Episode 1 Technobytes

Hello!

This is Technobyte! Your snackable, nutritionally balanced,

perfectly presented - if I do say so myself - taste of techno-babble.

Let's see who's made it onto our randomly-named messaging app!

In the future, will robots take our jobs?

Now, there's a question, Lucy.

And something of a coincidence, because I'm going to need

a bit of help with this one. Time to bring in the big guns.

The big new guns. The big new LUCY guns!

Looking good, Luce!

It's Lucy, actually. But thanks, Vlogster!

How can I help?

Do you fancy some lunch? There's a chippy around the corner.

-Yeah, why not?

-Really? I thought you'd say no!

Oh, I'll need to wash and find something to wear.

-But first, I need your help.

-Go on, I'm listening.

I need you to find out some information for one of our

delightful babblers.

Great, well I'll just get myself out of my kit and I'll head off.

Good-oh. You'll get a real "kick" out of this one.

SHE LAUGHS

Kick. As in kick a ball.

We're doing something football related, right?

Oh, you got it. I thought I was being mysterious.

I'm sending Lucy to a university to

check out their football team of robots.

She's going to meet up with Dr Daniel Polani, the team's

founder, to discover more about this interesting take on the sport.

So why robot football?

Robot football looks fun but it's incredibly difficult to do

when you actually have to explain to a robot how to do it.

So, how DO you get a robot to play football?

Well, that is a lot of work.

I mean, this team, for example,

contains work of three years of coding,

of writing software,

of a team of around four people

who basically write the software

to make these robots do what they do.

Because the first thing you have to do is recognise - what's a ball?

So you see, that is a blob. In our case,

the ball is still red. So if you have a red shirt and if you have,

for example, a kid sitting outside of the field with

a red shirt you have to understand this kid is not the ball.

It would chase the kid!

Exactly. And it has happened.

So what happens during a live match?

You know, are programmers inputting data in real time during

-the match or is it all pre-programmed?

-Very good question.

Because you are not allowed to do

anything to the robots while they are in the game.

So basically you can take a time-out for the robots when

you can fix stuff but when they're on the field the only person

that can give a command to the robot

is the referee saying start, stop, whatever.

Do you think this is the future of sport?

Well, depends on the audiences. Some audiences will

be interested in doing sports themselves and watching

humans do it, of course.

Other audiences will be interested in the technological aspect.

So where do you see the future of robots and football?

Well, the grand vision of course, is in 2050 to have

a robot footballer team play against a world champion and win.

But of course the goal is to improve artificial intelligence,

-to improve robotics.

-Now, can I be a little bit cheeky?

I fancy myself as a bit of a Beckham. Please can I have a go?

Well, go ahead. Boot it like Beckham.

Oh, he's fast, this one.

He just knocked me on the floor. This way, this way.

That is so cool, the way he dribbles.

I'm setting you up for a goal here.

GOAL!

SHE LAUGHS

What do you think, Vlogster? Fancy a kickabout?

You may not have noticed, Lucy, but I don't have any legs. So, no.

But, it does look like robots could soon replace humans in all

kinds of jobs. First, meet Robear, a Japanese nursing care robot.

Robear is designed to lift patients out of bed and into

a wheelchair with extending legs to stop from toppling over.

This bear-bot can also support people who need help to stand up.

He's a gentle giant. What's next?

Is time to take out the trash.

A European team of Techsperts

has developed robots to help with household chores.

Controlled using a tablet,

the domestic robot, apartment robot and outdoor robot work

together to complete jobs around the home, like putting the rubbish out.

Go on, amaze me.

Japanese shoppers of the future might get to meet Aiko Chihira.

Dressed in a kimono, smiling, and helping with directions,

she's getting a tryout in a Tokyo department store,

but Aiko isn't your usual assistant.

She's a humanoid robot who uses 43 motors to move and

interact, just like a real person.

I wonder if she could help me make some shopping decisions.

She probably could, Lucy.

But you'd have to fly to Japan to find out.

Oh, here's another message and another question that is

burning a hole in someone's tech pocket.

Ouch.

-Will we always use money in the future?

-KERCHING!

Right on the money there, Benji.

Money has been changing hands for thousands of years, but it hasn't

always been coins and notes like today.

Lots of things from sea snail shells to chocolate have been

used to pay for stuff.

Most current banknotes are made out of cotton paper but the

Bank Of England has announced it will soon replace ours with

a plastic polymer version, starting with the five pound note.

That'll definitely make it harder to blow my nose.

HE SNEEZES

The plastic notes are longer lasting,

harder to forge, and won't fall

apart if you accidentally put them through the washing machine.

Across the UK, there is £57 billion of printed money in wallets,

cash machines and under mattresses.

But people are starting to use other ways to pay each other

without the need for cash at all.

Sweden is likely to be the first

cash free country in the world by 2030.

And Denmark is letting shops decide

if they take cash or not from next year.

Most new debit and credit cards now have

Near Field Communication technology.

That's Contactless to you and me.

So you can pay for things without

even having to remember your pin number.

Smartphones are using smart tech too, adding extra security by

using biometrics - like fingerprint recognition that identifies

you from someone else.

Or facial scanning for online shopping, where you confirm

a payment on your phone just by blinking at the screen.

And then there's virtual money, cryptocurrencies like bitcoins

and dogecoins which have never physically existed at all.

They're a digital currency that people can trade person to person.

And using phones or computers, people can also pay for things

with these digital coins across the world

as some shops are now starting to accept them.

Exciting stuff, but now, as is often the case in life,

one thing starting means another thing finishing so that's all

we've got time for. See you next time for more techie treats!

Bye!