:00:07. > :00:17.year. Now on BBC News it is time Welcome to Click, I'm Spencer Kelly.
:00:17. > :00:20.
:00:20. > :00:30.This week Willie at... -- we'll be looking at.... Will you please make
:00:30. > :00:38.
:00:38. > :00:42.up your mind on what you want to This week on Click win in Japan
:00:42. > :00:49.uncovering some of the weird and wonderful prototypes that may or
:00:49. > :00:52.may not make it to our world -- we're in. Roads? Where we're going
:00:52. > :00:56.we don't need roads. We are looking at how well a futuristic
:00:56. > :01:02.transporter could change the way we travel. All that plus the latest
:01:02. > :01:06.Tech News and a look at how to put virtually anything anywhere. We
:01:06. > :01:11.have a app that let's your friends change how you see the world in
:01:11. > :01:17.Webscape. Welcome to Click, I'm Spencer Kelly.
:01:17. > :01:20.There's no doubt that Japan has had a tough year. First the earthquake
:01:20. > :01:25.and tsunami and then the radiation leak and more recently the massive
:01:25. > :01:29.typhoon that has hit its coastline. As well as the human cost these
:01:29. > :01:34.disasters have also affected the manufacturing and technology
:01:34. > :01:39.industries. On top of that, Sony's servers have been hacked and
:01:39. > :01:44.Nintendo has been struggling to make anyone care at art its new 3D
:01:44. > :01:49.hand-held gaming console. -- care about. But in the background
:01:49. > :01:55.research into new technology has been ongoing. Dan Simmons reports
:01:55. > :02:00.from Japan's massive are Andy technology Expo on some of the
:02:00. > :02:04.stuff that is being planned for the coming years. The tech world's
:02:04. > :02:12.autumn is spiced each year with a looking glass directed towards the
:02:13. > :02:16.future course see attack. They come here not to see what's hot to hit
:02:16. > :02:21.the shops as they do in Vegas or Berlin. Nor grandstand a new mobile
:02:21. > :02:31.as they might in Barcelona or Hong Kong. As the year draws to a close,
:02:31. > :02:32.
:02:32. > :02:37.Tokyo offers inspiration. They are the suits with the cash. To turn a
:02:37. > :02:41.prototype into a product. Many of the ideas here may never see the
:02:41. > :02:46.light of day. Which is why we've come to see what's been dreamt up,
:02:46. > :02:52.before it's commonplace - or forgotten. Pretty interesting idea,
:02:52. > :02:55.so something new, never felt a touch screen like that before.
:02:55. > :02:58.concept should hit the button. Because the people pressing this
:02:58. > :03:05.touch screen, are feeling something very different from anything we've
:03:05. > :03:09.experienced. I felt as if I was touching a real
:03:09. > :03:13.button. One reason some of us don't like
:03:13. > :03:15.touch screens is that we can't feel the buttons. But here unlike
:03:15. > :03:19.conventional phones where a metal rod delivers vibration though out
:03:19. > :03:22.the handset - Kyocera has added a thin glass cover that sits above
:03:22. > :03:28.the screen to deliver more precise feedback straight to your
:03:28. > :03:31.fingertips. At each end lies a ceramic
:03:31. > :03:35.piezoelectric strip that generates a charge from the pressure applied
:03:35. > :03:38.to it creating different vibes across the screen.
:03:38. > :03:43.And because the screen itself is flexible, the level of pressure can
:03:43. > :03:46.be measured. So you can click a button once then
:03:46. > :03:55.push harder for a second, third, fourth, or fifth deeper click
:03:55. > :04:03.When it's switched to a second level click, I could feel it even
:04:03. > :04:07.more, it's very impressive. Imagine selecting a lower case
:04:07. > :04:12.letter and then pressing just a little harder, clicking to an upper
:04:12. > :04:16.case option. Japanese firm, Alps has gone one step further with its
:04:16. > :04:26.dual-touch system. So in this game, the purple circle can be moved from
:04:26. > :04:31.
:04:31. > :04:36.side to side by pressing harder at Pulse where Murata were showing off
:04:36. > :04:46.a system that doesn't require touch at all -- elsewhere. We already
:04:46. > :04:47.
