A Gadget Special Blue Peter

I love gadgets and technology, so when I found out

I would be doing a gadget special, I looked a little bit like this.

And when you see what's about to hit your TV screens,

you will also look like this.

We've been on a mission to bring you some of the hottest gadgets

the world has to offer.

I've got the inside story on some truly life-changing technology,

and I met some amazing people along the way.

Coming up on today's gadget special -

the bionic suit that's changing people's lives...

I control a CBBC game using a banana and some modelling clay...

and we meet the man who designed some of the most iconic gadgets

of the 21st century.

I really am like the cat that's got the cream today.

And you can tell by looking at my ears.

This is a really cool gadget. It's attached to my forehead here,

cos that's reading my brainwaves via this sensor, and then this bit

that's attached to my ear is reading my pulse.

And so it knows at any time how I'm feeling

and then translates that through the movement of the ears.

So if they're sticking up and moving around,

that means I'm excited and happy,

which I am today, cos there are gadgets here,

but if I feel sad or relaxed, they'll start to droop.

But who could be sad and relaxed in a studio full of gadgets? Not me.

Check this guy out down here. He's called Roomba.

He's basically a robotic vacuum cleaner.

Very simply you press the button in the middle which says "clean"...

and off he goes, going about his business, cleaning your house

while you play with other gadgets.

Maybe a robotic vacuum cleaner doesn't float your boat.

How about these things over here?

You can play with other people with these -

six-legged robots that you control using a remote control.

All the stuff you'd expect - left and right, forwards and backwards.

And the idea, very simply, is to rotate that centre console

so it's aiming towards your opponent. And it fires discs.

You can aim them by going up and down here

with the blue and the yellow buttons,

and when you're ready and you think you're lined up,

press the green button to fire a disc...

Just like that. Oh, that's a bit too high. Let's lower it.

The idea is to knock bits of armour off the legs of your opponent.

If you can do that three times, like this... Oh, that was so close!

-There we go!

-CHEERING

That's what you've got to do. You've got to knock three of those off,

and once you have, you render your opponent useless and you win.

Maybe that's not high-tech enough for you.

Have a look at this thing over here.

It's a vehicle you can control using your phone or your tablet.

But it's no ordinary vehicle that goes forwards and backwards,

left and right, cos in the middle of it is a spy camera.

So place it on the floor -

whoever you want to spy on has to be in sight -

and then you control it going forward and backwards like this.

And then you can actually aim the camera.

Now, the footage from the camera is being fed wirelessly

to my tablet here so I can see exactly what's going on.

So you can spy on your brother or your sister or your film crew,

if you happen to have one of those in your house.

So you can see we've got six-legged robots,

we've got brainwave-reading technology and we've got spy cams.

M.I. High, eat your heart out. But what about the Hollywood stuff?

You know the stuff that you see in movies,

like bionic suits that can make the impossible possible?

Surely that's just a Hollywood myth, right?

Wrong. Watch this.

Hollywood filmmakers are obsessed with predicting new technology

and the Iron Man movies are no exception.

But surely a suit like this is pure science fiction.

Or is it?

No, I'm not in Hollywood, but I am in the United States of America.

I'm in a place called Richmond in California,

where a company have been developing some truly movie-like technology,

and I'm about to demonstrate what you're going to see

using some... non movie-like technology.

Say hello to Rita. She's a rabbit.

And unlike real rabbits, she has an exoskeleton.

That means the skeleton is on the outside of the body.

On the inside is just some soft and floppy string.

So without this external strong layer holding her rigid,

she would simply do this. Sorry, Rita.

But you and I, like other human beings, have a endoskeleton.

That means our skeleton is on the inside of our bodies,

and along with nerves, cartilage and tendons and other clever stuff,

it gives us the internal support we need to do this - stand up and walk.

But for people with spinal injuries or those born with disabilities

that mean they can't simply stand up and walk around,

they often use a wheelchair.

But in the future, things could be very different -

new technology that means they can choose how they get around.

I've come here to Ekso Bionics,

where they have developed something truly amazing -

one of the first human exoskeletons in the world.

