US Special - Part Three Click


US Special - Part Three

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stuck in traffic queues trying to get to the Port of Dover because of

:00:00.:00:00.

extra French security in Calais. Drivers are being warned to expect

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delays. Now on BBC News, sentence -- Click.

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With the AI film director, emotional clothes, and robot

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This is what happens when you let an artificial

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In a future with mass unemployment, young people

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Sunspring is a film whose script was written entirely

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by an AI chatbot, one that's been designed to mimic

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It's a fun watch but only, I feel, if you're in on the joke.

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It seems that writing a gripping, real and coherent narrative

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is beyond AI at the moment, but what if you were to give it

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the words and let it be the director?

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What if you gave an AI complete creative control, over

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That was what Saatchi Saatchi commissioned LA-based

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It's a real out on a limb kind of experiment for film.

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They decided not to make a full length feature film,

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but instead to embark on a more manageable project, a pop video,

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which is something that many new directors cut their teeth on.

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A French dance group gave them permission to interpret

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The lyrics would form the script but the interpretation would be

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completely down to the machine, or more accurately, the machines.

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A director's job involves a lot of different disciplines

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So given that there is no one big artificial brain somewhere

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that can do all that, we assembled the best

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and most progressive pieces of artificial intelligence,

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kind of in a collective, to do that.

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First up, IBM's Watson was used to analyse the lyrics and make

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an educated guess at the emotions of each line.

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Based on these, the humans could ask the next AI questions about

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For that, take to the director's chair, Ms Rinna.

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We came up with a series of questions that you might ask

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somebody like me when you are prepping for a job,

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I could imagine a creative type coming up with that.

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Ms Rinna is a Japanese Twitter chatbot that appears to be

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And it was asked a whole load of questions on who the characters

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in the lyrics were, what actions they should perform and what outfits

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Do you have any kind of understanding about how it came

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up with those answers, day and night, night

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From what we understand, this particular AI has been

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programmed by having conversations with fans.

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It is a Twitter handle, it has millions of conversations

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It can relate but it is relating in a way that a 17-year-old

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girl on Twitter would, I guess.

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So how does a director choose the right actor for a role?

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Well, it is probably someone who feels emotionally connected

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to the work and then can transmit those emotions to the audience but

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And that is something that computers don't have, but what computers can

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do is measure the performer's brain activity using an EEG like this.

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In a very unusual casting session, ten unsuspecting actors

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were asked to perform the song while their facial expressions

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and brainwaves were compared to those of the song's lead singer

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The guy with the best emotional match got the gig.

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And when we asked them to do that, they said,

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And we said that the director needs that information

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in order to make a choice, so that whoever he picks has

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Did the actor know at this point that

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When did the actor find out the director was an AI?

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Does the actor know currently that the director is AI?

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In fact when we cast him, we brought him down to the set

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We said, it's going to be a little weird because we are going to be

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giving you direction based on the artificial intelligence's

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understanding of what this song is and what your actions

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And unfortunately, I'm just an assistant director in this

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scenario and I'm not really allowed to do anything other than to execute

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the vision of the artificial intelligence, or help it along.

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If it seems weird, it is weird because my nature is to tell

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I have to go, excuse me, what do you think?

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On the day of the shoot, even the camera drones followed

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flight paths that were based on Watson's emotional

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And when it came to the edit, choosing the shots and cutting it

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all together, Zoic built a brand new editor AI.

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This started by creating random assortments of shots and then

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learned from feedback from the humans which types

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After many iterations, the finished video was given

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a visual treatment that was itself a type of mural art.

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Adding a day and night style to the two characters' scenes.

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The result is a pop video that is not going to win any awards.

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In fact, the band, whose videos are usually very highly produced,

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have distanced themselves from the whole thing.

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And I'm not really convinced that an AI has actually

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I mean, what they've done is got a load of different AIs to do

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Including asking a chatbot what this fellow should wear.

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But then the people at Zoic aren't really saying otherwise.

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The exercise we went through provided a lot

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The output itself of the video, it could be better,

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But I think for a first attempt, a worthy effort.

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As the director behind the scenes, I'm like, wow, that is super

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intimidating because it won't be long before this technology actually

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evolves where that editor that we created becomes

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absolutely able to interpret, like, that shot is running and it

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has emotion and it sweeps, I should definitely use that.

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And if that cuts to the close-up of this emotional expression,

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you will feel and it will understand how one influences the other.