:04:47. > :04:50.have some pretty smart sensors in our smart phones. They detect
:04:50. > :04:54.things like light or proximity to the face which is how the
:04:54. > :04:57.Smartphone knows how to turn the screen off to save energy when you
:04:57. > :05:00.are taking a call, but what Murata are working on is something that
:05:00. > :05:03.will detect motion so that you could move between options without
:05:03. > :05:07.actually touching your touch screen. These are the sensors no longer
:05:07. > :05:11.reliant on cameras to detect movement. One of these could be put
:05:11. > :05:15.behind a screen here for example or in a tablet for example in a mobile
:05:15. > :05:21.phone. We can now move in or around and then zoom around a particular
:05:21. > :05:24.photo. We then cooking hands wet and in the winter wear gloves
:05:24. > :05:28.unfortunately doesn't detect on touch screen so that this interface
:05:28. > :05:38.uses it is easy to work the sensors offers us a new way interact and
:05:38. > :05:41.
:05:41. > :05:44.More motion sensing - this time using a camera. Israeli outfit
:05:44. > :05:53.Primesense helped develop the Microsoft Kinect system that uses
:05:53. > :05:56.gestures to control games. Here's their PC version - running Forum8's
:05:56. > :06:00.software, that "sees" much smaller realistic movements - so here the
:06:00. > :06:04.driver can use his feet as he might in a real car to accelerate or
:06:04. > :06:08.brake. In the real world the future of
:06:08. > :06:12.cars might well be electric IF we didn't need to spend so much time
:06:12. > :06:19.charging them up. NEC showed off a superfast charger
:06:19. > :06:22.cutting the time for an 80% charge from 4 hours to 30 minutes.
:06:22. > :06:27.Advances for handsets too - NTT DOCOMO's prototype smartphone
:06:27. > :06:31.'sleeve' juices up a mobile in just 10 minutes.
:06:31. > :06:35.Time for lunch.. And a little help from the SOFTWARE side of things IF
:06:35. > :06:39.you're trying to stay in shape. Increasingly we're turning to our
:06:39. > :06:43.apps to help count the calories but what if you're in a restaurant - no
:06:43. > :06:46.barcode or brand name will help you know what you're eating. This app
:06:46. > :06:55.attempt to use photo recognition to tell you the nutritional info by
:06:55. > :06:59.And if you're serious about losing weight you'll want one of these. It
:06:59. > :07:02.measures the tiny amounts of acetone in your breath. In case
:07:02. > :07:05.you're not sure it tells you whether you're hungry and perhaps
:07:06. > :07:11.more usefully when you're body will burn the most fat should you chose
:07:11. > :07:15.to exercise, so you can schedule your workouts and your TV dinners..
:07:15. > :07:19.Here's a different way to control your TV set through what appears to
:07:19. > :07:24.be just a piece of plastic, when we twist it we can go up a channel and
:07:24. > :07:27.when we twist it the other way back down a channel. Not just twisting
:07:27. > :07:31.but bending as well you can bring the volume up or down accordingly
:07:31. > :07:33.now what inside here is two pieces of thin polyester coated with
:07:34. > :07:37.electrons which give a different signal depending on whether you're
:07:37. > :07:41.twisting or bending this device and that signal is then sent to the
:07:41. > :07:45.control centre on the side of the panel which is powered by a battery
:07:45. > :07:48.now you don't need to plug it in or change the battery because that's
:07:48. > :07:53.powered by these die sensitised solar panels; the device then sends
:07:53. > :08:03.a radio signal to the TV set which tells it to go up down or if you
:08:03. > :08:12.
:08:12. > :08:16.fancy off. Again, it's easy to see how this
:08:16. > :08:22.might add an extra twist to gaming - although I couldn't help
:08:23. > :08:26.wondering how long it would last in the hands of a 5-year old.
:08:26. > :08:29.We couldn't leave Japan without a nod to the tech it's most famous
:08:29. > :08:38.for - the robots. Often very impressive but, beyond amusement,
:08:38. > :08:40.difficult to imagine their One idea at the show was this self
:08:40. > :08:50.correcting walking assistant using similar balancing technology mixing
:08:50. > :08:53.gyroscopes and motor feedback as these cycling robots.
:08:53. > :08:57.Where these mainly Japanese technologies go from here will
:08:57. > :09:06.depend largely on whether they're picked up by big manufacturers. But
:09:06. > :09:09.if, in the future, a gadget seems just a bit bizarre. It may well
:09:09. > :09:14.have first appeared here, as a prototype one autumn at Tokyo's
:09:15. > :09:19.tech show. Dan Simmons on the weird, wacky and
:09:19. > :09:24.sometimes actually quite useful research on show in Tokyo this
:09:24. > :09:29.month. Next up, a look at this week's Tech News.
