:00:13. > :00:23.Did you think you were in charge of the machines? Not any more. Now,
:00:23. > :00:38.
:00:38. > :00:42.This week, Click is in Liverpool at the art exhibition designed to test
:00:42. > :00:48.our relationship with robots and each other. But are you ready to
:00:48. > :00:54.become a digital been? As a rapper Tupac is resurrected for one final
:00:54. > :01:04.peak, we show you how this holographic effect was achieved. --
:01:04. > :01:05.
:01:05. > :01:10.gig. And a side that has control of your online mutterings in Webscape.
:01:10. > :01:14.Welcome. It is pretty certain that in the future, we will all be
:01:14. > :01:19.talking to each other more and more using technology. Communicating
:01:19. > :01:23.with people who are a fair distance away, as if they were in the same
:01:23. > :01:29.room. Now, I am not just talking about video calling your mother.
:01:29. > :01:35.There are many more ways in which you can make your presence felt and
:01:35. > :01:40.feel that of somebody else's from afar. That is why we have come to
:01:40. > :01:49.this exhibition which explores some of those ideas. It is called Robots
:01:49. > :01:53.and Avatars. Part art, part technology, this is
:01:53. > :01:59.a collection of works exploring ways in which we made few others
:01:59. > :02:03.and ourselves as digital beings. -- view. The artists have pondered
:02:04. > :02:07.questions like how do we feel about seeing ourselves on screen? How
:02:07. > :02:15.would it feel to look more of our lives in virtual bodies? And how
:02:15. > :02:20.would it feel to let machines take more control over our real bodies?
:02:20. > :02:24.This work, for example, called Base 8 invited to transform your hand
:02:24. > :02:28.into a virtual one to experience the feeling of handling non-
:02:28. > :02:32.existent particles. As more and more devices become controlled
:02:32. > :02:36.using gestures, we may have to get used to moving things around which
:02:37. > :02:40.we cannot actually feel. Maybe manipulating particles in a virtual
:02:40. > :02:45.chemistry lab or remotely controlling that will hand from
:02:45. > :02:51.thousands of miles away. You may instead want to use your phone to
:02:51. > :02:57.control a bop -- A Bott, bot's voicebox. This is a daunting figure
:02:57. > :03:03.designed to give a voice to others who may otherwise be lost in the
:03:03. > :03:08.crowd. He certainly is hard to ignore. Some of robotic
:03:08. > :03:13.interpretations are far more tenuous. Take a leader - a giant
:03:13. > :03:21.globe covered with pieces of coal and filled with a mixture of you in
:03:21. > :03:25.bed to make it floaty. Aida has been described as an analogue robot.
:03:25. > :03:29.Something that is remote controlled by quite a few people at one time.
:03:29. > :03:36.But in no way did Italy. The point, does it say something about what
:03:36. > :03:41.happens when people try to be cholate -- created at once? Maybe.
:03:41. > :03:45.And from the physical to the emotional. Some of the works are
:03:45. > :03:50.designed to capture our feelings. The electronic man is a website
:03:50. > :03:56.which sources emotions from users around the world. If the project
:03:56. > :04:01.gains momentum, it could provide a guide to the happiest places on
:04:01. > :04:05.earth and the most stressful. If crossing continents is not your
:04:05. > :04:11.thing, you now have many ways to talk to people on the other side of
:04:11. > :04:15.the world. If you years ago, Second Life was briefly all the rage. A 3D
:04:15. > :04:19.space in which your avatar could build a home, the business and
:04:19. > :04:26.relationships with others, no matter where their flesh and blood
:04:26. > :04:30.fissions decided. Although the buzz around it has died down, its ideas
:04:30. > :04:35.live on. This project, Visions of our Communal Dreams, attempts to
:04:35. > :04:39.show how a virtual world may blend with the real one. Not only can you
:04:39. > :04:44.fly your avatar around this island, meeting and interacting with others
:04:44. > :04:48.virtually, but it can also see and talk to real people as well. Fly to
:04:48. > :04:53.one of several portals of the island and you will find a window
:04:53. > :04:58.to a particular place in the real world. Cameras and projectors allow
:04:58. > :05:06.real and virtual people to converse across the physical and virtual
:05:06. > :05:10.divide. More of this later. And finally, something much more
:05:10. > :05:16.unnerving. It is designed to test out trust in technology. Will we
:05:16. > :05:22.ever reach a point where we let the robot drive us about? How easy
:05:22. > :05:32.would it be to give over physical control to a machine? I am about to
:05:32. > :05:34.