I'm here to meet a lady called Tamara.

Eight years ago, she was in a car accident.

When she woke up in hospital,

she was devastated to hear that her boyfriend had died

and that her own spinal cord had been badly damaged.

Doctors told her that she would never walk again.

But then she came here.

-Tamara, hi.

-Hello.

It's actually quite hard to believe what I'm seeing here.

This is the exoskeleton - the bionic suit that you're wearing -

-and it helps you to walk.

-Yes.

-It's incredible.

How does it feel to be able to walk?

To be very, very honest,

I gave up the hope that I would ever walk again.

I didn't think this would happen and I didn't want to get stuck in life.

I wanted to pursue other things and accomplish other dreams,

so I just said, "You know what?

"The easiest thing is going to be to give up on walking,"

and that's kind of what I did.

Obviously you have access to this amazing technology now,

but do you have a moment in your life

when you wish you'd had exo with you?

There's a very particular moment I really wish I'd been able to stand.

When I graduated, I went to collect my degree

and I had a standing ovation.

There was 10,000 people standing.

And I was standing with them in spirit. I really was.

But that's one time I just remember wishing,

"I wish I could stand right now,

"physically and emotionally and mentally with everyone." And...

But here I am now. I'm just looking forward to what's coming next.

Obviously a lot of the time you're a lot lower than you are now

and here you are, a full six foot two, and you're talking to me

eye to eye, which must be just a nice feeling in itself.

When I stood for the first time and I got to hug someone,

and have a conversation, I remembered how amazing it felt.

I kind of had forgotten what it felt like to give someone,

like, a hug, like, chest to chest.

You know, I forgot how good it felt.

It's just the things we take for granted.

Ekso Bionics here in California is not the only firm developing

this kind of technology. Last year,

a lady called Claire Lomas completed the London Marathon

in a suit developed by an Israeli firm

called Argo Medical Technologies.

I'm meeting Russ - he's one of the inventors of this bionic suit

and he's going to explain how it works.

-Russ, hi.

-Hi.

-Great to meet you. Thanks for having us.

Now, it's fair to say that we've seen an exoskeleton in action -

we've seen Tamara walking one, there's one right here.

How does an exoskeleton actually work?

A good way to think of it is we have this exo here

and it has these electric motors that are basically like your muscles

and so they're actually providing the movement at the knees and the hips,

just like you would with your thighs,

and then we actually have the structure of the exoskeleton itself,

which actually acts as the bones.

So that gives it the strength and support

to be able to get Tamara up and help her walk.

So how do you even go about putting this together?

When did exo...? When was it born?

This actually all started as a DARPA -

an advanced research programme - back in 2004.

We were actually making exoskeletons to help the soldiers out -

-to actually give them Iron Man type capabilities.

-Nice.

And along the way we figured out we can actually take this technology

and help people that had spinal cord injuries get up and walk again.

I think there is one question on everyone's lips

and I think that I speak on behalf of our audience as well -

-are you going to make an Iron Man suit and can we have one?

-Not yet.

Unfortunately, unlike the movie, we don't have the arc reactor yet.

-Of course.

-We're still constrained to batteries.

So as soon as we have the arc reactor, we'll start working on it.

Excellent. We'll let you know.

Bionic technology is taking its first steps

and it has a bold, bright future ahead of it.

I love technology. I love what you can do with it.

I love that it can be used to be creative,

or it can be used to create something quite daft.

But I think, most importantly,

technology can be used to change people's lives

and there's no better example of that

than what we've seen here today.

It really is incredible, isn't it?

And we've got a lot to learn from nature's exoskeletons too.

Take a look at this. It's a crab - a perfect example of an exoskeleton.

Or maybe this creature - a scorpion.

They have a hard outer layer that protects the inside.

A bit like this egg. Now, the egg has a shell,

which works a bit like an exoskeleton,

but if you apply too much pressure to it, like this...

it smashes on the floor.

So is there an exoskeleton available that uses technology

that can help to protect our gadgets?

Well, I'm sure you've all seen a phone like this -

friends and family members walking around with a smashed screen.