:09:29. > :09:33.A disastrous week for RIM with BlackBerry outages spreading across
:09:33. > :09:37.the world affecting millions of computers. The failure of back-up
:09:37. > :09:44.systems to kick in after databases were corrupted could cause
:09:44. > :09:48.irreparable damage to Rennes that has built its erect quotation on
:09:49. > :09:54.solid. It has shed half a million users in America and analysts say
:09:54. > :09:59.more could switch to an iPhone and Android smart phones that do not
:09:59. > :10:04.rely on a centralised system. Apple has launched its new operating
:10:04. > :10:07.system that offers messaging, its answer to BlackBerry Messam does.
:10:07. > :10:13.Germany's justice minister has called for an investigation after
:10:13. > :10:17.hackers expose a programme that has been spying on citizens. Berlin's
:10:17. > :10:22.Chaos Computer Club said Federal trojan can activate wed cans or
:10:22. > :10:27.computer market aims to track activities in a person's home or
:10:27. > :10:32.monitor Skype calls. The area has admitted using the software since
:10:32. > :10:36.2009 but says it was not illegal. You might not have the money to go
:10:36. > :10:44.into space but your science experiment might make it to the ISS,
:10:44. > :10:50.if you're aged 14-18. The YouTube Spacelab competition encourages
:10:50. > :10:55.people to send in a short video detailing their idea.
:10:55. > :10:59.Finally you don't usually see dot- matrix printers any more, much less
:10:59. > :11:03.plucked into a computer on a tricycle but Nicholas Hanna put
:11:03. > :11:07.these together as he rode his modified trike through Beijing as
:11:07. > :11:13.part of its design week. It is a modern twist on an old Chinese
:11:13. > :11:19.tradition of writing calligraphy in water.
:11:19. > :11:29.I lived on a crowded island. My morning commute to work is a
:11:29. > :11:29.
:11:29. > :11:35.crowded one. My personal space is 0. But at Heathrow they are offering a
:11:35. > :11:40.new system, automated driver Les iPods that offer public-transport
:11:40. > :11:50.with a personal touch. We could only send Peter Price along for the
:11:50. > :11:51.
:11:51. > :11:54.There's something strange taking to the sky over Heathrow. Four seater
:11:54. > :12:00.pods are moving overhead, whisking travellers from car park to check-
:12:00. > :12:04.in in record time. Travelling at 40 kilometres an hour, these battery
:12:04. > :12:11.powered vehicles use lasers to stay on track. We're used to seeing
:12:11. > :12:14.monorails at airports, but this system's different. The pods are
:12:14. > :12:18.automated, driverless and operate on-demand - waiting at the station
:12:18. > :12:23.until they're needed rather than running around empty. This system's
:12:23. > :12:26.a hybrid of public and private transport. It's like public
:12:26. > :12:33.transport because like a bus or a monorail, you just hop on the next
:12:33. > :12:37.one. It's also a bit like private taxi because you tell it exactly
:12:37. > :12:40.where you'd like to go and the pod, which is individual to you, takes
:12:40. > :12:50.you there, from A to B without stopping anywhere in between. So,
:12:50. > :12:51.
:12:51. > :12:54.business parking station A please. Here we go. Here at Heathrow, the
:12:54. > :12:57.pods are replacing buses shaving about 10 minutes from the average
:12:57. > :13:03.journey time. That's time saved thanks to each pod being controlled
:13:03. > :13:10.by a central computer. Its software is on a mission get the pod to its
:13:10. > :13:13.destination in the fastest time. Two operators monitor the comings
:13:13. > :13:23.and goings via CCTV, but don't be fooled, it's computer rather than
:13:23. > :13:25.
