Megabits


Megabits

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Where would any of us be without a computer?

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From playing games, to developing medicine,

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to watching movies, or exploring Mars,

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computing's influence is continually breaking new ground.

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It may interest you to know

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that computers have also been ever present

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in our parents' and even our grandparents' lives.

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And it wasn't the Americans or the Japanese that first built them,

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it was a British Post Office engineer called Tommy Flowers,

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way back in 1943.

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Now, I bet you didn't think it would look like

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it had been knocked up in a back garden shed,

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but you should always respect your elders,

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and Colossus is as old and as big as they come.

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Colossus was one of the first computers, yes.

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And we can talk about it in academic or engineering terms.

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But it was probably the most significant computer

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because it had a worldwide impact.

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It shortened the war, together with other activities at Bletchley Park,

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by at least two years.

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It saved hundreds of thousands of, not only Allied lives,

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but German lives too.

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So, in terms of the impact of a computer,

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this machine is certainly at the very, very top.

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Colossus was built to solve a colossal problem.

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In World War II, that problem was the Nazis.

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Hitler had overrun Europe and was communicating to his generals

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using highly encrypted messages.

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What we desperately needed to do was find out what he was saying.

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You have to imagine a situation in the middle of a world war,

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where you can hear your enemies sending critical messages,

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but packaged in a cipher.

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A cipher is a mathematical process, or a logical process,

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that is used to disguise the characters in your message.

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A bit like a padlock.

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You can lock it up, and unlock it at the other end,

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and the message is sent securely.

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Even though all this was taking place over 60 years ago,

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a lot of information is still exchanged in the same way now.

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We live in an age of the transfer of data.

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We buy things online.

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We use mobile phones.

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Data is being moved at all sorts of times.

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Every time it's moved, it has to be moved securely.

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So, today, we use ciphers to package our data

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and to give it to somebody else securely.

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And, I'm afraid, there are always people trying to break those ciphers.

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So, the people who were able to break the German codes

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were essentially 1940s-style hackers?

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We could call the codebreakers one of the early hackers, yes.

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Their job was to take apart somebody else's cipher,

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and look inside, and gain an insight

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to the information that they were transferring.

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Unbelievably, at one stage,

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all this was being done without the aid of a computer.

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An incredible achievement, but also incredibly slow.

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To spend weeks cracking a code with pen and paper

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might mean you knew what your enemies were up to.

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But by the time you found out

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they'd already have carried out their plans.

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However, by programming Colossus to do this task in hours,

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the Allies managed to stay one step ahead of the game.

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What they got so right about Colossus

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was keeping their eye on the problem that they had to solve.

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It's a key skill that anybody who has to program a computer today

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still has to have.

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And, by telling a computer to process a complex task,

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we can increase the speed and accuracy a problem can be solved in.

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So, even today,

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we have to think about what the computer's being used for.

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Do you need speed? Do you need accuracy? Do you need reliability?

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Those factors all come together, to make the perfect machine.

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Colossus needed all those things to efficiently break the Nazi codes,

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and the people who built it, programmed it and used it,

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would have been acutely aware of its precise purpose and abilities.

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If we look at Colossus, we can see the data flow.

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We can hear the mechanism.

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We can understand, perhaps, using all our senses,

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what this machine is doing.

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But we have to remember that, as clever as they are,

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they only reflect what we tell them to do.

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We need someone who has an insight into solving the problem.

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We need someone who can express that as a series of instructions.

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And, ultimately, get the machine to reflect us as human beings.

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And the programmers who can rise to this sort of challenge

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in today's day and age

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will be able to embrace infinite computing possibilities,

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compared to the pioneers who built and first used Colossus.

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The principle of the computer is actually flexibility,

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and being general purpose.

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Colossus isn't general purpose.

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And maybe what we're doing is moving now to a world where

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computers can be turned to do lots of different things,

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simply by changing the instructions, the program, inside them.

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That's what makes them unique in the world of machines.

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And, with this kind of potential at our fingertips,

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it's perhaps not so surprising just how many jobs

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we're now programming computers to do on our behalf.

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However, before we can really start to get to grips

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with the amazing capabilities of these machines,

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we first need to understand the machinery that we are working with.

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Computers are not the most animate machines.