The obvious thing to do to protect your gadgets

is to put a case on the outside of them.

But what if I was to say to you, you could also cover them in this stuff?

Now, this is actually being used in phone cases today.

I'm not the man to describe this to you, or explain how it works -

-Jason is. Jason, hi, welcome to the show.

-Hi. Thank you very much.

So here we have the orange goo in the tank

and here it is inside one of your cases.

Can you explain what it is and what it does?

Well, we call it Impactology.

And what Impactology is all about is

we take some of the most advanced materials

in the world for impact protection,

such as D3O here, so that it absorbs all of those knocks, drops and bumps

-that happen in everyday life.

-It's quite a strange substance, isn't it?

Because it's almost liquid-like, yet in the cases it's solid.

How does it actually work? Why is it like that?

So, basically, how it works is... You're correct.

It's like a liquid but then, upon impact,

when a force is integrated into the material, it actually goes hard.

The intelligent molecules lock together and then push away

the impact force from the product it's protecting.

-It really is quite intelligent stuff, isn't it?

-That's correct.

It almost knows that an impact is about to happen.

-We've seen what a very weak sort of exoskeleton can do.

-Yeah.

We've seen the eggshell break.

If you were to put this stuff on the outside of an egg,

-would it protect it enough?

-Well, I think so.

I mean, D3O is used in some of the high-grade sports equipment,

helmets, and also in military applications as well.

-Let's give it a go.

-Always up for an experiment. Brilliant.

So this is a real egg going inside this same material.

Let's take an egg and let's wrap it up into the D3O.

And then let's come over here and...

-It has to be completely covered over the top.

-That's right.

-This is quite exciting. I've never seen this done before.

-Here we go.

-Oh! Perfect.

-That was a hard bounce as well, wasn't it?

-Here we go.

-But how is the egg inside?

It's absolutely fine. Look at that. Proof that this stuff really works.

And if you're thinking this might be a stunt egg - watch.

Absolutely brilliant. Jason, thank you so much for coming in.

-Thank you.

-What amazing stuff.

Impact protection is only part of the solution

when it comes to selling these phone cases.

Of course, they have to look good as well, and recently,

when I went to America, I met a guy who knows a thing or two

about good-looking gadgets.

I've come to Cupertino in California, where,

in the early 1800s, local residents made their money

by selling fruit that was grown here. They had plums

and cherries, and right where I'm stood

was an apricot orchard. These days, however,

it's a big city and those apricot orchards have all gone.

There is, however, one very big fruit still here.

Welcome to Apple HQ.

I'm here today to meet a massive Blue Peter fan

who just happens to be a British designer

who designed this, this and this. Thanks.

You may recall I set you a design challenge a while ago

and that was to design a schoolbag, pencil case and lunchbox all in one.

Well, I've picked some of my favourite designs

and I've brought them here because they are about to be seen

by the legend that is Sir Jonathan Ive.

Sir Jonathan was born and grew up in Northeast London.

He went to the same high school as David Beckham.

After studying industrial design at Northumbria University,

he worked for a company that designed tools.

He moved to California when he was 25 years old

to work as a designer for Apple

and is now the senior vice president of industrial design.

His designs have enabled Apple to sell millions of products worldwide.

He also received a knighthood in 2012.

Arise, Sir Jony.

From the East End to the West Coast, from tools to tablets -

the boy done good.

Sir Jonathan Ive, it's so nice to meet you.

-Lovely to meet you, Barney. And it's Jony, please.

-Jony.

Jony, so nice to meet you. Let's start from the very beginning.

As a young boy, you watched Blue Peter

and you saw the shows that were on, obviously, when you were a kid,

and the great thing is, it hasn't really changed over the years.

There's always been things to watch

to give you ideas, to make and design things.

Is there anything that you saw in the show

that stuck in your mind as you got older?

I remember one thing very... really vividly,

which was taking a detergent bottle that had been cut

and then the top turned upside down

and it made this fantastic paintbrush holder

-where you could put water in.

-Yeah.

