Tech whizzkid impresses Google with 3D invention
Right: Melvin Zammit’s prototype for a “real” 3D image display.
A young Maltese man chosen by Google over 10,000 other curious minds has returned to Malta loaded with advice from technology moguls and brimming with enthusiasm for innovation.
Last Monday, Melvin Zammit took his revolutionary three-dimensional display to the giant search engine’s offices after his keen interest in electronics won him a ticket to Google headquarters in California.
He was there as one of 15 finalists in the Google Science Fair, an annual global online competition that rewards “curious minds” aged between 13 and 18.
Mr Zammit, 18, represented Malta with an original system made up of multiple transparent images stacked in front of each other displaying a “real” 3D image.
“If an array of LEDs are spun in a circle and switched on and off accordingly, an image would form by illusion. When some of these layers are stacked after each other, you get a 3D display,” is how Mr Zammit explains it.
The set-up makes 3D displays look “real”, especially when compared with today’s 3D imagery built on stereoscopic technology, which tends to feel unnatural.
He says the concept could have “infinite possible applications” in the future, such as in 3D modelling, gaming, 3D telephony, hospitals “and many other applications that require a realistic volumetric display”.
Although on Monday Mr Zammit failed to make it into the top three, he says the experience has opened doors for him. The European organisation for nuclear research, Cern, has expressed interest in his idea.
Among the trip’s highlights were his meetings with Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Vint Cerf, an American computer scientist considered one of the fathers of the internet.
Mr Zammit said he not only made contacts in large companies but with other young researchers. He added that one of the most exciting things was that “the Maltese flag was everywhere”.
Throughout the three-day tour the Google headquarters flew the Maltese flag alongside the US, Canadian, Ukrainian, Spanish, Indian and Swaziland flags.
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Steve Zammit
Aug 1st 2012, 11:55
Prosit Melvin !! keep it up
Desmond Tanti
Jul 31st 2012, 23:36
Way to go buddy!
Well done mate :)
A. MUSCAT.O.B.E.
Jul 31st 2012, 11:18
A.Muscat
The Maltese are so brainy.Good Luck to Mr . Zammit hope you have a wonderfull future.
R Saliba
Jul 31st 2012, 08:38
Well Done!!!! don't ever give up on your dreams as they are the main indgridents to your inventions :)
Mary Pace
Jul 31st 2012, 08:17
These are people who make a name for Malta and make us proud. Well done and you have a great future ahead!
Chris Grillo
Jul 31st 2012, 07:14
Well done mate!!! A BIG well done!
Raphael Dingli
Jul 31st 2012, 05:04
Well done - make sure you register the patent. Although I suspect you have already done this.
Rachel Borg
Jul 31st 2012, 02:22
congrats! very well done
Pule' Carmel
Jul 30th 2012, 23:53
Congratulations Melvin, I hope that you got the LEDs that you required.
Come to think of it, if mechanical positioning systems were faster this could be done with ONE led!!!
Today I was reading about MEM technology and someone made a FLY about half a centimetres across its wings and using MEM technology managed to flap those wings about 2000 flaps per second.
I wonder what the future holds for both high speed electrical and mechanical engineering, which will be supported by people like Melvin. Engineering has a beauty that art will ever contain nor ever appreciate! There is so much in Silence! which Melvin has appreciated at such a young age! Prosit
Elton Cutajar
Jul 30th 2012, 23:20
Well done - you make us proud to be Maltese
elton cutajar - Australia
S.M. Cuschieri
Jul 30th 2012, 22:54
well done young lad!!!!
Mr Alan Zahra
Jul 30th 2012, 22:39
Great job indeed, Melvin.