:13:25. > :13:28.human that's doing the thinking. Computer-controlled transport like
:13:28. > :13:34.this is known as personal rapid transit or PRT and it's ambition
:13:34. > :13:37.goes beyond airports. Well, this was designed to work in cities. Not
:13:37. > :13:40.the very big cities like London, which is a very unique place, but
:13:40. > :13:44.also designed for somewhere like Bristol. I just thought that
:13:44. > :13:48.transport's not very well done. I thought if it was thought through
:13:48. > :13:51.properly you could find a better way to do it. The idea's been
:13:51. > :13:54.around for some time but in the past people have been carried away
:13:54. > :13:57.with trying to do automation, you know the technical things. We've
:13:57. > :14:06.always tried to provide a service to people which would actually do
:14:06. > :14:09.what the passenger wanted. It all looks very futuristic, but the idea
:14:09. > :14:13.of PRT has been around for decades, and it's development has been
:14:13. > :14:21.anything but fast. It was conceived in the 50s and one of the first
:14:21. > :14:24.trials took place in Paris. Leaving gaps between trains is inefficient
:14:24. > :14:27.says the science, so this project aims to run pods as close together
:14:27. > :14:30.as possible, maximising capacity of the track. The carriages of this
:14:30. > :14:33.little train are connected by light waves. Each carriage carries a
:14:33. > :14:37.laser which bounces its beam off the carriage in front. It measures
:14:37. > :14:46.how long it takes the light to travel and calculates how far away
:14:46. > :14:48.the next carriage is. Slightly too close for comfort perhaps. While
:14:48. > :14:51.the Parisian system was abandoned, PRT has once again caught the
:14:51. > :15:00.imagination with several systems currently in development around the
:15:00. > :15:09.world. This is the UK's most high profile transport project: High
:15:09. > :15:12.Speed 2. Brand new tracks across these fields will link London and
:15:12. > :15:16.Birmingham. It's still many years away, but the trains look strangely
:15:16. > :15:19.conventional. One man who specialises in transport design,
:15:19. > :15:24.thinks future high speed travel could benefit from some blue-sky
:15:24. > :15:27.thinking. I think they're being built on an old system. By their
:15:27. > :15:32.very nature they have to be built going past the outside cities
:15:32. > :15:37.because it's so expensive to go through them. So that's one problem,
:15:37. > :15:40.because you then have to get from the city to the high speed train. I
:15:40. > :15:45.also think that stations haven't changed at all for about 100 years,
:15:45. > :15:47.they're still a piece of concrete and you get wet when it rains.
:15:47. > :15:53.is Paul's vision of the future, doing away with platforms and
:15:53. > :15:56.stations all together. Slow moving trams pick up passengers in the
:15:56. > :15:59.city centre before speeding up to pull alongside passing express
:15:59. > :16:06.trains. Then it's a gentle stroll across to continue your journey.
:16:06. > :16:09.The doors close, the tram slows and returns to plying the city streets.
:16:09. > :16:19.The idea is that you can seamlessly move from one destination to
:16:19. > :16:20.
:16:20. > :16:23.another rather than stopping and starting. Because I think the
:16:23. > :16:26.railway system at the moment is a bit like pre-internet, the
:16:26. > :16:29.telephone, where you had to press a button and then someone connected
:16:29. > :16:33.it through wires. Rather than being able to choose where you want to go
:16:33. > :16:37.and do it right then. So the idea that you can just jump on a tram
:16:37. > :16:40.and go anywhere in the continent is just a better way of looking at it.
:16:40. > :16:42.It's a glossy vision, but some experts are cautious. All transport
:16:42. > :16:45.infrastructure, but particularly railways, is very expensive to
:16:45. > :16:47.construct. To make it viable you need high densities of traffic, big
:16:47. > :16:57.capacity. Railways are also very demanding technically. If anything
:16:57. > :17:01.
:17:01. > :17:04.goes wrong, the railway stops. So have to be absolutely sure that you
:17:04. > :17:09.can make the equipment work reliably and you get a lot of
:17:09. > :17:12.people down the line of route. It is difficult to do and if you use
:17:12. > :17:15.untried, untested technology, the risk is that it you will end up
:17:15. > :17:19.with something that simply doesn't work. I don't believe the railway
:17:19. > :17:24.in the form of a tram or the steel rail will ever become anywhere near
:17:24. > :17:28.replacing the road. The road is just so much more flexible, it's
:17:28. > :17:38.cheaper for most people most of the time. In the UK only 8% of
:17:38. > :17:39.
:17:39. > :17:45.passenger miles are by rail. Almost all the movement, and this is true
:17:45. > :17:47.of all developed countries, almost all the movement is by road.
:17:47. > :17:50.Heathrow's at least, these pods are a futuristic way of easing
:17:50. > :17:52.congestion on the roads, by replacing buses they're smoothing
:17:52. > :17:54.the businessman's trip to the airport. But although the airport's
:17:54. > :18:00.expansion plans are ambitious, rapid transit as a mainstream
:18:00. > :18:04.method of transport could still be decades down the line. Now, you may
:18:04. > :18:11.have noticed that Kate Russell does not get out of the Webscape studio
:18:11. > :18:16.that often. That may have led you to wonder if she gets a bit lonely.
:18:16. > :18:21.Apparently she does not, she has lots of friends around to her place.