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Looking at them, you'd barely believe their hardware was capable

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of such wondrously diverse and clever tasks.

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Their interiors, this hardware, is as unknown quantity to us

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as, say, the inside of a car.

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We rarely delve inside, but, delve inside, we must.

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So let's lift the bonnet of your average games console,

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to give us a sneak peek

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at how this internal architecture works so hard in our favour.

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The UK has the largest videogame industry in Europe.

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Zoe Mode, based in Brighton,

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specialise in leading dance titles, like Zumba.

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And they are the first to admit the important role

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that hardware plays in their day-to-day work.

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The hardware we're making the game for

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defines what the game can be,

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not just in terms of the way it looks,

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but also in terms of the way that you interact with the games.

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All computational devices, from a laptop to a smartphone,

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essentially rely on the following key hardware components to work:

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So, if we are starting with a game, it has to be uploaded first,

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and for us to do that, we need to utilise the memory.

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On all computational devices, memory falls into two distinct areas.

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ROM, or read-only memory, is permanently stored memory.

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It's like a bookshelf with instructions that's always there.

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When you turn on your console,

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it's this internally stored ROM that helps start up the machine.

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But it's also ROM you insert in order to play the game.

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And this data is transferred from your DVD-ROM, into your RAM.

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Things are stored in RAM,

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in order to make it quicker for the CPU to take those things out.

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So, for games consoles,

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random access memory's job is to temporarily store programs and data

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that the console uses to let you play the game.

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In all computational devices,

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random access memory is described as "volatile".

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If you were in the middle of playing, and there was a power cut,

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you'd have to start all over again.

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Basically, the more memory you have, the better looking the game is,

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the more sounds there are going to be,

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the more inputs it can understand.

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It's an important part of the computer's architecture.

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And, with our game loaded up and ready to go,

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we'll need to give it some instructions, or "input".

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Inputs relay operating instructions back into the computer,

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where they can be processed.

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They can be numerous things.

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A mouse, a keyboard, joysticks, joypads, touchscreens,

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button presses on a teller machine.

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Even your own voice.

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With regards to this game,

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the input is actually a sensor

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which combines a web camera and an infrared camera,

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which can do lots of clever things, like pick out human beings.

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Your body is the input.

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Then it makes a skeleton of that and tracks your movement,

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which is a lot of information.

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So, the CPU for this console needs to be very powerful

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to deal with all that information,

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to make gameplay interesting and fun.

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The CPU, or central processing unit,

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could be described as the brains of the operation.

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It's the device within all computers that takes the input information,

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decides what's gone on,

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and processes a command using the memory,

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to give you that all-important feedback.

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You can only do one thing at a time.

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It fetches an instruction,

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it will execute that instruction,

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and then it will move onto the next instruction and do that over again.

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So, the faster your CPU,

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the more instructions you can do within a period of time.

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# Right hand in the air, left hand in the air... #

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And the more instructions your CPU processes, for this game at least,

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the more reactive and immersive your game experience will be.

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Predominantly with Zumba, the output device that we are using is the TV.

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The TV provides the visuals,

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it provides feedback to you to let you know how you're doing.

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It also provides the music for you to dance along to.

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So the output device is really key

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for your understanding of what's going on,

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and your interaction with the game.

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Output devices are perhaps the ones we notice the most.

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They project the results of the computer processing to the user.

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They can be speakers for sound output,

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a monitor for visuals,

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or, less important for a dancing game, a printer.

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We're seeing technology developed now

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where output is displayed on glasses,

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or even displayed on contact lenses, so you can put things in your eyes

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and see things in front

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And that's a really exciting thing for games in the future.

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The capabilities of digital electronic devices

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are constantly increasing over time.

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Massive increases in processing speed and memory capacity

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now represent incredible potential in all areas of computing.

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It's very important for us

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to understand the capabilities of the machines,

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of the console that the game is going to be played on,

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because we wanted to know where our limits were,

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but also how far we could push things.

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But also, we need to know how the player's going to interact.

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That's a really important thing, because that's where the game is,

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that's where the fun is, the player experience is all about fun.

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And that is driven by the hardware,

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and the limitations of the hardware decides on what we can do

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to entertain the player.