But if you knocked it over,

because of the way the top had been turned upside down,

it wouldn't spill. I mean, I don't how long ago that was

but I remember that really clearly.

I loved the way there were just products

that you thought were no longer useful, but re-using them.

I thought it was fantastic. I remember ever so clearly.

We set a challenge and the challenge was to design

a lunchbox, a school bag and a pencil case all in one.

So imagine that was your brief.

If you were given that task, how would you have approached it?

If we're thinking of lunchbox,

we'd be really careful about not having the word "box" already,

you know, give you a bunch of ideas that could be quite narrow,

cos you think of a box as being square and like a cube.

And so we're quite careful with the words we use

because those can sort of determine the path that you go down.

Sure. I've got some videos here to show you of the actual design.

If we take a look, these are the designers themselves

telling you about what they've done.

First up is Danya.

I decided to design the new school bag.

It's a handy backpack and a lunchbox and a pencil case

all rolled into one. What I thought was,

I would attach the pencil case with a zip on the bag.

You can zip it off or zip it on.

The next bit is a lunchbox, which is attached here by a zip,

so you can zip it off or keep it on.

It's got cushion on the back so that if it's really heavy

it doesn't hurt your back that much

and the straps you can make longer or shorter.

I mean, one of the things that really struck me

with Danya's design first of all was the drawings.

-I mean, the drawings are really fabulous, aren't they?

-They are.

I love the way the pencil...

-It looks like the pencil case actually rolls out.

-That's clever.

It rolls into a pencil case that you know it as, but when you unzip it,

it rolls out flat like an artist's palette. That's clever.

And I guess it would be pretty comfortable.

You know, there's that padded back just there.

Yeah, really, really, fantastic.

Well, we've got another one here. This is from Dougie.

This is my design.

I did it in the shape of the Blue Peter badge

because I like watching Blue Peter and I knew they would like it.

The pencil case can come on and off.

This is the boat on the badge where you can put your lunchbox in.

And it's got mesh on the bottom to let all the crumbs out.

-Oh, wow.

-It's brilliant, isn't it? There's Dougie's design.

-Yeah.

The amazing thing is how original and new the shape is. I saw the badge...

Actually, it does work really well as a bag, doesn't it?

How could you not love the mesh to let your crumbs out?

-It's really, really lovely.

-OK, third up, this is Sarah.

This is my design. It's called the schooler sack.

I designed the lunchbox with a code so no-one can steal your lunch.

This comes with a wrist navigator where it can tell you exactly

where your bag is and which direction to go to find it.

It also comes with a free water bottle in over ten designs.

-What do you think?

-To include the water bottle with the lunchbox...

It's a great idea. Very safe. The most secure sandwiches in the school.

Quick release for the pencil case with the straps at the top.

-No, it's fantastic, isn't it?

-It really is amazing.

-Wow.

-Yeah, love it.

There's another video our top designers would like you to see.

Hi, Jony, we like your cool designs.

You've inspired us to design things that people use every day.

To say thanks, we want to present you with a gold Blue Peter badge.

And here it is. It gives us great pleasure,

on behalf of everybody that's been involved,

not just our audience or designers

but anybody who has seen what you've done over the years,

you really are an inspiration to everybody

and we would like to award you with our highest accolade -

-a gold Blue Peter badge.

-That's...

That's absolutely incredible. Thank you so much.

-You're very, very welcome.

-I'm very, very grateful. It means an awful lot.

It really does. Wow.

I actually have a surprise for you.

-Let's go this way.

-I like surprises.

Well, I hope the surprise involves this boy's toy,

I love it already. It's amazing, isn't it?

This is a CNC machine that right now is cutting some aluminium.

-Yeah.

-You gave me this incredible gold Blue Peter badge

and we wanted to make something very special for you.

And so we're making a very large Blue Peter badge

-from a solid piece of aluminium.

-Wow, look at that. It's incredible.

It takes about ten hours for it to finish.

But in true Blue Peter fashion, I'm very glad to say...

-here's one we made earlier.

-That is absolutely fantastic. Look at that.

