03/12/2011 Click

It might just, car number five! This is a great game. Hang on, I

seem to be learning something. This week on Click, we are looking

at games that are good for you. But are they any good? Plus, the

technology that helps you preserve your memories for future

generations. It is standing room only as we review a game designed

for your Hayne. All that, plus the latest technology news and a

website to make his mother. -- you smarter.

Welcome to Click. Video games. They meld our brains and turn us all

into lazy kedge potatoes. It is something that's it so often and I

am sure many people assume that no gains can be good for anyone.

Whether or not driving high-speed supercars or shootings of these is

good for our mental agility or not, some games have been specifically

designed for more serious educational purposes. Every year,

they all come together for Lyon's Serious Games Expo.

We are all just oversize children in a world full of big toys. It is

true that we learned a great deal from plate and the Serious Games

Expo aims to exploit our ability to retain what we learn while having

fun. It is a whole new approach to education and has taken off in the

last few years thanks to the incredible advances in gaming

technology. TRANSLATION: You could say that we use a lot of games

technology based on video games or based on traditional games like

board games. These can often be considered like simulators in a

sense that it is a tall that helps train someone. For instance, we

could put a salesperson in a situation where they are in front

of a client. Today, we have also seen developments in what we call

the science of integration. So, when a new employee or a group of

employees, arrive at a company, we can test them in the new

environment to see how they react to the complexity of a new company.

The French company cube 0 producers video gains for training personnel

--, they are. It taps into the French love of comic strip. In this

circumstance, they employ the services of a private investigator

or to sogginess three of the last database. The idea is to eight get

employees familiar with complicated systems by having them participate

in a story. It translates into training they is usually a daunting

and dreary. Not all games are about learning. Advertisers have long

exploited the benefits of product placement. That is discreetly

putting products in the plots of movies and soap operas. The idea is

that when we I immersed in a drama, our guard is down and we're not so

good at filtering out, so messages. Now, they are beginning to put ads

in games. It is a serious business. Another French company, Serious

Factory, makes these sorts of advice for games, like viral

advertising, they are custom-made. This was promoted on the iPhone and

iPad, Windows and also Apple and enjoy platform. -- enjoyed. Within

one weekend, but the company grade A goodbyes through the advertising.

It is a strong communication channel. You are training on the

message. -- trading. You can give a message to the customer. It is a

good communication channel, right But it is not all about businesses

finessing commercial messages. A series games can also deal with

highbrow issues, such as Europe's democratic deficit and voter apathy.

European politics can be dull and Dutch kids find the whole thing so

dreary, they are having difficulty even sitting through the needed two

hours a year their curriculum divides to the subject. A

Xmediaworks has come up with a game, Battle of the Laws, in which pupils

are members of the European Parliament. The aim is to be dreamy

teenagers more aware of the backroom deals and horse-trading

that are integral part of politics and coalition building. In every

level, we try to let them understand that as an under the jaw,

you are a member of the party. At a second level, as part of the party,

they have to build a standpoint. In the third level, they learned that

that if they do not compromise with other parties, they were not get

anywhere. It teaches them to achieve negotiations. The game and

when there is a final vote. That is when they will know if the laws

they have designed will be used auric there will be an amendment.

We make them understand you have to negotiate to get somewhere.

more serious game still is LudoMedic. Being ill is obviously

no fun. The treatment itself can be a trauma for a child who is

confused it in an alien, clinical environment. This game familiarises

children with what their enormous means. It also say what happens in

hospital and attempted to undertake many into a kind of adventure.

TRANSLATION: Is also a tool that makes less of a drama out of going

to hospital. Clearly, it is serious. Clearly, it is not always easy. We

cannot leave them to fight it out of line. He video game allows us to

have a wider dimension to what is happening. -- lighter dimension.