:05:34. > :05:40.find out. World! -- I do not have much choice
:05:40. > :05:44.about which way it wants me to go. This frightening looking beast is
:05:44. > :05:48.called Compass and has the ability to spin you around. It has its own
:05:48. > :05:53.ideas about the route you should walk and, specifically, it will not
:05:53. > :05:57.let you walk into the rectangles of light. It is guided by a small
:05:57. > :06:02.magnetic field under the carpet and gets its talk by spinning
:06:02. > :06:07.heavyweights in the opposite direction.
:06:07. > :06:11.This is kind of awesome but it is not very nice. The Compass is
:06:11. > :06:15.really insisted on where it wants me to go and where it does not want
:06:15. > :06:25.me to go. It is really strong. It is very difficult to resist when it
:06:25. > :06:30.
:06:30. > :06:37.turns you. I guess this is what it We are back with Ede, the giant
:06:38. > :06:46.inflatable robot/avatar. And our guest, Professor Noel Sharkey. --
:06:46. > :06:51.aider. Welcome to Click. Is there anything you and your profession
:06:51. > :06:54.can learn from this? Quite a lot. I love working with artists and
:06:54. > :06:58.designers because they explore domains we do not look at. We are
:06:58. > :07:03.good at Engineering. But if you want real beauty and an exploration
:07:03. > :07:08.of new ideas, this is the way to go. I would recommend we do this kind
:07:08. > :07:12.of arts in our schools. And we are teaching robotics. There has been a
:07:12. > :07:19.lot of talk about how a i is getting better. What Aires is it
:07:19. > :07:25.particularly good at? And for what parts of simulating real life? --
:07:25. > :07:30.areas. There has been a lot of talk since the 50s. In the 70s, we would
:07:30. > :07:35.have all household Tours does. One thing we are good at is making
:07:35. > :07:40.false predictions. -- tours. The areas we are good at his robotics.
:07:40. > :07:44.There is a lot of work in robotics in things like farming, picking
:07:45. > :07:49.fruit, cleaning floors, a lot of cleaning tasks. The reason for this
:07:49. > :07:54.is until the 1980s, the big ambitions were to make a big
:07:54. > :07:59.thinking robot machine. That was almost impossible. Machines were
:07:59. > :08:03.moving so slowly. You could hardly see them moving. So we moved from a
:08:03. > :08:07.fast sensor type operation, stop trying to make multi-purpose
:08:07. > :08:11.machines. Now, there is one robot that will clean and sweep the floor,
:08:11. > :08:16.one that will market, and one that will clean the windows. That is the
:08:16. > :08:21.area where we are making progress. Single purpose robots. Also the
:08:21. > :08:28.area of telly robotics. That is becoming major. It has become
:08:28. > :08:32.really begin surgery, particularly in the US. It is robotic assistance
:08:33. > :08:37.for a surgeon. The surgeon moves the hand but the robot takes out
:08:37. > :08:42.tremors and so it is good progress. I have been told in the past that
:08:42. > :08:46.it is the sensors on any were bought or system that is still
:08:46. > :08:51.letting us down, the ability to in per -- interpret the world and act
:08:51. > :08:54.on it. Is that still the case? is but it is not the sensors
:08:54. > :09:04.themselves. They are becoming remarkable with nanotechnology. We
:09:04. > :09:05.
:09:05. > :09:14.are making incredible infrared sensors. Sonar sensors take out
:09:14. > :09:18.certain problems. But with vision, for example, back in the 1950s, we
:09:18. > :09:22.thought we would saw fit in ten years but we have seen little
:09:22. > :09:26.progress. We can classify a telephone or a cup, put the two
:09:26. > :09:32.together and you have a cup of a phone or something but it is poor.