Isn't that the best thing you've ever seen? Thank you so much.

-You're so welcome. So glad you like it.

-It's amazing.

It's a bit big to wear, though.

And here it is. Isn't it absolutely gorgeous?

At the moment, Sir Jonathan and his team are making us

a nice stand so we can display it here in the Blue Peter studio,

so look out for that in the next few weeks.

Now, as this is a gadget special,

I think it's about time we showed you some more gadgets and tech.

So we're going to head back to America to a place called Las Vegas,

where every year they have the biggest gadget fair in the world.

We sent along a guy called Richard Taylor,

who is as big a gadget geek as I am,

to track down some really cool stuff.

I'm Richard Taylor. For the past 13 years,

I've been around the globe covering the world of technology,

and each year, this is a highlight -

CES, the Consumer Electronics Show.

This is where the biggest technology companies

come to showcase their new gadgets.

There are thousands of products in an area as big as 25 football pitches

and I've got an access-all-areas pass.

Check this out. A 750-kilo robotic spider, don't you know?

Now, it's actually an art project by two Canadians,

aimed at inspiring people like you to build the unbuildable.

Screens have dominated the Consumer Electronics Show

for as long as I can remember, and this year is no exception.

There are thousands of them.

Wafer-thin curved screens...

super sharp, ultra high-definition touch screens...

..and entire walls of 3D screens.

Imagine in the future if you all had these in your schools.

Now, what I'm about to do is crazy.

But the technology behind this is even crazier.

It's been coated in a special waterproof layer

1,000 times thinner than a human hair.

MOBILE RINGS

Oh, excuse me, I've got a call coming in.

'Hey, Rich. Are you in the bath?'

These make quite the fashion statement.

Bendable headphones that you can link together

to share the music with your friends.

And after a hard day's gadget hunting,

it's time to unwind, courtesy of a tiny robot tickling my back.

Dear Father Christmas, I would like loads of gadgets... Oh, hi.

It's not too early to write a Christmas list, is it?

Or a birthday list, for that matter. In fact, if you're lucky enough

to get a gadget for Christmas or your birthday,

I bet you just take it for granted

that you take it out the box and then just start playing with it,

which is exactly what I did with this guy. He's called Sphero.

Took him out the box, charged him for a little bit

and then started playing.

But after about an hour or so, he turned things on his head

and asked me how I wanted to play with him. It's brilliant.

You can download different apps for your smartphone or your tablet

and you get different decisions to make. So you can choose the colour,

for example. At the moment, he's blue.

But I want to change him to a red. I can do that.

Or maybe yellow or green. It's entirely up to you

how you customise him before you start playing.

This application uses shapes to control him.

so if I do a circle, for example,

just like that, in the colour of green,

he will then use it as a signal

and he will do the exact shape I've drawn on the screen of my tablet.

It's amazing. Once you've got the hang of this

and you've got him moving all over the floor and in different colours,

you can start to write code,

which means that Sphero will do longer sequences.

You're going to hear the word "code" quite a lot more

because people in the technology world are worried

that people like you aren't learning to code,

and that's exactly what makes our gadgets work.

So the theory is, no more coders, no more gadgets,

and that simply can't happen.

So recently when I went to America,

I met two guys called Jay and Eric who have designed a brand-new gadget

that uses code to do some pretty magical stuff.

I've come to San Francisco to meet two guys called Jay and Eric,

who together have invented something called the Makey Makey.

It's really cool. And this is it.

It's no bigger than a credit card, really,

and it doesn't look like much, but it is a wicked gadget.

They've coded it so it can be connected to absolutely anything.

Whatever it's connected to

can then be turned into a controller for a computer.

When I said to them I was on my way, they said,

"We need you to bring two things with you -

"some bananas and some modelling clay."

So, without further ado, let's Makey Makey.

Jay and Eric have been learning about computing and coding

for most of their lives.

The gadget they've created allows you to use everyday objects

in loads of different ways, some of which will really surprise you.

I've arranged to meet up with them to find out exactly how it works.

-Jay, Eric, nice to meet you.

-Hey, how's it going?