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And all of a sudden we are going to get really emotional cutting

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And if you might permit just a slight indulgence on my part,

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the eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that Loni was

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It's actually a door from the ship in Joss Weedon's really rather

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excellent and criminally cancelled before its time TV show,

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Loni worked as the series' visual effects supervisor

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and if you would like to find out why he has the door, as well as how

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he helped design the ship, head to our YouTube and Facebook

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pages for the geekiest chat that two grown men can possibly have

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Time to change gear here in California, a state which is not

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It also has a long history of innovative aviation

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and aeronautics companies testing aircraft over its wide open spaces.

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But there is one outfit here that has worked on projects so secret

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that the US government has often denied its existence.

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But Marc Cieslak found it and got exclusive access to the Skunk Works.

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A Cold War spy plane capable of flying

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It evolved from a plane commissioned by the CIA in the late '50s,

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designed at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works.

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More used to creating secret aircraft, Skunk Works has

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turned its talents to creating something much slower.

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We have to be careful about what we film here

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at Skunk Works because they perform lots of work on classified projects.

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However, Lockheed Martin have allowed us to film

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their one third scale model of the airship.

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It is the biggest scale model I have ever seen although technically this

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This is a hybrid airship designed for lifting cargo.

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It has three inflatable hulls, with helium providing 80%

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It has thrusters which can change direction allowing it to take off

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They also allow the airship to fly much more like

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It does away with landing gear, making use of hovercraft technology

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to get it on the ground or onto water.

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This demonstrator is actually three times smaller

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So airships have been around for a long time.

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Why is it taking so long for governments, for commercial

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operators to get on board with this sort of aircraft?

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At the end of the day, for us it is hard to change.

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And so when you see something like this, so different,

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and aircraft are expensive, so this is a fairly big risk,

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but the biggest aspect we bring in is remote cargo.

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Areas that do not have a road or a rail line or any

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We would like to do that in a sustainable way so we are not

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hurting the environment, or at least as little as possible,

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and without a road or rail line to get to those sites,

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With the airships, we can take that part away.

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Lockheed is not the only aerospace outfit working

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Rival cargo carriers are being developed in the US and UK.

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However, the boffins at Skunk Works have developed a novel way to keep

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In order to see how they do that, I've got to get inside

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So this is how you enter the inside of the airship.

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You've got to try to make sure you don't lose any of the air

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As airships are inflatable, they are susceptible to damage

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which could create holes in its skin.

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Finding and patching those holes is an important task.

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Ever wondered what it's like to be inside a bouncy castle?

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Somewhere in here there should be a spider.

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Or to be more precise, it is one half of the spider

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because the other half is on the other side

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On the other side, there is a light that is shining upwards.

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Because there will be light shining through the skin of the airship.

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If it finds a hole, its job is then to patch it up.

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In fact just under here we can see a patch that has

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We had the opportunity to go inside the airship.

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Normally you would not be able to go inside it, a human being would not

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That's right, it's full of helium so it's hard to breathe in there.

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They wear oxygen masks to do that kind of thing.

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Also, it's very hard to plug a hole on the top of the airship

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from the inside of the airship, there's no way to get scaffolding up

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Patching it up with a robot, that allows you to patch those holes

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Lockheed aims to have their hybrid airships operational

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At which point, swarms of spiders will perform robotic repairs.

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It was the week that Tinder announced its group function,

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meaning that the app could have a long-term relationship

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with you even after you have found love.

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Tinder Social hopes to help you plan a night out with a chance

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to make friends or meet up with groups nearby,

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making connections that are not just about hooking up.

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Mercedes put its self-driving bus to the test in Amsterdam.

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The Future Bus successfully took a 20 kilometre trip without the need

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for a driver, leaving him able to nod knowingly at passengers.

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As well as camera and radar systems, it recognises traffic lights,

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The Museum of London is using the video game, Minecraft,

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350 years on, Great Fire 1666 will allow players to walk down

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the streets of London, interact with people and combat

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the plague, whilst also searching for audio clips to tell the story.

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And finally, children at a Connecticut school have joined

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forces with a local aquarium to help an injured penguin.

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Five years after tearing her flexor tendon, she got lucky

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when the school purchased a 3D printer.

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They have created her a lightweight book to help her p-p-pick

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Now back in January, I visited Pier 39 in San Francisco,

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home to Autodesk's creative workshop, where artists

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and researchers are let loose on CAD software and 3D printers to come up

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Well, now it is time to meet one of those artists over

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at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

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I have trained as an architect and currently I am doing

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my PhD in media art, and exploring the relationship

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of human bodies with the space around.

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I am basically exploring this relationship by using interactive

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One of them is our near environment, which basically means our

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And the other, I am exploring that relationship with the space around,

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I am exploring how architecture can respond to humans,

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Curse Of The Gaze is an interactive 3D printed outfit.

