10/12/2011 Click

Now it is time for.... -- time for It may sound like a lot of noise

but this week we look at the Secret Life of static. Tablet in the - we

check out the readers with an appetite for more than just books.

Saving your memories before they fade. We look at the technology

that can give your old foe days a facelift. We have the old -- the

latest technology news and the look at how to make your own game in

which -- Webscape. Around the world, TV services that have been

broadcasting for decades are being switched off. Old analogue signals

are being cleared from the Airways and being replaced with digital

signals. The result of this is that lots of the radio spectrum is being

freed up but that extra space will not remain free for long. We look

at how be broadcast spectrum will be carved up as soon as your TV

pictures have faded into the ether. In 1936, broadcasting history was

made. Television signals were transmitted from the BBC studios at

Alexandra Palace. For the first time, sound and vision from across

the group could crackle into life at the nation -- in the nation's

living rooms. The cameras and crews have long since fallen silent. Soon

we will have to make the switch to digital television. As silent as

our airwaves will be as soon as we make way for completely digital

television broadcasts. Different devices each use different parts of

the broadcast spectrum. The UK spectrum will be auctioned in 2012.

OFCOM is designing this auction. In the UK and other countries around

the world we are replacing analogue broadcasts with digital. The

switch-off process started in the UK in 2007 and is due to finish in

2012. One of the great benefits of doing that's it will create massive

deficiencies in the way the spectrum is used. -- that is. As we

prepare to switch off analogue television in favour of digital, a

wide variety of different technologies are poised to take

advantage of the broadcast space freed up by the death of all school

analogue television. Analogue television broadcasts used up more

of the spectrum than digital does so news services can take advantage

of the space which will become available on the air waves. The

mobile phone operators are the team is to grab the largest slice of

this newly freed up they want to -- newly freed up broad band. There is

a huge demand for mobile data, being fuelled by smartphones and

mobile data services such as e-mail, video streaming, messaging services,

mapping services and social networking. Studies have been made

that mobile broadband is the application that delivers the

greatest economic and societal benefits and mobile broadband means

that new technology can be deployed. 3G and 4G - Imagine if you were

building a motorway and you wear it using for decks on the motorway.

You would not use more land but you can have more traffic passing

through it. The mobile phone companies are tipped to grab the

lion's share of the broadcast spectrum but the story does not end

there. Some technology companies see the old-fashioned television

signal as the gift that keeps on giving. Television broadcasts used

parts of the spectrum back trouble very well through solid objects.

Most of the spectrum is not used. The white space project found this.

That is technology that tries to use parts of the spectrum that are

not being used so we can use it on an ad-hoc basis. Brad Symes

spectrum here and pass some traffic through it. -- grab some spectrum.

Engineers working in conjunction with the Cambridge White Spaces

Consortium are trying to bring the internet to people in remote areas.

We are trying to bring the internet while asleep to people who do not

have an ADSL connection. It is you UHF signal, using the gaps in the

TV channels at the moment. You used radio modulation techniques to send

the signal to remote places. We have a base station here which we

are using to broadcast a signal and used for communications,

specifically with the aim to provide all well with an internet

service. Prior to the trial, Wed speeds in this all well home were

typically between 100 or 200 kilobits per second. The trial

technology has increased those speeds to eight megabits per second,

making it possible to stream video or use services like Skype. The

trials in Cambridgeshire are ongoing but one thing is certain -

analogue television is on the way out but the air waves analogue

television uses are set to be just as crowded. Now I look at this

week's -- a wee look at this week's techniques. Mark Zuckerberg's

thanksgiving for prayers have been published online after it uses

alerted the internet to security problems with the social networking

giant. Apple's stored that supplies the books fought the iPhone and

iPad is likely to come under scrutiny after it the European

Union's anti-trust watchdog has launched an investigation into

whether they have been using Google is celebrating its 10

billion Thor app download from the Andra Market but a lot of them are

free. Despite the rapid growth of And rode smartphones, the quality

of the apps might have an effect on whether people buy anything.

Exports users will gain more controls of the televisions through

Kinect as new software rolls out this week, improving boys' control

and more television content. -- voice control. We have spent a lot

of the last year or so talking about tablets and tablet operating

systems but long before there were any tablets there was a different

kind of portable device that allowed you to read your content on

the move - e-reader. There are seven-inch tablets masquerading as

e-reader. This is the Kindle Fire, which has proved massively

disruptive. It is opening up the tabloid market to an entire

different demographic because it is half the price of one of the fully

featured tablets. This is Amazon's attempt to create a cat making door

which is not just a reading device, which can take on Apple. This is a

similar attempt. This is a classic Android feel. This is another one

from Amazon. Are they any good as tablets? Should you consider buying

one of these. They are not fully featured tablets. You do not get

the screen real-estate for newspapers, if you like. You have

something which is a bit bigger than a smartphone. You do not have

Bluetooth or GPS, you do not have a camera or a microphone. You have a

slightly slower processor. All these things have less storage.

There is no 3G option. You will not be satisfied with a device like

this if you worry power user but if you want to get into a tablet

experience and want something at half the price of the fully

featured tablets but would spend perhaps a bit more than a

traditional e-reader, this could be for you. They are good to read

books on. You can read books even in dark conditions, which cannot

with and the reader. These are back of it. -- backlit. Outdoors they

are not as good. They are reflective. They need a big, heavy

battery so they are not as white and -- light and not as comfortable

Last week we told you how to convert old film into high-quality

digital copies. If you are archiving this material for future

generations, you obviously want the best results possible and here, you

are not limited to the quality of the originals. Our reporter has

been testing some of the new technology that improves our

memories and makes them better than you.

