the sensors to fit nicely on the back. This sensor will sit at the front here. Then the cable will snake through and come out the side there.
NARRATION
Maggie's design is programmed into the 3-D printer, where it's going to take all night to print. So I'm off to Riley's house to show him the design of the headband.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
So, here's our current prototype. You've got the two electrodes on those sides. With this, especially this front part, we had it inspired directly from Tron. It was kind of like the light cycles that they ride on, the motorbikes. The wheels look really sort of futuristic and have a blue glow, so, like, every time you send a signal, we're gonna, like, flash lights through. Either backwards or forwards - we're still deciding on that. Yeah?
Riley
Yeah.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Very cool. Give a bit of a feeling of power. Yeah?
Riley
Yeah.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
(LAUGHS)
NARRATION
I'm leaving Riley and his family to get ready.

Riley's father

You've got to eat on the run. 'Cause you're...
NARRATION
Tomorrow, they're all travelling down to Sydney, where Riley gets to test our technology.

Riley, using computerised voice

I think Jordan will make me superhuman, because I have the faith in him.
Maggie
Um...
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Making a lot of funny noises.
Maggie
Why did that happen?
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Uh...
NARRATION
Back at the warehouse, the 3-D printer that's making Riley's headband is giving us problems.
Maggie
(CHUCKLES) I'm about to have a heart attack, 'cause it's not working. It starts off and then...it just (BLEEP) midway through the first layer. I'm really stressed out. I'm really nervous that it's not gonna finish in time and it's not gonna work and...yep.
NARRATION
And Maggie's not the only one getting stressed. Nick and I are having trouble making all of our devices talk to each other.
Nick
So, now we're just gonna add your little sneaky output.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Oh, yeah. We're setting it up so that we can have a control going into...the...headband. OK, so, that's a constant signal, is it?
Nick
No, it should be faster than that.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Oh. Whoops.
NARRATION
We've set the 3-D printer printing overnight, so at least now that's going. Riley arrives in the morning, and if the 3-D printer doesn't work, the headband won't be ready, and our technology still has problems, and Riley's been working really hard and I don't want to disappoint him.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Oh, my God, yes! Yes! Wow. The printer's finally worked. It's beautiful. (LAUGHS)

The cables might...be hindered by...that tooth when they get pulled through.
Maggie
It will sit in there. Take that like that.
NARRATION
Now it's time to get ready for Riley's arrival.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Can I get you to source the carpet? Just gonna come back a bit.
WOMAN
But then it's not centred.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
It wasn't centred in their place.
Maggie
Oh, OK.
NARRATION
We grab all of the appliances Riley's going to operate. There's a TV, a couple of fans, lights and stuff, fairy lights - why not? - and we set it all up to look a bit like Riley's house.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
This is looking nice!
NARRATION
Now it's time to test our set-up.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
We're going to send this a signal, which should transmit it over there, and we should see that fan come on. OK. Let's give it a try.
Nick
We'll try again.Nothing's happening on the board.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
So this should work.

(FAN BLOWS)
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Yes! Ah, we got it! (LAUGHS) We're about to connect this up to a computer, a tablet PC, and the tablet PC should be able to control that, which means that our headband can control the tablet, which can control that - we've made a bridge right between Riley and the headband and the environment. So, very soon, he should be able to control all of this stuff when we bring him in here. Hopefully. How are you doing?
Riley
Yeah.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Feeling good? Excited?
Riley
Yeah.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Ready for the big day?
Riley
Yeah.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
So, this is our warehouse. (LAUGHS) Got this part all laid out kind of like your house. (CHUCKLES)
Riley's mother
(CHUCKLES) Look at it over there, Riley.