can learn better when we play. The best lessons are not necessary LED

in the school of hard knocks, but As we have said, many traditional

games really I just point and shoot. None more so than the one that we

are now about to demonstrate. I remember the days when if you

wanted to play a video game, you had to go to an arcade or have a

dedicated video games console. Of course, these days, you can play

games on all kinds of devices - mobile phones or MP3 players. Or

even, the lavatory. This by in London is a rather unusual setting

for a new kind of video again. One of the brains behind the gain gave

us the low-down on the UN base interface. The pile walks up, the

game sensors his presence did it will start when he starts. When he

goes left, it goes left. When he goes right, it goes right. It will

continue as long as the as water to play with. The first game is a

skiing game. You go left or right, hitting as many penguins as you can

and avoiding obstacles. The second game is a quiz game. They are

simple true or false questions. We found we had to make the questions

quite simple. Each one of the game in its is equipped it with three

downward facing sensors, which monitor the player's in port. High

scores result in an on-screen code, which allows the player to check

their ranking fired again's website. So now, it is time for me to embark

on perhaps the strangest begin again review I have ever performed.

Come on, you didn't really think ours going to the loss of on-camera,

did you? We have bought up this road and a tree planted as the game

out. It does actually play quite well. I have tried some internet --

innovative user interface is in my time, but this is the first Jenny

when we game we have ever played. The scores on their doors speak for

themselves. He will go anywhere for a good

story. Next up, a look at this week's

technology news. Facebook privacy is in the

spotlight again this week. The club's biggest website has agreed

to tighten privacy controls as part of a settlement over abuse of user

data. Facebook allegedly about day- to-day be shed when they said it

would be kept -- be kept private. So it comes as EU lawmakers

consider new rows about social networking.

Meanwhile, Facebook users in Thailand had been given a stark

warning about using the like button. The country's information minister

has warned social network is that they should do lead the posts which

insult the monarchy, which is a crime which is possible opted 15

years in jail. Spot of fire has added game against.

Adding to recently introduced social features, it now has an

application platform, which partners can develop four. It means

that the recommendations and editorial content, with the

partners including LastFM and Rolling Stone magazine. China is

down the bog's smartphone leader. A new study says it has overtaken

America, with 24 million units sold in the last quarter. A 30% of the

world's phone are now smart. And from smartphones, too smart cars.

Toyota has unveiled a rather futuristic one with a side that

looks and works like a joy it touch-screen bone. The Fun-Vii lets

you to change its colours in the same way you would a mobile phone

wallpaper. No word yet on if and when it will actually make it onto

the roads. Car chases will never be Now, the death of a loved one is

obviously an emotional and a traumatic time for those left

behind. After the initial shock, there is a lot of unwelcome

paperwork and organisation to attend to. Wills, build and

property. But today's elderly generation has left its oz -- of

spring and additional responsibility. The preservation of

slides and negatives. All that became popular in the 1960s. As our

reporter found out, collecting and converting those memories to

digital form presents some This year, I said a final farewell

to my dad in the UK. My mother died several years before so now their

house, the home but I grew up in, had to be clear and sold. There

were many moments of joy as they thought about everything that had

happened there. Learning to walk, playing in the back garden. I set

about collecting every bit of family imagery as quickly as

possible before it deteriorated in the cold and vacant house. I packed

everything up and took it back to the US where I live. It is hard to

admit it but almost everybody on planet earth would regard the

contents of these boxes as being nothing but junk. But to me and a

few close family members, these are priceless memories left behind by

my parents. Unfortunately, I no longer have a film projector or

slide carousel and so there is only one option. That is, turn

everything into ones and zeros. I brought this film to a company in

book and find out the best way to convert 8mm and Super 8. Some

companies protect the original movie and we screen it with

significant quality loss. I discovered the best way is to scan

every frame individually keep -- individually. It is the same as HD

TV. That allows asked to capture each frame and played back at

different frame rate. 18 frames per second, 12 frames per second, 24.

And we determine what speed it was filmed at and process it that way.

Edit it at that speed, colour correct each seat in out give it --

with a digital editing software. The results were outstanding. The

good and very different from what it them on my dad's original

projection screen. One tip is to have the finished full quality

footage put onto a hard drive. Bird it on to DVD, for an example, which

means -- Burnie on to DVD means data can be lost for ever. Some

footage I have never seen before, including my parents' wedding. I

wished they had been able to see this version. There is a lot to be

said for doing digital Dobbs while family members are still alive.

There are many people who do that. Almost every customer who walks

through this front door has a similar reaction to the footage.

