04/01/2014 Click

for almost six years. More details on the website. Now on

BBC News, Click. Technology. One small step for a man

but one giant leap for... Welcome to the best of Click 2013,

part two. The best technology is not always the stuff that takes you into

orbit. Often, it is a specific solution to a specific problem in a

specific place. What this week 's programme is all about. The world

tour, 2013. We look at the technology that put problems first.

From the morning commute to the fashion conscious young in Vietnam

to a -- gardening in Japan's older population. The toilet is pinning up

in Singapore. Falling in love can be more dangerous in Iceland. Strapped

in and fasten your seatbelts. That is when we begin. With a trip up

north. Time for Click to get up and go.

This time, towards the top of the world. 67 degrees north, just

nudging the Arctic Circle, Iceland is home to 320,000 people living on

top of a limb of superheated rock in the middle of the Atlantic. The

volcanic activity that form the island 50 million years ago still

churns away today, changing a landscape that is both otherworldly

and completely spectacular. The visitors enjoyed one natural

resource. The locals are taking full advantage of another. Iceland has an

unlimited supply of heat. Water seeps just a short distance down

into the crust, bursting back to the surface as superheated steam and

mud. The first benefit for Iceland, free central heating. The warm water

is stored in these suitably futuristic looking tanks,

overlooking the capital. It also means extremely cheap and

environmentally friendly power. The high pressure steam is used to turn

turbines at geothermal power stations hiding away in the

sulphurous mists. Iceland might be looking outwards but it is also

looking inwards. We might be created in strictly in this world but on

this isolated island, that is not the case. There has not been much

immigration here. There is not much genetic diversity as on larger

landmasses. Go back a few generations, most as lenders will

find they are related to each other. -- Icelanders. It is the same old

story. Boy meets girl, girl like boy, they bump smartphones. The girl

checked out if she is the related to the boy. App says no. Go for it.

This woman is one based lender who has found new ways to use this app

to avoid, shall we say, embarrassing situations? Is convenient to look up

the guise you need when you have downtime. You meet a cute guy that

is interesting. Looking up. And see whether he is related to you or not.

How close are related is too closely related? Third cousin. You would not

want to marry the third cousin and have babies. So third cousin is just

for... Fourth cousin is fine. Yeah. After all, this is Iceland. Or the

information for the outcome comes from the genealogy records. It is a

series and other. Accurate records go back to 1703. The book allows

people to discover how they are linked to almost anyone else from

Iceland. In the past, the publishing dipped to 30,000. There is useful

information dating back to over 1000 years. The boss of DNA analysts said

the database helps us understand many conditions across the world

like schizophrenia, diabetes and cancers. We can trace everyone who

has a particular disease to a relative and a few individuals who

lived a few centuries back. The recent deceased is like -- is likely

to be the same. A large section of the population has given blood to

the firm to help it assist research globally. Once these samples are

taken, they are kept for weeks, months, for as long as is possible

for research or pattern matching that might happen years in the

future. That is why the blood of ice land and appear, in his bio bank of

500,000 samples. The oldest of which was taken 15 years ago. The reason

that even the sample is still good today is because the temperature in

here is -26 Celsius. Or as Icelanders call it, mild. As the

robots continue to serve up these samples, hopefully, those

discovering the personal connections to each other will not get a frosty

reception. Avoiding the wedding to your third

cousin in Iceland. It is that application of technology which is

different in each country that can be so fascinating. As we found in

Vietnam. From picking up dinner to picking up

a date. It is more than a few steps, you might as well write. This is the

ethos of many destinies urbanites. With entrepreneurs on every street

corner and motorbikes everywhere, and entrepreneurs on motorbikes,

this is Ho Chi Minh City. Over the past year, the government has rolled

out a new environmentally friendly eBay Gascoyne. It has selected 30 of

its workers to test them out. -- electronic like skin. TRANSLATION:

It is light and travels smoothly. Every charge lasts for 40

kilometres. It is sufficient because our live near my work. In order to

convince the nation, the government has a long journey ahead. The bike

is a major status symbol in Vietnam. No one, not even burgeoning middle

class with their disposable income, will splash the cash on a green

motorbike unless the bike looks the part. What better way to entice

tech-savvy consumers than crow barring an iPod dock on the

dashboard? You have your computer. The integrated technology offers the

rider statistics on the battery life, Mr temperature and fuel

efficiency. Any bike is better than no bike. The constant threat of

theft hangs over all of Vietnam's 35 million riders. Thousands are stolen

each year. A few blocks away, one start-up is addressing this serious

problem. It is building a nimble looking device that once installed

is invisible to would-be thieves. Essentially, a small computer with a

SIM card and a GPS transmitter. When a bike is stolen, it reacts to the

location and caused its owner. The owner uses a smartphone app to

locate the missing motorbike. The precise location is worked out from

GPS co-ordinates and nearby mobile phone masts. Owners can trigger the

alarm and flashlights. This can be lost in the city. They can shut down

the bike completely, leaving the safe with no option to abandon it.

Smart thinking from an increasingly tech-savvy country. City congestion

is a problem in the developed world. The UN predicts by 2050, seven out

of ten, 9 billion people, will live in cities. Ireland is one country

attempting to lead the way in how we might make things flow and little

more freely. We have come here, to Dublin. It has

plenty of sense is about the place. Traffic cameras, sensors under the

time at the attack traffic flow. Bosses report positions back to

base. Crucially, the city has volunteered itself to be a testbed

to see what happens when you gather information together and to see

whether it can be used to predict the future.

At IBM's Dublin research centre, any traffic management system is

analysing the city's circulation, spotting patterns in the ad and flow

of traffic. Incidents, accidents, closures and whether they have

knock-on effect is beyond their surroundings and by watching what

happens after particular combinations of events, the system

can advise officials on how a future problem might affect the city's

nervous system. The ultimate goal, to use a city's infrastructure will

intelligently rather than expanding it. A train is delayed, the bus

outside the station should know it has to wait it does not and the end

the next one to be overcrowded. This app in the early stages of the --

development uses the addiction algorithms to minimise any time and

waiting times between each mode of transport. It will know about any

congestion. It is historical data to show how it might affect your

journey and make an more reliable estimate of the rubble time. It

should know if there is any -- is the art any hiring bicycles

available. Getting in the flow of things in

Dublin. We moved over to Japan. The land of

robots. A place where people are happy to use them in their everyday

life. The country has the world's oldest population. Robotics is being

used to make the life of Japanese seniors easier. First, the moment I

discovered a hidden robotic list for Tokyo's cyclists.

In such a crowded city where everyone lives and works on top of

each other, bike racks are few and far between. Well, Bob the ground

anyway. -- above. A subterranean park that restores bikes and returns

each want to its rightful owner in seconds. 11 metres down, this method

-- metal silo does a robot dance. It is under them being among it all. --

unnerving. You have no idea this is done here. At the top, no sign there

are to the bikes underneath. -- 200 bikes.

Harvest season. Four a la strike from Tokyo. This meant's Apples are

ripe for the picking. A job which he will help to himself. It is the

suit. The metalware is not a Japanese fashion statement. It has

been designed by Tokyo's University of agriculture and technology to

give his 68 -year-old his own power up. TRANSLATION: The robot helps

support my knees by taking away any burden. This model has springs,

braces and grips to strengthen the man's movements and support his

posture. I have come to one of 400 care homes and Japan has a special

robot designed not to physically meet older people but the

emotionally moved them. This is a seal, with 13 senses. This is with

three microphones and knows which way up it is. It is onboard computer

determines how it should respond. Nurses at the camp said the seal

sparks conversation where there were some before, getting residents

thinking and caring. Many say he has become so much more than a robot.

TRANSLATION: He is my friend. I like that he seems to understand human

feelings. These seals were introduced 80 years ago. And the

higher still the most popular robots used by people. Perhaps that is

because there are not metallic and hard, but rather cute and cuddly.

They are easy for humans to connect with. Using their expertise in

robotics, the Japanese hope to improve life for later years. If

they achieve that, then everyone in Japan will sleep easier.

A dream or nightmare? Japan and its use of technology to help record all

political 's. Our travels have taken us to many places over the past

year. But none richer than downtown Singapore. There are more

millionaires per head in Singapore than any other country on Earth?