:09:32. > :09:41.Thank you. There is a lot here and a sure it will fire your
:09:41. > :09:46.imagination. Get in touch. Next - this week's Tech News.
:09:46. > :09:49.Scientists at the University of Glasgow have pioneered a way to use
:09:49. > :09:53.3D printers to create drugs and other chemicals. The process
:09:53. > :09:57.involves a robotic we controlled syringe, building the drugs out of
:09:57. > :10:01.the gel based ink into which chemicals and catalysts are mixed.
:10:01. > :10:06.It is thought manufacturers, doctors and even the public could
:10:06. > :10:11.use the technique to download, pre- set recipes and Taylor medicines to
:10:11. > :10:15.individual's means. Greenpeace warns of the environmental impact
:10:15. > :10:19.towards the trend towards cloud computing. A new report breaks some
:10:19. > :10:23.of the biggest firms on how efficient they are data farms are.
:10:23. > :10:28.Google performed well while Apple and amazon were rated poorly. The
:10:28. > :10:31.canteen group says if the cloud was a country, it would be the fifth
:10:31. > :10:34.biggest polluter on the planet. Apple, which do not provide
:10:34. > :10:38.information for the report, disputed the figures and says it is
:10:38. > :10:42.currently building greener power supplies. Microsoft says its next
:10:42. > :10:47.operating system, Windows eight, will come in four flavours,
:10:47. > :10:55.including one designed for tablet. The Enterprise and professional
:10:55. > :10:59.versions are aimed at business -- businesses. This covert system
:11:00. > :11:04.would also work on Pat strain laptops and includes versions of
:11:04. > :11:10.Excel, PowerPoint and other operations. A US firm that asked
:11:10. > :11:14.the public for $100,000 to create a new type of what has raised more
:11:14. > :11:19.than $3 million in just one month. The what, which has a seven-day
:11:19. > :11:24.back to life, has an efficient display, links to the user's Apple
:11:24. > :11:30.or android phone, allowing them to -- alerting and e-mails or messages.
:11:30. > :11:39.It also runs cycling apps. It may even dispense cash at this rate!
:11:39. > :11:43.Of -- a window to a virtual world. At the moment, it does not look
:11:43. > :11:51.like anybody his home. But the ideas and technology behind this
:11:51. > :11:57.are now starting to bring more people together.
:11:57. > :12:02.Most of us associate avatars with gaming. A fantasy character we
:12:02. > :12:05.control in words -- worlds where we fight battles and without fantasies,
:12:05. > :12:10.even own Allam Ireland. Increasingly, the characters are
:12:10. > :12:15.not carrying swords. -- our own island. They wear normal clothes
:12:15. > :12:23.and look like us because the virtual world they are in a not
:12:23. > :12:27.fantasy but designed to mimic the real one. The most popular
:12:27. > :12:31.applications are virtual meetings with the number of five-10 persons
:12:31. > :12:36.for in 18. We have a virtual conferences where we have something
:12:36. > :12:40.like 20-30 people up to hundreds of participants in a conference room.
:12:40. > :12:44.And virtual trade shows where thousands of people visit a booth
:12:44. > :12:50.and so on. Instead of getting crushed in the hustle and bustle of
:12:50. > :12:55.trade shows, you can dig in and out from your desk or laptop. -- dip.
:12:55. > :12:58.And then there is the virtual classroom where student avatars
:12:59. > :13:03.respond to the real person's movements, picked up by the camera
:13:03. > :13:07.on their computer. Teachers can see who is paying attention by seeing
:13:07. > :13:13.which way they are looking for posing questions and asking
:13:13. > :13:18.students to raise their hands. Over the past few years, these spaces
:13:18. > :13:23.have become more simple to create. Now, you can even design want using
:13:23. > :13:28.a Facebook app. The use of avatars has several advantages over video.
:13:28. > :13:38.It tends to use less bandwidth, allow more people to get involved,
:13:38. > :13:42.