Was thinking you can experiment with colour (RGB) LEDs controlled with an Arduino board. There are a couple of projects out there which replicate flat images captured from a webcam. Probably you can make it work with your 3D display - webcam captures image, arduino process it to your 3D display. More on arduino here: http://www.arduino.cc/
Wish you well in your future endeavours
J Axiaq
Jul 30th 2012, 22:38
B'nies bhalek id-dinja tkun post hafna ahjar ;) Keep it UP ;)
Alfred Spiteri
Jul 30th 2012, 22:17
Well done Melvin you Made Malta proud keep the good work and my god bless u all the way
Nigel Cauchi
Jul 30th 2012, 21:43
Well done. You make your parents, yourself and your country proud.
stephen mifsud
Jul 30th 2012, 21:43
Fantastic work Melvin u put Malta on the world stage and i kno w u will be a huge success in the near future congratulations .
Mr Alexander Azzopardi
Jul 30th 2012, 21:38
Prosit u nifrahlek ghal pass kbir li ghamilt.
Alfred Grech
Jul 30th 2012, 20:48
Well done Melvin. Wish you tons of success.
D Sandman
Jul 30th 2012, 20:38
Prosit melvin
j brincat
Jul 30th 2012, 19:52
Well done Melvin!
(jb)
Carmel De Gabriele
Jul 30th 2012, 19:41
PROSIT!!!
Vincent Scerri
Jul 30th 2012, 19:36
Xerred gherfek ma hutek zghazagh bhalek. B'hekk il-pajjiz jimxi " quddiem.
Teresa Pace
Jul 30th 2012, 19:29
A very well done to this young man...a genius...a bright future ahead of you :)
Giovanni Rizzo
Jul 30th 2012, 19:20
ALLA JBIERKU DAN IL-GUVNOTT KEMM HU BRAVU.
Joseph Grech Attard
Jul 30th 2012, 18:49
This minute, sovereign "Art Helwa" produces youth that stun the world. God be with you all.
j dough
Jul 30th 2012, 18:26
WELL DONE!!!
Anthony A. Mifsud
Jul 30th 2012, 18:23
Way forward Melvin, you are tomorrow generation
Keep your head up
Congrats
Ninu
Rocco Camilleri
Jul 30th 2012, 18:17
Keep it up Melvin, you have got.a vast opening in this Technological era ahead of you. You must be proud of yourself and of your parents who gave you the time for schooling. Keep your feet to the ground and believe in our 'GOD' the creator who gives us the power of mind, to make us ease our workload. Good Luck for the future and augur you for the future.
Joe Fenech
Jul 30th 2012, 22:31
Technology has been with us since the dawn of Man !
Evarist Saliba
Jul 30th 2012, 17:38
Congratulation!
The Malta of tomorrow needs persons like you, and do not let your talents be restricted by our limited shoreline.
The world is your oyster.
James Attard
Jul 30th 2012, 17:36
Maybe I am missing something or this article missed some details, but this is rather an old invention. I saw it in Prague many years ago, and there was also a Ted conference explaining its use: http://www.ted.com/talks/nick_sears_demos_the_orb.html. I have also seen this showcased numerous times in science/electronic magazines on how to make 3D clocks.
Joe Fenech
Jul 30th 2012, 18:14
James Attard:
This is not an original principal as it is very similar to the technique used in old 3D holograms and that used in the past in cinema to create invisibility. Unfortunately these internet competitions allow the John Bloggs to vote and clearly they don't have a clue (id-demokrazija taz-Zeza ta' Bubaqra!).
But, plough on, Melvin - you're clearly a serious person and I'm sure you'll find your niche in the Science world.
Dr Alex Bugeja
Jul 30th 2012, 22:46
We are no longer in the age of Thomas Edison. It takes teams of scientists with huge budgets in a professional lab to make truly "original inventions" these days. This is just an 18 year old by himself - even if what he accomplished is not really original, he certainly deserves to be praised for his level of achievement.
A. Schembri
Jul 31st 2012, 07:49
@James Attard and Joe Fenech,
Unfortunately you both have missed something. If you followed the previous article of when this young man was short-listed from 10,000 to down to 15. Obviously with people who jump to conclusions no wonder Malta does not have more of achievers like Melvin.