That is the financial district of the country. But it is not all about

making money. There is a flourishing academic scene. This is a

technological University, full of Labrador is. Inside the impressive

architecture there is some equally impressive thinking going on. The

question is, how do you find the research that is going to change

lives? One team has a grand plan to make our towns more sustainable. By

creating localised waste treatment centres that take all forms of waste

from nearby housing and converting it into energy. That is one I find

myself staring down a toilet. Researchers have found that pretty

much everything that goes down here can be turned into something useful.

The process works best if you can keep solid and liquid separate. This

has been called the no mix toilet. With divided sections to keep one

away from, well, two. Solid waste is mixed with food waste to create

biogas that can be used for cooking and generating electricity. And

leftover water is used to grow microscopic algae that produces bio

diesel. So only one question remains. How would we take to a

toilet that requires, shall we say, a little more discipline? The first

one has been installed in the University. It is time for me to try

it out. While I am in here, Kate Russell will take care of you with a

round-up of the best applications and websites of the last 12 months.

Getting ready to travel can be a busy time.

Keeping up-to-date with your flight status could not be easier with the

help of the simple new Twitter account. Just give it your flight

number and the free service will send you a series of real-time

messages leading up to departure. It will even send a friendly welcome

once you land at the destination. This service is simple and

brilliant. But it comes with a huge caveat. That is, are you happy for

Twitter at large to know that you are potentially going abroad? If

there is any chance your account can be linked to an address, for

example, if you have publicly posted photographs from home, think very

carefully about whether your security is at risk.

Few things in life are completely safe. But you can improve your odds

against hackers are using an incredibly safe password. Check your

secure password creation skills on this website. And then go and make a

new one to use that you have not just given to a random website. Just

in case. And it seems a lot of us are using

ridiculously unset examples. Like 12345 and password. A password

generator like this can help when you are struggling to come up with

something original. If you are worried about remembering all the

details, the password manager might be worth looking into. They offer a

safe and secure lock-up for your logins.

My name is Ted Ed and I am a symbol for a website with billions of

videos free on you Tube. This website lets you turn any video from

YouTube into a complete lesson. Adding context, objectives,

questions and notes to really engage students. The lesson delivered by

the video clip. It has been going since 1984. Originally a conference

designed to bring together the greatest thinkers from the world 's

of technology, entertainment and design. It has become synonymous

with the mind expanding lectures and world changing ideas. This education

initiative sits perfectly inside that ideal.

Keeping track of your finances and get compensated, especially if you

share expenses with friends or flatmates. This is an application

that could stop it coming to blows. -- get compensated.

When it comes to incentives, most of the fitness and motivational

applications I have tested have failed. Sorry, but I grew out of

badges, cups and screen pets when I was about ten. It is the

applications that make it a game that I have gotten the most out of

it. This one plays out an ongoing drama in between tracks your

favourite playlist. We need whatever you can find. Kate Russell with some

of the best websites and applications from the past 12

months. Before we go, there is just time to

take you to one more country we visited. Switzerland, famous for its

clocks, Army knives, chocolates and, as it turns out, its domes.

Welcome to park. A festival dedicated to the projection of

light. Forget stages, it is domes that Rainier. And the DJs inside

engineer the programmes. What is the fuss about? A near-perfect 360

degrees life project had later. A place where music beats visuals,

programmes and its performance. Six perfectly aligned project --

projections. Each portion adjusted by millimetre precision. It is one

vast digital sky. The patterns dance in time to be beat. The colours and

intensity during the year to the music. At the helm, the skies. These

are specially developed software to develop various elements. It allows

them to programme on the fly, so they can design on impulse and go

with the flow. And by manipulating existing 3-D animation software,

they can create high resolution video files that can be mixed

together and displayed. And now the immersive nature of the dome is

spreading out onto the main stage, applying the same curve theory to a

much wider and mainstream audience. If taken up by headline acts, that

could be picked -- big business. Switzerland, proving there is no

place like home. I am sorry. -- dome. That is it for our look around

the world. But the tour begins in earnest next week. We had to

lossmakers for the world's largest technology show. We expect to find

everything. I can't wait. -- Las Vegas.

It looks as though we are going to see further spells of white and

windy weather over the next couple of days. If you have concerns about

the flooding