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With the global games industry expected to keep on growing,

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it's not hard to understand

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just how important it is for the next generation of games designers

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to appreciate how these incredible machines work.

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Three stars?!

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It's not just the games industry that's manipulating

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the ever-increasing power of computers in our favour.

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They are playing an ingenious role in space exploration too.

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Mars, the final frontier.

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Well, certainly our nearest frontier,

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and even then we're talking of, at best,

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35 million miles away of nearest frontier.

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That said, it's still the best and most likely place

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we'll be living on after Earth.

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And huge efforts have, and are, being made

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to land robots there to research that very possibility.

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But, with no maps to work off,

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and GPS a technology that's only available back on planet Earth,

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it's proving very hard to tell these robots where they should be going.

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It's a problem that's been engaging space engineers for many years.

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Currently, NASA has at least two rovers on Mars.

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But the real problem that those have is

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that they don't think for themselves.

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All the thinking is done by the scientists on Earth.

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And it takes a very long time to send a command,

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and then get a response back.

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Opportunity has only gone 21 miles in eight years.

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And Spirit has only gone five miles in eight years.

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To travel around on Mars just is a very, very slow, painstaking process.

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Meanwhile, back on Earth, at this lab just outside Oxford,

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the UK is pioneering the idea that, one day,

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robot explorers on Mars will be able to navigate themselves.

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It's a natural progress of robotics and artificial intelligence.

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Nowadays, we have better sensors, faster computers.

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We have all the experience previous programmers have done.

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We have all the experience from previous NASA missions.

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I think we just needed all this background knowledge

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and the availability of new cutting-edge hardware,

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to be able to accomplish this.

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Having this prior knowledge of where their robot was travelling to

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has given programmers a valuable head start

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in being able to design and execute a program that works.

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The rover needs to find its way around, using local reference points.

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And it does this, typically,

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from looking at local features which are fairly close to it.

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So, looking for rocks that can be recognised,

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it goes from one rock to another, as it travels around.

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Every time we encounter an obstacle,

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or some zone which we haven't seen before,

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which the computer is uncertain about,

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it has to make a decision based on all the input it gets.

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So it applies logic to the inputs,

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and converts them into the appropriate outputs.

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And the appropriate "if then, or else" logic commands

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that a navigation system might execute, would simply be,

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"stop, reverse, go right, go left, or continue forwards."

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Depending, obviously, on what it finds in front of it.

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By using a camera,

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the machine is able to assess the hazards in front of it.

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Choose a route around it,

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and then get to where it knows it's got to go to,

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just by using that simple information.

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Its tasks are all logical task.

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And, although this basic decision-making rings true,

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new state-of-the-art visual sensors

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are feeding back incredible detail to the computer.

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Programmers need to be able to apply logic to all of this information.

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I think the hardest part of this project

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is just the huge number of inputs you get from a real environment.

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Computer programs are really good at making logical decisions

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when the number of inputs is limited.

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But, when you're dealing with the real world,

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you can encounter so many different obstacles,

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you just never know what will be next.

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So it's vitally important that the team of scientists here

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work out programs that can deal with all that Mars might throw at them.

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It's absolutely crucial the programming is right for this mission

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because there's no chance of repairing it.

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So if we allow the machine to make all the decisions on its own,

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which is what we are trying to do,

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then all those decisions have to be right

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because, if it makes the wrong decision,

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then it could be catastrophic, and we could lose the rover.

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And, with NASA's latest Mars rover

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planning to touch down in August 2012,

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costing a staggering 2 billion,

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it's not something you want to get wrong.

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This is a massive leap forward, compared to previous technology.

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This would enable Mars rovers to go much further,

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and get to targets which are in parts of Mars

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where landing would be impossible.

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And, although navigating around Mars is, without doubt,

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the prime objective, the team designing this navigation system

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are more than aware of potential applications back here on Earth.

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This work has never been done by anybody looking for

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sufficient brains in a machine, that it can travel itself

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for six kilometres without any intervention from the ground.

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The technology which we are developing here can be

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directly used on Earth,

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in places, for example, where GPS is not available.

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Computing devices all operate

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entirely on instructions prepared by someone who has done the thinking,

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and reduced the problem to a point

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where logical decisions can deliver the correct answer.