-- better than the new. My late father locked away hundreds

of home movies and negatives from the 1950s. After capturing them

digitally, I realised that some of the originals had begun to

deteriorate. Even the best kept images eventually succumbed to

chemical breakdown. But once again and, they are frozen in time. But

then the challenge is how to undo the damage.

Experts agree that you should avoid using the free software that often

comes with a scanner. To get the best quality results, this man is

using photo quality plug-ins and stand-alone software.

The biggest problem is often his visual noise - meaning of the grain

found in dark areas of film. Fortunately, the algorithms used to

detect that are getting better and better. Noise capital fixer is one

of -- noise Sanaa fixer is one programme that improves the image

and avoids it looking too soft. Noise is only one aspect of the

photo restoration. Perfectly Clear can do all sorts of things to

dramatically clean up an image. But crucially, it automatically

controls the order in which those steps are done.

You generally find noise removal at the beginning. If you can get a

clean image at the beginning, you can then compare it to sharpening

the images later. Often only small areas of a photo

are degraded. A method has been invented to specifically it just

any part of an image. I can put a control. On the damaged

area and I can fix certain areas. It really helps because pictures

don't fade uniformly. Sometimes they are fed in different areas.

Some bargains have become industry -- some plug ends have become

industry standards. Prince present a different

challenge especially if they are severely damaged. The process can

be complicated although there are books that can help but not

everybody has the time nor the skill to bring back their photos to

a pristine condition. Holocaust su suion Rosen treasures her

post Second World War two collection of photographs. Every

family men be -- at memory prior to that was destroyed by the Nazis.

This image of her children is one she is particularly fond off of.

This picture when I go to bed at night I curse this picture. When

you came into this room, you could not help but notice it because it

really sort of look to you. The after many decades, every trace

of colour has vanished. So Marion has taken her photo to a

restoration expert. He quickly comes to the conclusion

that there photograph is so faded that automated colour detection

software will be useless. How ever there are some hints of

what she will helpful -- be helpful. I presumed that this area was

natural wood, so that gives me one reference point. Of course at the

skin tone gives me another. Ultimately, he decides he will have

to paint their colours by hand. Sebastien is a part technical

expert and part historian. He can often pinpoint a period of time by

looking for clues. For example, American wedding photographs were

devoid of smiles before 1925. Marion's Botha meanwhile has a new

lease of life. Would you like to see how it came

out? I would.

He ate it is. I, my goodness!

What do you think of that was mac he would not think it is the same

picture. It is beautiful.

I am glad you like it. Her memory is triggered seeing the

repressed and edge. She is sure 'The Press' was white and not below

- a quick fix on the digital image. -- the dress.

She has returned home with a photograph she is convinced is

better than the original. My own family portrait of my sister

and I also benefited from the human eye. No software I don't get away

the exact colour and make-up of my tracksuit. -- knows software are

our own. It has taken hundreds of hours to upgrade my late father's

library of the images that hopefully it will be worth it as in

many more generations to come are able to enjoy them.

Were you one of those children who would bark yourself a weight in

your bedroom with your BBC Micro trying to write a computer game?

Yes that was me and everybody else in this team. Today's children do

not get the same opportunity to practise the nuts and bolts of

programming. That said, they can still have a go at codeine again.

-- coding again. These days you do not need any

experience. Just a simple package that you can download free. These

games are built using flash and there are some basic templates

available. Or you can create a game at from scratch, and porting

characters, enemies and establishing behaviours and an

environment for them to exist inside. The basic tutorial is

pretty much a master and can be accessed through the health centre.

-- Help Centre. It is fair to say he will not be making the next

Blockbuster gained using this platform but if you do fancy trying

game design, this is a good place to start. Once you have perfected

your game, it can be uploaded to the website for comments from the

community. Although this package looks incredibly complicated at

first, it really is just step-by- step logic that will all fall into

place once you have covered the basics and after mastering their

game creation system, why not try a mobile game? This is a great

resource if you fancy your hand at game design. Do you ever get the

feeling that you have heard that group before? Many contemporary

artists take their inspiration from classics and at this website you

can find out exactly what might lie hidden in the DNA of your favourite

chart hits today. With well over 100,000 songs from more than 40,000

artists in their data base, there is enough content here to tell you

into -- turn you into a fully- fledged example geek. The envy of

every one at every dinner party you go to a ceasefire of interesting

fact about all the tunes that come on to the studio. -- stereo. The

website brings it to life with YouTube clips bringing life to the

songs. And there is a link to buy if you want.

If you are tempted to read every page on Wikipedia or, it would take

you over a century. But luckily it has been wrapped up into a location

aware augmented reality application. It is free to download for black

beret, and iPhones. -- blackberry. Look through your camera view and

anything local with a Wikipedia entry against it will be flagged on

the screen. Think Layout but with that why -- might of Wikipedia

behind it. As well as flagging restaurants and nightlife hot spots,

there is information about local services, such as cash machines. It

is also the first application to integrate with Blackberry messenger,

helping you locate people buy your contact list. Altogether it is an -

- a useful application for anyone who wants to know what is going on

around them. One for all those games console

children of the 1980s. Dizzy was one of the most successful gaming

brands of the Iran has been given a 21st century makeover with an

application for iPhones and Android. This game is a platform puzzle

featuring the happiest, bounciest egg on the planet. Watching this

weekend, the gains are not free but they are still cheaper than the

originals and thus faithfully produced on March to one of

The Mars curiosity Rover which took ago is the biggest vehicle together

attend landing on Mars. If you want to keep an eye on its progress, it

is tweeting as they travel so make sure you follow : there are also

more details available on the NASA website.

If you are a big fan of our show, hit two our website.