A young man’s keen interest in electronics has won him a ticket to the Google headquarters in California, which next month welcomes 15 science competition finalists.
Chosen from a pool of about 10,000 “curious minds from the four corners of the globe”, Melvin Zammit, 18, will be taking a revolutionary idea of three-dimensional display to the most popular internet search engine’s offices.
The Google Science Fair is an online competition on the lookout for curious people aged between 13 and 18.
Acknowledging not all geniuses are A-grade students, Google encouraged young people with just “an idea” to enrol in its competition.
Mr Zammit, from Kirkop, took up the offer and on July 23 will be representing Malta with an original 3D system made up of multiple transparent images stacked in front of each other displaying ‘real’ 3D imagery. He said: “It all started when I was studying chemistry and I came across salt crystallisation.
“That’s when I realised a 3D image could be composed out of layers, just like in a crystal lattice.
“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.”
This revolutionary idea makes 3D displays look ‘real’, especially when compared with today’s 3D imagery built on stereoscopic technology, which most often feels unnatural.
Mr Zammit’s 3D displays produce images similar to holograms in sci-fi films. The young man’s journey to Google’s headquarters started in 2010 when he first took part in the NSTF contest for young scientists in Malta and later in the European contest for young scientists in Helsinki, Finland.
There he was awarded a special research prize and secured hisparticipation as a finalist in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
Intel ISEF is the world’s largest pre-college science fair, bringing together more than 1,600 young pioneers from more than 65 countries to showcase cutting-edge science.
The 3D display project accompanied Mr Zammit at all three science fairs. The product could be developed into a number of applications including air traffic control, films, games, terrain analysis, telephony and CT scans.
Mr Zammit has already developed three working prototypes of different shapes and also an action game. He started experimenting with circuits from a very young age.
“I’m sure the ironmonger in our neighbourhood knows me as the boy who buys five bulbs every week,” Mr Zammit, who will “definitely” continue studying programming and engineering, chuckled.
His project can be seen on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNWlJ-Xz_3g.