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How you can use this programming know-how

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depends on what problem you want to solve.

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The link between computing and robotics

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is one many would expect to encounter.

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However, computers increasingly play a vital role

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in our very own health and well-being.

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In recent years, biologists have made

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a massive scientific breakthrough in discovering, for the first time,

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how to sequence species' entire genetic code.

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We can see DNA, you can see it by eye.

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You can't decode it, you can't understand what it's saying.

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It's only by sequencing that DNA, you can decode it,

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you can understand the messages, the sequences,

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the genes that are encoded by that DNA.

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What sequencing a species' entire DNA into a genome means

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is that scientists are effectively now capable

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of examining the building blocks of life.

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Sequencing gives you a glimpse,

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it's actually a very privileged view

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of the instruction manual for an organism.

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To give you some idea of the challenge computer programmers face,

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a single genome can be composed of over three billion base pairs of data.

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In computing terms,

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that would equate to over four gigabytes of storage space.

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Or, if you were to read it out loud,

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it would take you over nine years of continuous reading.

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Using the current sequencing technologies,

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we generated, in six months,

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more data than we produced in the previous 10 years.

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This tells you the pace, the development of both sequencing,

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and it also gives you an idea of how computing has had to keep up

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with that pace of sequencing.

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But to explore all the possibilities that reading this data gives them,

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scientists have needed to be able to compare thousands and thousands

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of separate individual codes.

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That's so much data, it's making my head hurt just thinking about it!

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Both the processing power,

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and the memory for storing all the data we are generating,

0:19:210:19:24

is absolutely huge.

0:19:240:19:26

And, without that,

0:19:260:19:27

we wouldn't even be able to entertain many of the projects

0:19:270:19:31

that we are now initiating.

0:19:310:19:33

We wouldn't even be to start those projects.

0:19:330:19:35

So, whilst it's biologists

0:19:350:19:37

who initially have been able to create the data,

0:19:370:19:40

it's people with the knowledge and understanding

0:19:400:19:43

of how to manipulate some serious computer hardware

0:19:430:19:45

that has allowed them to analyse it efficiently, and effectively.

0:19:450:19:51

Here, you are looking at over 16 petabytes of storage.

0:19:520:19:56

That's 16 million gigabytes.

0:19:560:19:59

Or the equivalent of 250,000 top-of-range iPads.

0:19:590:20:04

Or, if you like, over a million of your average smartphones.

0:20:040:20:08

Through programming rigorous data architecture within these systems,

0:20:110:20:15

computer technicians are able to store data, move data,

0:20:150:20:20

test data, analyse and display data,

0:20:200:20:22

in ever more ingenious ways.

0:20:220:20:25

Effectively handing biologists specialist computing tools

0:20:250:20:28

to extract maximum value from this most precious resource.

0:20:280:20:33

(COMPUTERISED VOICE): Now, some impressive genetic detective work

0:20:340:20:37

has analysed the most recent seven cholera pandemics,

0:20:370:20:40

and traced all of them back to the same source.

0:20:400:20:44

We looked into cholera,

0:20:440:20:46

because we wanted to understand where it originated from.

0:20:460:20:50

It is important to know the source population for cholera because,

0:20:500:20:53

once you know the source, you have the possibility

0:20:530:20:55

of controlling and preventing its spread from that source.

0:20:550:20:59

Even bacteria like cholera have DNA that is traceable

0:20:590:21:03

from one generation to the next.

0:21:030:21:05

In being able to compare cholera bacteria from all over the world,

0:21:050:21:08

Nick had valuable insight in tracing where it was originating from.

0:21:080:21:13

Easier than it sounds.

0:21:130:21:17

Just the sequence of one genome is five million base pairs for cholera.

0:21:170:21:20

Within those five million base pairs of DNA sequence,

0:21:200:21:24

we're looking, maybe even for just one base pair change

0:21:240:21:27

between two different bacteria.

0:21:270:21:29

When you have 100, 150 genomes,

0:21:290:21:32

it becomes an unimaginable amount of sequence data.

0:21:320:21:36

It's quite literally like looking for a needle in a haystack.

0:21:360:21:39

But, because of programmers' clever manipulation of these immense datasets,

0:21:390:21:43

it's been possible to find that needle.