:18:21. > :18:27.Apparently that includes me. The thing is, I have never been around
:18:27. > :18:35.to her place. This is Webscape. How could I get lonely when I have a
:18:35. > :18:39.life-sized Spencer standing in my living room? Aurasma Lite lets you
:18:39. > :18:46.place images in the world around you without the need for a marker.
:18:46. > :18:50.Snap a picture as the location, and a graphic element from your camera,
:18:50. > :19:00.the next time anyone use the same location through the application,
:19:00. > :19:02.
:19:02. > :19:06.up pops your contribution to the world around you. This would be a
:19:06. > :19:16.great way to create a high technology treasure tried, laying
:19:16. > :19:16.
:19:16. > :19:24.clues around your garden or over you are holding a... You can play
:19:24. > :19:29.on your iPhone. Make sure you do not play with anyone with a
:19:29. > :19:33.different smart phone. It could end up with a fight. The application is
:19:33. > :19:43.incredibly easy to use. Although the website says it only works with
:19:43. > :19:47.
:19:47. > :19:55.an iPhone 4, I had no issues on my 3G. If that is too high technology
:19:55. > :19:58.for you, why not pass some time reading ancient papyrus.
:19:58. > :20:02.Ancientlives.org is a scientific project where participants are
:20:02. > :20:12.asked to help translate fragments from ancient text that belonged to
:20:12. > :20:18.
:20:18. > :20:22.the Egyptian exploration Society. This is another Zooniverse project.
:20:23. > :20:27.They have added quite a few new projects to their list since I last
:20:27. > :20:37.visited the website. If you want a really good excuse to waste time on
:20:37. > :20:40.the internet, this is probably the right website to bookmark. I am
:20:41. > :20:50.doing some very important scientific research. If you must
:20:51. > :20:52.
:20:52. > :20:56.know. Like all Zooniverse projects, it is well designed. It's still
:20:56. > :21:04.feels like you are contributing to a series scientific project. Of
:21:04. > :21:13.course, you are. If you have a story you want to tell, why not try
:21:13. > :21:23.self-publishing? Movellas .com is the easy to use electronic book
:21:23. > :21:26.
:21:26. > :21:30.writer. You cannot charge for books written through Movellas .com, but
:21:30. > :21:35.it is about distributing your words to anyone who is interested in
:21:35. > :21:39.reading them. Lot in with Facebook to harness your personal crowd and
:21:39. > :21:45.then tap away. You can invite a couple of collaborators if you need
:21:45. > :21:48.someone to proof-read your work. When you're finished, click publish
:21:48. > :21:58.instantly. Then wait with trepidation to see what the world
:21:58. > :21:58.
:21:58. > :22:02.makes of your work. London is famous for its underground trains.
:22:02. > :22:10.What many visitors to the city do not realise is that the bus service
:22:10. > :22:13.could be your best option for many journeys. The largest problem is
:22:14. > :22:23.that the timetables can be confusing. You never quite know
:22:24. > :22:24.
:22:24. > :22:30.when a bus is due. Not any more with Bus Checker for iPhone, iPad
:22:30. > :22:36.and iPod. You can check when it is due and where it is going based on
:22:36. > :22:41.actual information from Transport for London, not the timetable. You
:22:41. > :22:49.complain your journey and I am not surprised this application has led
:22:49. > :22:53.to the top of the charts since it was launched. It cost �1.99 to up
:22:53. > :23:02.load. A great investment for anyone planning to visit the city for the
:23:02. > :23:06.Olympics next year. Apple has opened the doors of the iCloud
:23:06. > :23:16.website, customers can sign up for the service that backs your data up
:23:16. > :23:21.to the cloud. You cannot actually use it until you have are graded to
:23:21. > :23:25.the latest operating system, when that update became available, the
:23:25. > :23:30.service groaned under the weight of demand, seem incapable of coping
:23:30. > :23:39.with the extra traffic. Let's hope the iCloud service is a little more
:23:40. > :23:44.robust. Zynga has announced Project Z, a platform for playing social
:23:44. > :23:50.games and chatting with friends, powered by Facebook connect. It is
:23:50. > :24:00.not quite live yet but you can go to ztag.zynga.com and snag your
:24:00. > :24:00.
:24:00. > :24:05.favourite user name ahead of the masses. See you online.
:24:05. > :24:14.Kate Russell. If he missed any of Kate's things they are up at our
:24:14. > :24:24.website. There is a link to the entire programme on BBC iPlayer.
:24:24. > :24:24.