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It is basically exploring how our fashion can be

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I really wanted to create something that becomes

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It is equipped with a camera, and the camera is located

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The camera can see your age, gender and where you were looking,

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and based on what you are looking at, it moves and

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So if someone is here, they are looking at the cape

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It is an extension of your brain to your garment, basically.

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The garment thinks it is real and perceives the world,

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almost to the most fundamental aspects of social interaction,

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And by looking at each other, we communicate meanings,

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and sometimes our gaze can be intrusive.

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Sometimes our gaze can be reassuring.

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In other words, if you can feel someone's gaze on your body,

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your perception of the world is going to be different.

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Synapse is a 3D-printed interactive helmet that moves

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When it goes higher, your attention goes higher,

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and the helmet opens up so you can actually pay attention

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to the world around you, and as your attention level gets

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less, basically it creates a cocoon around your head.

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The brain sensor is basically capturing information,

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gathering it on various different brain frequencies.

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And then it sends the information related to your attention level

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to a microcontroller, which is again embedded inside.

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And that information can control two small servos located

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Basically you map your attention level to control servos

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Aurora is an interactive ceiling application which can see body

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movement underneath it and respond accordingly.

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Particularly it uses the ideas on body interaction, in other words

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how our bodily movement, not just the tips of our fingers

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on the mobile phone, can inform interaction,

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but how our movements within the space can inform

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The ceiling has a computer vision which is basically using a Kinect

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It sends that information to a series of microcontrollers

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in which they are controlling 15 different motors.

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And those motors can inform the motion of each of the notes

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Like most American cities, LA is a driving city.

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It can take ages to get across town because of, well,

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So if you are a parent who has to take their kids somewhere for two

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or three hours before picking them up again,

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it might not actually be worth your while coming

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So what do you do if you are a parent who is too busy to ferry

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Kate Russell has taken a hop, skip and a drive

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Lots of homework, hectic after school activity schedules,

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being ferried around by your parents.

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I think it is time for you to get ready to go.

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Hang on a minute, that actually looks pretty good,

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Juggling work commitments with school runs and extracurricular

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For some parents, a taxi is the only option, but how do

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you know your children are safe getting into a car with a stranger?

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That is the question HopSkipDrive set out to answer.

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Three of us created the company and we are all working mums.

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We have eight children between us who go to six different schools

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and participate in every kid activity known to man.

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Carly loves to dance and she is pretty good at it, too.

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We originally lived somewhere different, we lived really close

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to the freeway and we had good access.

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And then we moved here and we could not get to class

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on time, coming to work and then back down.

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So we put her in a local dance studio which wasn't the same.

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HopSkipDrive says it runs background checks on all its drivers

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They also told us that applicants must have at least five

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Compared to other rideshare services,

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A minimum fare of around $15 depending on where you are based,

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and looking at fare calculation comparisons with Uber,

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it seems to be about 30-50% more expensive over the distance,

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although there are no surcharges during peak hours with HopSkipDrive.

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But the founders think what they do is different from a taxi.

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So for my son Jackson, his care driver will park,

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go into the school, sign him out, there is a booster seat for him

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because he's not eight, and I can track the ride

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Rides are scheduled ahead of time with clearly branded cars

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and drivers who have a secret password to give to the children

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on pick-up so everyone can be sure they are getting in the right car.

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What happens when they come and pick you up?

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First, I get a text message on my phone and then

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when they come up to the door, they tell me the password

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and they go in the car and we have a conversation.

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For the drivers, many of them mothers themselves,

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it is a much more rewarding job than just driving a taxi.

:22:48.:22:51.

How is it driving lots of different kids?

:22:52.:22:55.

My main objective is just to obviously be friendly,

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and some kids just get in and they have their headphones

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on and they have their music playing, you know, and they just

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need to chill out because they have just come from school or dance,

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and other times, you know, some of the kids are really chatty,

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so I just have to take the emotional temperatures.

:23:22.:23:25.

Now Carly can go to the dance studio she loves, and Jennifer can manage

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I cannot leave work early every single day, so that is good.

:23:30.:23:35.

So far limited to a few areas in California,

:23:36.:23:41.

HopSkipDrive plans a careful expansion into more

:23:42.:23:43.

They have also recently added carpooling to reduce the cost,

:23:44.:23:49.

and this should help to ease congestion around school

:23:50.:23:52.

That was Kate and that is it from LA for the moment.

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I have a feeling we will be popping back here every so often

:24:03.:24:05.

Meanwhile, on Twitter we live @bbcclick, online we are:

:24:06.:24:09.

The fortunes weather wise across the UK very from west to east as we look

:24:10.:24:45.

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