0:21:430:21:47

By looking at huge amounts of sequence data,

0:21:470:21:49

we could understand how they related to each other.

0:21:490:21:52

And, by understanding, just like a family tree,

0:21:520:21:55

understanding how they relate to each other,

0:21:550:21:58

we can actually find out where they were originating from.

0:21:580:22:01

And, whilst cholera and other diseases

0:22:010:22:03

are not going to vanish off the face of the earth overnight,

0:22:030:22:06

computing has allowed us to plan ways of starting to make it happen.

0:22:060:22:11

Computing is effectively central to everything we do,

0:22:110:22:14

when you are trying to answer large questions relating to human health,

0:22:140:22:18

rely on large computing facilities and processing power.

0:22:180:22:23

And, with the kind of technologies that biologists will use

0:22:230:22:27

likely to improve over time,

0:22:270:22:29

the opportunities available for the next generation of computer scientists are enormous.

0:22:290:22:34

In biological research,

0:22:340:22:36

I think, mostly, computers are taken from granted.

0:22:360:22:39

We assume there will be processing power,

0:22:390:22:42

we assume there will be memory.

0:22:420:22:44

We assume there will be good people

0:22:440:22:45

that can actually write programs to analyse the data.

0:22:450:22:49

But that's an unsafe assumption.

0:22:490:22:51

From a biological point of view, you need those people.

0:22:510:22:54

Because, as I say, you are asking really key questions

0:22:540:22:58

that have fundamental importance to human health.

0:22:580:23:00

So, programming a computer could allow you to play a role

0:23:000:23:04

in fighting killer diseases as diverse as cystic fibrosis, cancer,

0:23:040:23:08

and even alcoholism.

0:23:080:23:11

Computers, without doubt, have a huge impact on the real world.

0:23:110:23:15

But they are proving just as key

0:23:150:23:17

in merging the worlds of reality and make-believe.

0:23:170:23:20

Once you understand the fundamentals of how a computer works,

0:23:230:23:26

and the language that it speaks,

0:23:260:23:28

then you can challenge it to do a wider range of tasks.

0:23:280:23:32

However, programming a computer to carry out what you want it to do

0:23:320:23:34

is as much about being able to make sense of the world around us,

0:23:340:23:38

as it is about understanding the computers themselves.

0:23:380:23:41

To be able to impress a world-class director is an a difficult thing.

0:23:410:23:44

And that's what we have to do on a regular basis.

0:23:440:23:47

We are there, from the word go, during film production,

0:23:470:23:51

and all through post-production, throughout the edit.

0:23:510:23:54

Visual effects is entirely integrated into film production now.

0:23:540:23:58

Visual effects is a really central part of the film-making process now.

0:23:580:24:03

Every artist will be designing something,

0:24:030:24:05

or deciding how a shot is composed, how it breaks down.

0:24:050:24:10

Those decisions make it up on to the big screen.

0:24:100:24:12

We are as central a part of the film-making process as the actors,

0:24:120:24:16

the set designers, the costume designers.

0:24:160:24:20

And, with the ever advancing power of computers,

0:24:200:24:23

visual effects companies, like DNeg,

0:24:230:24:25

are capable of creating ever more complex animations.

0:24:250:24:28

Imagination simply knows no bounds.

0:24:280:24:31

My job, as effects supervisor,

0:24:310:24:33

is to take any part of a film that needs to be computer-generated,

0:24:330:24:36

and that moves under the forces of physics.

0:24:360:24:39

So, things like natural phenomena, water, fire.

0:24:390:24:43

Anything that follows the rules of nature.

0:24:430:24:46

Newton's laws of motion.

0:24:460:24:48

It's something that we can definitely represent inside the computer.

0:24:480:24:52

We take things in the real world, and you make a computer program.

0:24:520:24:55

That's was a programmer will do.

0:24:550:24:56

The person is the intermediary that writes the software.

0:24:560:25:00

The software dictates what the computer does.

0:25:000:25:03

But the software is a set of rules derived from the real world.

0:25:030:25:06

Computer modelling, or simulation,

0:25:060:25:08

underpins much of their initial work.

0:25:080:25:11

We start by looking at the effect that we want to achieve.