But it has often -- but the images have often born unseen for decades.

This is called! This is more precious than gold. If you realise

that material things can get rid of those things but these special

moments, they are utterly treasured. The next part of my project was to

complete the scan every still image left by my parents. I tried a

flatbed scanner and noticed the output quality improved

dramatically in the last few years. Instant LED lights have replaced

all the bulk that of minutes to warm up. Scanning is an art form of

by itself. But for archiving purposes, I decided to scan slides

and negatives at a high resolution of 4,800 dpi so I could make larger

Prince, use the 48 bit RGB setting to extract the Matt mac -- maximum

range of colours and save everything as a tiff file. But if

you are looking to extract the highest possible quality from the

negatives and slides, this scanner may not be for you. Instead, this

may do the trick. It weighs Bogart 20 kilograms. It cost $20,000. --

weighs over. But the results are remarkable. The settings can be

endlessly manipulated. But even another has can put a brawl image

with two clicks. -- can output a ball in it. It is distortion free.

There is no glass between the film and the lens. A magnetic trap

stabilises the hall but and transported across the minus side

of the optics. The image is bent and so the image is always captured.

So you haven't even scan from end to end. Capturing your collection

of films and photographs in as higher-quality as possible is just

the first step. Next time, we will look at how scanned images can be

improved dramatically and how a faded photograph left hanging on a

sunlit wall for nearly 40 tears can be bought back to life in the hands

of an expert. -- 40 years. If you are watching this show,

there is a good chance you have a healthy interest in the sciences.

Not everybody takes to science easily. But the internet is awash

with great educational website to help you get your head around

complex subjects. As Kate Russell discovered in this week's Webscape.

They say you do not get something for nothing but in the case of this

not for profit website, they are wrong. Here you can find a wealth

of knowledge passed out in easily badgers double videos and it is all

completely free of charge. -- easily accessed.

There are over 2,700 videos, covering everything from Owl to --

from algebra to exercises to help it all sink in. There are also

practise exercises and resources for educators to help them inspire

their students. You will need to login with a Facebook or Google

account and then you can track and save any progress. You can watch

the videos without logging in but if you do, you can save your

completed activity and post questions and comments against the

articles. Most of the content is aimed at middle or upper school

pupils. There are a scattering of subtext steered towards younger

children as well. -- of easier subjects. When you finish

organising your child's education, spend time getting your business

with him to escape with Skylightit.com. An organisational

tool shed that covers everything from sales, document management,

customer relations, resource scheduling, project management and

loads more. That really is the power of this service. The vast

range of options you have means you can keep all of your productivity

requirements under one virtual bridge. This really is a one stop

professional collaboration and utility shop. Fee-free account

gives U2 active projects for two users and 100 megabytes of storage.

You may want to upgrade for more flexibility. All accounts let you

store unlimited contacts and other resources. All together, a great

productivity suite that cannot fail to help a busy cricket manager keep

on top of things. -- critic of manager.

How many of you have ever used a QR code? I am willing to bet it is

actually a small one -- small number which is a shame as they

really are an excellent way to access digital content on the go.

There is a fund social Swiss -- twist to the technology. Link to

your social media accounts to make sharing codes quick and easy.

Creating your own QR code requires no prior knowledge as it is just a

few simple drop-down menus. Stand codes are Auto categorised for

convenience but you can tweak those settings through the browser

dashboard for more control. The app is free for android right now with

iPhone apparently launching this weekend. BlackBerry and Windows

Phone 7 apps are in development. It is a well rounded service that

deserves to bring QR codes back into the spotlight a little.

When is an iPhone not an iPhone? When it is a Windows Phone 7, of

course. Microsoft have come up with a novel way of trying to end ties

android and by West users to switch platform. An online a mobile demo

that gives you a taste of the WP7 experience. -- iOS.

And finally, it must be nearly the end of the year as Facebook has

released this off the top 40 most shared stories for 2011. From giant

crocodiles have to satellite photos of Japan, before and after the

tsunami and earthquake. There are links to all of the original

articles in case you missed them the first time around.

Kate Russell. As always, you can find more information at our

website. You can also check out the reports