:13:42. > :13:51.with a little less personal There is nothing quite like seeing
:13:51. > :13:55.someone's face. Their ears. I think he has a bit more hair now. While
:13:55. > :14:01.many of us have become familiar with using services like Skype,
:14:01. > :14:08.tech giant Cisco is taking it to a new level that is high-definition
:14:08. > :14:15.with no light time. It is called telepresence. Because as humans, we
:14:15. > :14:19.understand much more than is being said. We have visual beans. 64% of
:14:19. > :14:24.communication is non-verbal. It is body language, the look in my eye,
:14:24. > :14:29.the tone of my voice. Eyeballing someone across the table is
:14:29. > :14:34.important. So rather than placing the camera that catches your image
:14:34. > :14:40.above or below the screen you're looking at, US firm DVE have
:14:40. > :14:43.managed to put it in the middle, behind the image of the person. The
:14:44. > :14:50.screen is semi-transparent plastic with a special metallic coating
:14:50. > :14:56.that reflects a projected image of those being beamed in. A Monday
:14:56. > :14:58.morning meeting at our offices. Not everyone has turned up but many
:14:58. > :15:03.existing the new conferencing systems would struggle to bring
:15:03. > :15:11.this many people together. That is no longer a problem. We may no
:15:11. > :15:16.longer have an excuse to miss it at all. Here, we had 60 people brought
:15:16. > :15:22.together using 19 different video feeds. Polycom says this system can
:15:22. > :15:29.support more than 1,000 individual video streams. They do not all need
:15:29. > :15:34.specialist kit. Chris is using an iPad here but he
:15:34. > :15:39.could be used in any one of a variety of smartphones or tablets.
:15:39. > :15:42.-- using. Does that mean employees could be
:15:42. > :15:48.forced into conferences at any time of the day like some are expected
:15:48. > :15:55.to respond to e-mail now. There is the ability now to work from
:15:55. > :16:00.anywhere. Bosses might transfer -- translate that in to an ability to
:16:00. > :16:06.work any time. Of course, the work- life balance is something that
:16:07. > :16:14.might be a challenge for everybody but there are other mechanisms
:16:14. > :16:21.available. As telepresence becomes more realistic so our systems that
:16:21. > :16:23.show more of the body and at a more useful visual tools. One of the
:16:24. > :16:29.useful things is being able to gesture and use your hands as well
:16:29. > :16:35.as your face and the whole body to communicate. We get to the point
:16:35. > :16:38.now where through the connection of telepresence with other
:16:38. > :16:45.technologies like software that allows you to move virtual objects
:16:45. > :16:48.around, this enables a haptic interface to happen. Virtual 3D
:16:48. > :16:54.technology is already being used to create effects like holograms on
:16:54. > :17:00.stage. Most notably used last weekend at this performance between
:17:00. > :17:03.a pre-recorded Tupac and Snoop Dogg who performed live next to him. One
:17:03. > :17:08.of the companies behind the performance showed us how it was
:17:08. > :17:18.done based on an old Victorian Peter Aleutian called Pepper's
:17:18. > :17:19.
:17:19. > :17:24.Ghost. -- Theatre allusion -- illusion. You have a projector here
:17:24. > :17:31.and you move the screen here and across that space at a 45 degree
:17:31. > :17:37.angle we have our patented foil which reflects the image up into
:17:37. > :17:41.the consumer's face. There is a lot of backstage tinkering to get the
:17:41. > :17:45.realistic effect. The performer and the image on the right can see and
:17:45. > :17:50.hear each other, allowing the onstage artist to interact with the
:17:50. > :17:57.projected one. That project is shooting imagery up that way and
:17:57. > :18:05.going to the boil that way. I can see where I am and where Lucinda is
:18:05. > :18:09.and I can interact. Musion makes its money from the Ming
:18:09. > :18:13.performances live to theatres or stadiums globally. Another small
:18:13. > :18:18.company thinks this is the way telepresence will be done in the
:18:18. > :18:24.future. This system does not rely on a complicated stage set-up.