0:25:110:25:14

So, in the case of something like fire,

0:25:140:25:16

we look at how it behaves in the real world.

0:25:160:25:18

What are the forces of physics that define how fire moves?

0:25:180:25:23

What's the chemistry of what's going on inside the flame?

0:25:230:25:28

And we would break it down to the maths that dictates that motion.

0:25:280:25:31

And then we return that maths into a list of exact instructions

0:25:310:25:35

that the computer needs to follow.

0:25:350:25:37

That process is called abstraction.

0:25:370:25:39

Abstraction essentially tries to reduce and factor out irrelevant details,

0:25:390:25:44

so that the programmer can focus on a few concepts at a time.

0:25:440:25:47

It's really important to shoot reference wherever possible.

0:25:470:25:50

It's very easy to think, I know what lightning looks like.

0:25:500:25:53

But you probably don't.

0:25:530:25:55

If I said, how long exactly in seconds does it exist? You wouldn't know.

0:25:550:26:01

So, to program a computer how to replicate lightning,

0:26:010:26:04

we need to understand lightning ourselves.

0:26:040:26:07

We'd look at that reference footage, and work out what we want to inherit

0:26:070:26:10

and what we'd don't want to inherit from real life.

0:26:100:26:12

We would then program those rules into the computer,

0:26:120:26:16

and encourage it to follow them over and over again.

0:26:160:26:19

And usually we will have to adapt it, rework it.

0:26:190:26:22

And shape it to where we need it to be to do the effects work.

0:26:220:26:26

But, even then, we are by no means dealing with the finished article.

0:26:260:26:30

Directors can be a picky bunch,

0:26:300:26:33

and changes will often be required.

0:26:330:26:36

There will be notes about the movement of the flames.

0:26:360:26:39

They will say, "Can flames be more chaotic at this point?

0:26:390:26:41

"Can the flames be calm at this point?"

0:26:410:26:43

So you're always balancing a line between stylised and natural.

0:26:430:26:48

Say, if you wanted to have the flames more swirly,

0:26:480:26:52

more curled shapes rather than sharp shapes,

0:26:520:26:55

you might go into the algorithm,

0:26:550:26:57

look at where rotational shapes have been introduced, and exaggerate them.

0:26:570:27:02

It's not something that would happen in real life,

0:27:020:27:05

but it could change the character of the flames.

0:27:050:27:07

So, writing a program's one thing.

0:27:070:27:10

But being able to go back into a pre-written program,

0:27:100:27:12

and adjust it to your requirements has many advantages.

0:27:120:27:15

Reinventing the wheel is incredibly wasteful.

0:27:150:27:18

Once you have software which is able to create flames and modify flames,

0:27:180:27:22

you should use that to your best advantage.

0:27:220:27:25

I think debugging skills, reasoning skills, testing skills,

0:27:250:27:30

are even more important than writing software in the beginning.

0:27:300:27:34

It's great to have people who can pick those tools up,

0:27:340:27:37

try using them, say, "This works but this didn't.

0:27:370:27:41

"This creatively hinders me.

0:27:410:27:43

"This part could be much more useful if it worked like this."

0:27:430:27:46

And can feed that stuff back, so we end up writing the best software.

0:27:460:27:50

It's not just about writing accurate software.

0:27:500:27:53

You need to be creative enough

0:27:530:27:55

to manipulate it in the director's favour.

0:27:550:27:58

It's important we try to represent real-life in our simulations.

0:27:580:28:02

But it's also important that we do things that help the story,

0:28:020:28:05

that help the drama.

0:28:050:28:06

It's really important everyone in the visual effects industry

0:28:060:28:09

has a technical side to them and an artistic side to them.

0:28:090:28:11

So, if you have any doubts about the creative possibilities

0:28:110:28:16

opened up by a career in computer programming,

0:28:160:28:18

simply look to the stars.

0:28:180:28:21

I think it's absolutely vital

0:28:210:28:23

that kids today learn all these concepts,

0:28:230:28:26

get really into computer programming, understand the logic behind it.

0:28:260:28:29

It's really fantastic,

0:28:290:28:30

And when you get to use it

0:28:300:28:32

you can do absolutely amazing stuff, like the work that we do.

0:28:320:28:35

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0:28:420:28:45

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