Very good, thank you. Thanks for seeing us.

It's the first time I've ever arrived at an interview

with bananas and some modelling clay.

Can you tell us how Makey Makey actually works?

Well, let me draw you a picture.

You need a person...

you need some stuff, like a banana...

and you need the Makey Makey and a computer.

Beautiful laptop. So once you've got all four objects together,

how do you make them work?

When you turn the lights on in your house, you flip the switch

and it makes two pieces of metal touch each other.

With Makey Makey, you can use anything.

So here we've got you touching the banana to make a switch.

So could we control a computer game using a banana?

-I think you're onto something.

-I have an idea. Follow me.

Now, if you go to the CBBC website,

you'll find a game on it Capture The Crown,

which I've loaded up here on the big TV screen.

Normally, you'd use the space bar and the cursors

but we're going to use fruit and modelling clay to control it

using the Makey Makey, yes?

-Sounds good.

-Right, let's get it rigged up, then. How do we do it?

Hook yourself to the black wire

and then hook up the banana to the white wire

and it's hooked to the space bar of the Makey Makey.

Oh, it's labelled on the actual thing

so you can see what you're doing. So the banana is now the space bar.

Blue and yellow can control left and right.

-Shall we see if it works? Yeah?

-Let's see if it works.

Let's have a go.

I am genuinely controlling this game using the banana as the space bar

and the modelling clay as left and right.

It's hard to understand how it's working.

Can you explain that, Jay?

Well, there's water in the bananas and there's water in the dough

and anything with water conducts electricity.

So we can control a game using some fruit and some modelling clay.

-What else can you do?

-Well, do you play any instruments?

-I play piano.

OK, so why don't we pull up an internet piano

and then put a twist on it with the Makey Makey?

I love this guy.

Thank you.

'And here is the twist.

'We're inventing a magical piano

'by hanging a collection of objects from some rope.

'The objects will then be wired up to Jay and Eric's gadget

'and hopefully we'll be able to play a tune.'

By the way, this isn't for the experiment,

just Eric was doing his washing.

It's quite a strange collection of objects

but effectively we have just built a piano.

So let's start playing some music.

OK, hang on a second, though, there's only six notes

-and the tune we want to play needs seven notes.

-OK.

Where are we going to get our seventh note from?

Well, you know, I'm quite musical myself.

-And, actually, I think he'd be conductive.

-Eric, we're using you.

Perfect. Right, let's play this tune.

We have got a baseball bat, some aloe vera -

the kind of stuff you would find in after-sun lotion on holiday -

this is The Rock, a prison here in San Francisco, an NFL football,

Eric, some Y-fronts with the American flag on them, and my hat.

Now, these are all attached to the Makey Makey

and the Makey Makey is attached the laptop,

which is running some free piano software.

So the Makey Makey is telling the laptop that all of these objects

are notes on a piano.

So if I make the last connection, which is me and press Eric's nose...

NOTE SOUNDS

The laptop thinks it's a note in a tune. So, theoretically,

I should be able to play all these objects like a piano.

-Are you ready for this?

-Oh, yeah.

-Here goes.

See if you recognise the tune.

HE PLAYS: "Hedwig's Theme" by John Williams

Absolutely brilliant. Jay, you've got to come... High-five. Musical.

Right, if you hold my hand, you've got a connection as well.

Try playing. See, how perfect is that?

VARIOUS NOTES SOUND

This is so much more than just playing your hat

or your underpants as a musical instrument.

Don't forget Jay and Eric's motto,

and that is that the world is your construction kit.

So get out there and enjoy yourself. Genius.

How amazing was that? My kind of gadget.

And if you're wondering what the tune was,

that was the Hedwig Theme from the Harry Potter films.

Now, if you think about the washing line you just saw

with all those objects hanging from it that I played like a piano,

you may think they were there randomly.

But, actually, they weren't. There's a hidden message were you to find.

So head to... Watch the film again and see if you can crack the code.

That's it for the gadget special. I hope you've enjoyed yourselves

as much as I've enjoyed making the show,

and I'll see you next time. Bye.