Melvin ignore these 2 people's empty comments and focus on the feedback people who are recognised as the technoclogy driviers have told you. I am sure they are in a better position to know if your prototype is a replica or something oroginal and a breakthrough
K Cassar
Jul 30th 2012, 17:30
Keep it up!! impressive!
Antoine Attard
Jul 30th 2012, 17:16
What a breath of fresh air! This really makes us proud.
m. borg (slm)
Jul 30th 2012, 17:11
........and who said something about cwiec maltin.
Keep it up Melvin may your dreams come true and be an honour to yourself your family and Malta.
S. Azzopardi
Jul 30th 2012, 17:04
Well done Melvin Zammit. It is people like you that make Malta great!!
Mr Joseph Scicluna
Jul 30th 2012, 16:55
Prosit!
A Cardona
Jul 30th 2012, 16:42
Keep it up dude! :)
A bright future ahead..... i wonder what kind of gadgets will be around us within the next few years.
Mr anthony vella
Jul 30th 2012, 16:39
prosit tassew, u awguri ghal futur tieghek
Joseph Busuttil
Jul 30th 2012, 16:36
Well done Melvin. Kirkop is proud of you. Keep it up
Vincent Borg
Jul 30th 2012, 16:36
Melvin
You have a future waiting for you out there,
Go For It Man
You made all of us proud.
Michael Hudson
Jul 30th 2012, 16:36
Congratulations. If you allow me, I advise you to apply for a patent on your invention. Not doing so, I am sure someone else will do it and claim this invention as his. It does happen.
Robert Aloisio
Jul 30th 2012, 16:33
St. Michael School (Sta. Venera) is proud of you.
Mary Borg
Jul 30th 2012, 16:28
Kudos to you, young chap! May you be an inspiration to other youngsters.
Patrick Zahra
Jul 30th 2012, 16:26
Well done, Keep your hungry mind busy !!
Paul Borg
Jul 30th 2012, 16:26
Sign of a great mind !!
Anthony Scicluna
Jul 30th 2012, 16:19
WOW! Well done! Some advice: get yourself a Yale, Stanford or other IVY League scholarship ;-)
IMPRESSIVE
A Cachia
Jul 30th 2012, 16:14
Well done!
nicolette caruana
Jul 30th 2012, 16:05
A big well done .
V. DeBono
Jul 30th 2012, 15:57
Well done, and an honor for all of us.
A Attard
Jul 30th 2012, 14:14
Well done Melvin :). You have made all your classmates very proud my friend :D. Good luck ! :)
A. Zammit
Jul 30th 2012, 14:08
Govt should invest in such exceptional brains.
Michael Camilleri
Jul 30th 2012, 15:04
what, by giving them a stipend for studying at university, for example?
Chris Gatt
Jul 30th 2012, 16:08
@M Camilleri. The stipend is not an incentive when given to everyone. It merely removes money the university can put to be better use in equipment, the buying of books and journals and bringing in strong inspiring lecturers. But of course our politicians will not step up to the mark, and lecturers are happier this way as they have a perfect excuse to allow the status quo.
On the other hand if you remove stipends and introduce scholarships for those who the university would believe would add value to the class, that is a different matter.
Neville Cutajar
Jul 30th 2012, 16:57
@chris gatt
I don't know how old you are. And i don't know if you are a university graduate or not. But what i can tell you is that the stipend did help me and others and probably if we had to pay for our studies it would have been close to impossible for my parents to pay. So lets not be selfish and generalise on hypothesis. I wonder what you would say if when the time comes for you to get a pension the government decides to stop it. There is more money available elsewhere for the government , city gate project maybe and other useless projects like a bridge to nowhere, I am not saying that these projects should not be done but they could have been done in a different time and presently we use the cash to boost our economy and our education.