:18:24. > :18:33.Using projection, you can go right up to this image and a holographic
:18:33. > :18:39.all volumetric effect is maintained. -- or volumetric effect. To get
:18:39. > :18:44.right up close, you might need to ditch the avatar and take the form
:18:44. > :18:51.of a robot instead. A French firm but to inside of one, giving you a
:18:51. > :18:55.physical presence in the room. Other things apart from your image
:18:55. > :19:00.might be communicated. In the future, we will start to get
:19:00. > :19:10.interfaces which deal with our breath, heartbeat, and touch
:19:10. > :19:14.sensations. At the moment, telepresence is focused on the
:19:14. > :19:24.visuals but as other things are added, one day we could literally
:19:24. > :19:25.
:19:25. > :19:31.make our presence felt. In this increasingly virtual world,
:19:31. > :19:35.it is not uncommon to have close friends you have never actually met.
:19:35. > :19:40.Our very own Kate Russell is one of those friends. She never leaves the
:19:40. > :19:48.studio and I only ever see her on wine. So, for one week only, we
:19:48. > :19:54.brought her with us. She actually exists! Virtual pokes only if you
:19:54. > :19:59.don't mind. I have a managed to escape my studio to cut here and
:19:59. > :20:04.look at a few websites and apps related to this exhibition and
:20:05. > :20:09.Liverpool itself. Replicants is the first of the
:20:09. > :20:16.exhibition site I want to show you. This project lets you create a
:20:16. > :20:21.posting but for Facebook or Twitter which will simulate your online
:20:21. > :20:24.activity. By linking with your other social streams and adding key
:20:24. > :20:28.words are vital interests, the bottom will analyse the kinds of
:20:28. > :20:38.content you like in oddities and the size and online persona or that
:20:38. > :20:38.
:20:39. > :20:43.is an extension of who you are. Once it is installed, you are
:20:43. > :20:49.encouraged to activate the Klout app to track any increase in your
:20:49. > :20:53.popularity. I have been running this for about a week and it has
:20:53. > :20:59.been very pro active posting music suggestions. The first video it
:20:59. > :21:09.posted on my behalf was this. I have to say it is probably the best
:21:09. > :21:10.
:21:10. > :21:14.thing I have ever posted on That said, my Replicants soon went
:21:14. > :21:24.a bit mutant, posting all sorts of random things from my Twitter feet.
:21:24. > :21:26.
:21:26. > :21:28.So I eliminated it. -- Twitter feed. Next up from reports and avatars, a
:21:28. > :21:33.Naked on Pluto. You click on the reports and linked to your social
:21:33. > :21:43.streams to turn them into a virtual world populated with people and
:21:43. > :21:53.places you know. It is like a text- based adventure game. It creates a
:21:53. > :21:55.
:21:55. > :22:00.simulation of your friends based on what it has learnt about you. This
:22:00. > :22:06.gain is taxed based and I have a feeling it will have limited appeal.
:22:06. > :22:14.An interesting passing curiosity nonetheless. Here is at an unusual
:22:14. > :22:19.search tall. The results are not extensive but they are compiled
:22:19. > :22:25.into a media with a robotic voice narrating. Here is what it told me
:22:25. > :22:28.about this exhibition. Robots and Avatars is a programme of events
:22:28. > :22:34.and educational activities which explores how young people will work
:22:34. > :22:39.and play with your representations of physical form. Since we are on
:22:39. > :22:46.location, it was a great excuse to turn out -- try out some location
:22:46. > :22:51.based apps. Most cities have an events listings site like Liverpool
:22:51. > :22:55.Live, where you can Plan A night out and buy tickets. A growing
:22:55. > :23:04.number of these sites offer a free smartphone app so you can organise
:23:04. > :23:12.things on the move. Many places have Birchall to work out that will
:23:12. > :23:16.shake you are a sight to the city might not otherwise have found.
:23:16. > :23:19.LiveTour Liverpool maps out a five mile road starting at a train
:23:19. > :23:25.station and leading the past historic buildings and other
:23:25. > :23:32.interesting landmarks, including legendary live music venue the
:23:32. > :23:42.cavern where the Beatles first made their name. It sucks the life out
:23:42. > :23:48.
:23:48. > :23:58.of your battery at an alarming rate. That's all we have time for.
:23:58. > :24:02.