(SIMPLISTIC DRAWING OF RILEY'S HEAD ONSCREEN)
Dr Jordan Nguyen
That was my drawing. (LAUGHS)

You're going to be switching on and off these devices. So, those movements that I got you to do, one of those will switch you between all the different devices one at a time. The other one will actually switch that device on. So, if you start with this and you make a right eye movement, this will switch on. If you make it again, it will switch off. Then when you look the other direction, and it will toggle to the next one and the next one. Yeah? Are you keen?
Riley
Yeah!
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Alright, let's go.
Riley's mother
So keen, he's red!
Dr Jordan Nguyen
(LAUGHS)
Riley's mother
Look at his face!
Riley
Yep.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
What we've got is a little present. (LAUGHS) Here are the headbands.
Riley's mother
(LAUGHS)
Dr Jordan Nguyen
This is quite a big design.
NARRATION
But it's soon apparent there's something wrong with our headband. Our design is just a little bit too big and it just gets in the way when Riley's head is looking straight forward.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
The design is fine, but it gives him no directions to move in. We're just gonna get rid of the headband for now, so we're going to get him to try this with just the electrodes placed straight onto his temples.
NARRATION
So, after all the work that went into this headband, we'll have to figure out another way to fix it. But for now...
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Alright. Let's go. Let's do this. Are you ready?
Riley
Yeah.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Good. Alright. You're gonna control all of this stuff here, so I'm gonna sit you right here, where you can see it.
NARRATION
First Riley's going to try turning on the light bulb. Remember, this technology is new. We've never done this before.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
OK. It's alright. Take your time.

(LIGHT SWITCHES ON)
Dr Jordan Nguyen
There we go! (LAUGHS)

(APPLAUSE)

(RILEY SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
Riley's mother
(LAUGHS) "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
Dr Jordan Nguyen
OK. Straight ahead. Relax. And then make your movement.
NARRATION
Next, the corner lamp...

(LAMP SWITCHES ON)
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Nice.
NARRATION
...and the fairy lights...

(FAIRY LIGHTS FLASH)
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Yes! Good.

(APPLAUSE)
Riley's mother
Yeah, come on!
NARRATION
..and then the fan...
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Anytime in between, just stay focused straight ahead.

(FAN BLOWS)
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Nice.

(APPLAUSE)
NARRATION
..and then another one.

(FAN BLOWS)
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Hey!

(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)
NARRATION
And now the one he really, really, really wanted - the TV.

(TELEVISION SWITCHES ON)

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Yeah!
Riley
Yeah!
Riley's mother
(LAUGHS)
Riley
Wow. I've been able to learn about technology thanks to Jordan. I would love to develop technology to help people like myself.
Riley's mother
It was absolutely amazing!
Riley
Wow.
Riley's mother
Dreams come true.
Riley
(MURMURS EXCITEDLY)
Riley's mother
He says, "I've got something to say to you."
Dr Jordan Nguyen
(LAUGHS) What?
Riley's mother
"Thank you."
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Are you alright?
Riley's mother
Yeah.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Yeah?
NARRATION
Today, Riley gave us a glimpse of the future. It's a future where we are able to drive technology, we're able to control technology through the biological signals that we possess. It's a future where the technology is an extension of us, where it augments us.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
If you could do anything with this technology that we're gonna make, what would you do?
Riley
I want to drive a car.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
You want to drive a car?
Riley
Yeah.
NARRATION
Riley's taken our prototype technology and done something he's never done before - controlled his home environment using the power of his eyes.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Now I want to find out how far we can push this technology. I want to find out if it's possible for Riley to drive a car.

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My friend lives way up the coast from Sydney. My friend's name is Riley and he's 13 years old. He's smart, funny and really interested in new technology. I met Riley through my work with making technology for people with disabilities. Riley was born with cerebral palsy.

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Marvel: Blurring the lines between Science and Fiction

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Marvel: Blurring the lines between Science and Fiction

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Marvel: Blurring The Lines Between Science And Fiction

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Super Hero Montage from different movies

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SUPERHEROES by The Script -  A Tribute To Superhero Films

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"With Great Power" - The Epic Superhero Tribute Part III