Good luck to Melvin you are an inspiration to your generation and it is incentives like this which motivate intelligent people to do something. Not taking anything away from Melvin there are others like him and it is these people who need to be brought out in the open and yes Stipend might be one of them, at least it gives them a breather into what lies in higher studies before they leave all studies just to find a job just for the cash.
C Sant
Jul 30th 2012, 18:00
He is just doing that - apart from a completely free University and MCAST, look at the numerous scholarship schemes, MCST and ME research funding and dedicated science industry parks, that when finished should attract foreign research companies - it shall take between 3-7 years for all of these initiatives to start producing the required results but for someone like Melvin, it should be just about the right time (25 years or so).
Melvin - congrats!
C Sant
Jul 30th 2012, 18:04
@ Chris Gatt
It seems that you either do not attend University or MCAST or else attend, but your mind is not there, otherwise you would have seen the 100,000,000 or so that were invested in both institutions to improve the labs as well as the Libraries - today the University has an electronic library of e-journals that compares extremely well with what one finds in the major UK libraries and this is available even from one's home - I know as my children attend University.
ANTHONY PAVIA
Jul 30th 2012, 12:35
Prosit tassew!
Toni Cardona
Jul 30th 2012, 12:32
This has to be done in Maltese as no other language will be adequate.
Nifraħlek Melvin. Nawguralek futur mill-isbaħ u li moħħok u jdejk jagħtu lid-dinja aktar frott.
Saħħa u Sliem
A. Schembri
Jul 30th 2012, 11:32
Hi Melvin
A a colleague of your Dad, I have heard all about your wonderful experience and the opportunities that lay ahead. Keep strong and focused and may the determination drive you forward. You not only made you family proud but all the island.
All the very best and well done!
Anne Farrugia
Jul 30th 2012, 11:23
This is excellent news! Well done Mr Zammit! This is the kind of news people want to hear about & not about drug users, theft etc...this young man deserves every second of fame...whilst the others deserve nothing. This young man is working hard and accomplishing something worthwhile...what are the others doing...NOTHING. Keep up the good work Mr Zamnit & good luck for your future!
Indrì Zammit
Jul 30th 2012, 15:58
I too extend my sincere compliments to this young lad, a true role model for the youngsters to pursue their studies in a critical manner, succeeding in discovering new things. However, "what the others are doing" we really do not know and it is foolish of you to categorically rule out the work of the remaining students. Keep in mind that there are evident feats, publicised in the media and lesser evident accomplishments. Also, one cannot exclude juvenile projects in the pipeline. You cannot simply discard the work of others and arrogantly say, with no foundation at all, that the others are doing nothing. Your assertion reveals one thing: you are nothing more than an armchair critic. Do not generalise and please widen your perspective: attainments can be seen not only in the field of science (despite being a mainstay value in human life) but also in humanities, which ought to be put on the same level. Art, Literature, Philosophy and History etc must be promoted at the same pace. All can contribute to a better life and everyone is capable of working hard and accomplishing something worthwhile.
Franco Farrugia
Jul 30th 2012, 18:07
@ Mr Zammit: Well said. How quick we are, to judge and to compare.
Steve Pace
Jul 30th 2012, 10:48
Well done Mate ! Another Maltese to make us feel proud of who we are !
JC Sullivan
Jul 30th 2012, 09:43
Well done and all the best in the future.
Mrs Louise Calleja
Jul 30th 2012, 09:39
Another Maltese to make us proud of being that. All the best for your future Melvin - it promises to be very bright. God bless you!
Daniel Gordon
Jul 30th 2012, 09:36
Very well done young man. Thats great news.
Albert Vella
Jul 30th 2012, 09:20
WELL DONE FOR YOUR RESEARCH AND WISH YOU ALL THE SUCCESS THAT YOU DESREVE FOR SUCH BRAIN THINKING. YOU MADE US MALTESE PROUD OF YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO SCIENCE. GOOD LUCK
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