:00:00. > :00:28.In a moment we'll have Newswatch, but first, here's Click.
:00:29. > :00:32.Few things say the future better than robots.
:00:33. > :00:39.We seem to be in an era of massive advances at the moment.
:00:40. > :00:41.This week, a leaked video from Boston Dynamics shows
:00:42. > :00:44.off its latest machine, called Handle, something its founder
:00:45. > :00:53.Rolling on with the wheel theme, Piaggio, known for its Vespa
:00:54. > :01:00.motorcycles, has revealed a new robot servant called Gita.
:01:01. > :01:03.This robo-suitcase follows its owner's every move,
:01:04. > :01:07.using cameras in its body and in the user's belt.
:01:08. > :01:14.But sometimes it's good to look at where we've come from.
:01:15. > :01:17.The Robots Exhibition at London's Science Museum
:01:18. > :01:21.is a 500-year history of humanity's attempts to create robots that
:01:22. > :01:28.There are more than 100 robots here, including some old friends that
:01:29. > :01:34.And this amazing swan, made from silver, is all the more
:01:35. > :01:57.incredible because it was made over 200 years ago, in 1773.
:01:58. > :01:59.If you accept that these clockwork creations are indeed robots,
:02:00. > :02:02.then you can also argue that the earliest robots were clocks.
:02:03. > :02:05.It was these mechanical marvels that made the Industrial Revolution
:02:06. > :02:08.possible, mobilising hundreds of workers to be at the same place
:02:09. > :02:10.at the same time, enabling goods to be transported,
:02:11. > :02:13.trains to run accurately, and allowing industry to become
:02:14. > :02:16.The Industrial Revolution was also the catalyst for massive social
:02:17. > :02:18.change across the world, bringing about the rise
:02:19. > :02:21.of the working class, and sparking ideas like capitalism and Marxism.
:02:22. > :02:25.Now, in the West, Cuba found itself at the epicentre of this shift.
:02:26. > :02:28.It was the poster child for communism in the West,
:02:29. > :02:32.right in the back garden of the US, the heart of capitalism.
:02:33. > :02:36.Richard Taylor has been to Cuba to see how the island is now moving
:02:37. > :02:46.The iconic images are strikingly familiar.
:02:47. > :02:48.Cuba today still feels in some ways otherworldly,
:02:49. > :03:00.Life for most of its 11 million citizens is simple.
:03:01. > :03:02.They've been living in a state-enforced digital wilderness.
:03:03. > :03:11.A decade ago, you needed a permit just to buy a PC.
:03:12. > :03:14.Today, if you're lucky enough to own a smartphone,
:03:15. > :03:18.There's no mobile data, so Cuban apps are designed to work
:03:19. > :03:21.Until recently, even basic internet access could only be found
:03:22. > :03:30.at desktop computers inside state communication centres.
:03:31. > :03:33.Long queues persist but now people are coming to buy internet
:03:34. > :03:35.scratchcards which can finally get them online elsewhere.
:03:36. > :03:38.In this Havana park, small gatherings of Cubans
:03:39. > :03:41.But getting online is slow, unreliable and,
:03:42. > :03:48.Luis Rondon Paz is a self-proclaimed hack-tivist, and as a former
:03:49. > :03:54.government IT administrator, knows the system well.
:03:55. > :03:57.Everything in Cuba is restricted, filtered, as the rest of the world.
:03:58. > :03:58.Basically, they censor everything that might
:03:59. > :04:04.It might be porn, gay, or political things.
:04:05. > :04:12.But the biggest barrier for locals - the price.
:04:13. > :04:15.A single hour of full web access costs $2,
:04:16. > :04:22.The government says expanding the internet is a priority
:04:23. > :04:25.and central Havana is now conducting trials of in-home net access
:04:26. > :04:31.And it boasts of a growing number of public wifi hotspots,
:04:32. > :04:34.too, around 300 in total, and growing.
:04:35. > :04:41.Still, not exactly blanket coverage for a country 700 miles wide.
:04:42. > :04:43.Cuba blames its ageing communications network
:04:44. > :04:46.on the six-decade-old trade embargo with the US.
:04:47. > :04:49.Critics say that's a convenient excuse for a communist state that
:04:50. > :04:52.fears losing control over information.
:04:53. > :04:54.Relations with America are now at best uncertain
:04:55. > :05:08.In the aftermath of the President's historic visit here two years ago,
:05:09. > :05:10.prospects for American companies doing digital business
:05:11. > :05:16.Company boss Eric Schmidt inking a deal in December that gives Cubans
:05:17. > :05:19.fast access to content from services like YouTube and Gmail.
:05:20. > :05:21.The thing is, when you're running an internet-based business,
:05:22. > :05:24.the last thing you want to do is traipse across town
:05:25. > :05:28.So some Cubans who are fed up with the government strategy
:05:29. > :05:31.on access have come up with their own rather inventive solutions.
:05:32. > :05:35.The results are found on rooftops in towns and cities
:05:36. > :05:37.across the nation, in the form of pole-mounted antennaes
:05:38. > :05:40.which are pointed towards the local communications centre,
:05:41. > :05:47.giving them internet access and even wifi.
:05:48. > :05:50.The practice isn't exactly legal, but as I discovered that minor
:05:51. > :05:52.detail doesn't deter Cubans from getting their information fix.
:05:53. > :05:55.This is the paquete semanal, literally the weekly packet.
:05:56. > :05:58.It refers to a highly organised service in back streets and front
:05:59. > :06:01.rooms across the country, giving locals content downloaded
:06:02. > :06:05.often only hours earlier via satellite.
:06:06. > :06:06.There's pirated movies, news shows, documentaries,
:06:07. > :06:15.It's hugely popular with customers who can fill their USB drives
:06:16. > :06:18.with an entire terabyte, hundreds of hours, for the price
:06:19. > :06:24.And the rise of the paquete is the price the Cuban regime itself
:06:25. > :06:27.is paying, a reaction to the state dogma of keeping
:06:28. > :06:34.Cuban authorities should be less afraid of the free flow
:06:35. > :06:36.of information because the need for information functions
:06:37. > :06:45.People need information and people will get information,
:06:46. > :06:48.no matter if you are going to provide it or not.
:06:49. > :06:50.There's a political need to understand differently
:06:51. > :06:54.Progress is undoubtedly too slow for many Cubans.
:06:55. > :06:57.But recent overtures do at least give some people
:06:58. > :07:16.Ever wondered what cats get up to when no one's there?
:07:17. > :07:19.Meet Roxy and Zara, who seemed agreeable to taking part
:07:20. > :07:29.If you've ever wanted to watch, talk to or even play with your cats
:07:30. > :07:34.when you're not with them, then this could help.
:07:35. > :07:38.Once the device is connected to your home wifi, you can login
:07:39. > :07:45.anywhere you can get your phone online.
:07:46. > :07:49.There's a laser game to play, snacks at the tap of an icon,
:07:50. > :07:57.and a function to proudly make and share videos and cat snaps.
:07:58. > :08:10.This rather unusual looking setup works in quite a similar way.
:08:11. > :08:14.This smart collar has been around a little while now and is available
:08:15. > :08:18.It allows owners to keep an eye on temperature,
:08:19. > :08:20.pulse, breathing rate, heart rate variability and even
:08:21. > :08:23.the positions a pet is in, so could be particularly beneficial
:08:24. > :08:26.if there are health concerns or an injury to keep an eye on.
:08:27. > :08:30.Meanwhile, there seems to be a game of cat and mouse going on here,
:08:31. > :08:32.the latter played by a remote control rodent.
:08:33. > :08:35.Although it actually consists of the cat being chased
:08:36. > :08:38.by the mouse, which probably says it all about my day's filming.
:08:39. > :08:41.That was Lara, and this is Maria, the first blockbuster robot
:08:42. > :08:45.from the ground-breaking 1927 film Metropolis.
:08:46. > :08:47.The visual effects in that movie were absolutely stunning,
:08:48. > :08:53.given that it is actually 90 years old.
:08:54. > :08:57.Next, we are going to continue our look at some of the visual effects
:08:58. > :08:59.behind the latest blockbuster movies.
:09:00. > :09:01.We have Adam Valdes, BAFTA and Oscar nominee,
:09:02. > :09:05.to tell us more about the visual effects he used to bring back
:09:06. > :09:22.Every time you see the world in Jungle Book, someone has
:09:23. > :09:24.fabricated plants, trees, the dead twigs and leaves
:09:25. > :09:33.And it's only really when the surrounds around him
:09:34. > :09:36.makes him feel present within it that the magic
:09:37. > :09:39.trick comes off, that you believe that this is just a photograph,
:09:40. > :09:45.So we take a shot like Mowgli saying goodbye to his mother and we say,
:09:46. > :09:47.John really wants some sort of physical contact.
:09:48. > :09:51.It needs to be an intimate moment, their eyes need to be locked
:09:52. > :09:57.We can't have a feeling that he's acting to a tennis ball,
:09:58. > :10:01.We really need to feel the scene emotionally.
:10:02. > :10:04.You can locate the positions of his hands, the puppet
:10:05. > :10:09.And we can track it really carefully in three dimensions
:10:10. > :10:16.That way we make sure the contact is correct,
:10:17. > :10:21.and then we simulate the fur on the mother's neck.
:10:22. > :10:25.And we actually replace the better part of his hand with the digital
:10:26. > :10:29.double of his hand, so that the CG hand and the CG fur of the mother
:10:30. > :10:31.wolf are actually in the computer together,
:10:32. > :10:35.and when we put our lighting on that and create the final images,
:10:36. > :10:57.The magic trick is blending the hand into his arm.
:10:58. > :11:00.The render power required to generate a movie like this,
:11:01. > :11:03.I think it was 240 million renderer hours, or something like that.
:11:04. > :11:06.Which means if it was one computer it would have taken 3000 years,
:11:07. > :11:10.These individual frames that you see can be 40,
:11:11. > :11:14.50, 60 hours on a computer just rendering one frame.
:11:15. > :11:17.We'll see more and more imagery where we really start to not
:11:18. > :11:20.be able to tell the difference between something that's
:11:21. > :11:30.That was Adam Valdes on the magic behind the Jungle Book.
:11:31. > :11:37.And that's it for the shortcut of Click and the robots at the London
:11:38. > :11:39.museum. I'll put a load of photos up
:11:40. > :11:53.on Twitter for you to browse The full version of Click is up on
:11:54. > :11:55.iPlayer for you to view whenever you fancy.