Air Quality Click

charts are compiled. But is it from me. We will be back at two o'clock

but now here on BBC News it is time for Click.

This week, watch out, pollution. We will clean up the city with a bird?

No, a plane? No. It is a flying fish drone. This week is the BBC's so I

can breathe season, looking at ways to tackle air pollution around the

world. We are out on the streets of London to test a new camera from a

thermal imaging company. It has a sensitivity to a range of gases

which are invisible to the human night. The camera is supposed to be

used by experts who know what they are looking for in numbers and

colours that they see a bid is really supposed to be used in

industrial locations as well where you are looking for gas leaks. But,

I must say, even here I can see sprays coming from some of the

exhaust pipes through this camera that I cannot see with my eyes. Now,

if you want to tackle air pollution problems across a city, you have to

know where the pollution is coming from and at what time of day. That

is something that Mark has been investigating. Poorer quality, as a

result of pollution, poses a serious risk to public health. It is a huge

problem. The global burden of disease data now suggests that a

lack of clean air is the third leading cause of death in the world

after high blood pressure and smoking. But whether it triggers

allergy or asthma, understanding the exact challenges that pollution

causes, especially in a city, can be tricky. The levels of pollution in

cities can vary a lot between individual streets. The more precise

the information is, the better we can come up with strategies to

improve things. We can identify areas with particular problems.

Action to gather that even more precise data about pollution is

being taken on the other side of the Atlantic, in Chicago. Because of the

location of Chicago in the midwest and the fact that it is a large

city, it is something of a transport hub for road, rail and air

travellers. All those different vehicles don't do any favours for

the air quality in the city. Here, a system is being installed which has

been dubbed a fitness track for a city. It is called the array of

things when it is completed it will be a citywide network of sensors

fitted to lampposts and polls. The rate will monitor a variety of

things from local climate to traffic levels and the air quality of the

city. Eventually, all of the data the array gathers will be made

available online for anybody to use. We have come just outside of Chicago

to the Argonne National laboratory. It is part of the US Department of

energy and is the birthplace of the array of things. The donor is really

into air quality, so they are really excited. Here, the team behind the

array continue to refine the centre boxes and the technology they can

tame, blazing with city officials and arranging the continual roll-out

of the network across the city. This is the guts, if you like, of the

array of things. Which party you if the air quality sensor? This one is

the air quality sensor. It is an elegiac cell at tuned to a Pacific

type of chemical. This is a carbon monoxide one, this is the hydrogen.

And it will record the total level of gas. Installation of the array

began towards the end of 2016. By the end of 2018, 500 nodes are

planned for the network, spread across different parts of the city.

Charlie Kaplan is the project lead. He took me on a whistlestop tour of

some of the city's earlier census sites. So, Charlie, this is the site

of one of your first sensors, isn't it? This is one of the first six.

This one here does the air quality, not just the general air quality but

this one will tell us seven different gases and so that means we

can say, well, this one is reading this gas particularly high and we

know that that that is associated with a diesel truck. The new ones

that we are putting in we have added an sensor for particles. What we can

do with a particle sensor is we can look at the very fine particles that

are measured by EPA and other organisations. The smaller particles

are the ones you cannot see but they are quite dangerous. They will go

straight into your bloodstream. The large ones are what triggers

allergy. So if you are somebody with allergies related to asthma, you

will be able to use the data from these nodes to look at Poland across

the city and you may decide to change your cycle route to school or

work, a sum may be where the pollen concentration is around the city.

Chicago was not alone when it comes to pollution monitoring. We have a

system also in London which combines historical pollution data with

current pollution measurements to provide an hourly update of

pollution levels across the city. The rollout in Chicago continues.

The array of things nodes have been installed in other US cities with

one in Seattle and another in Denver and there is interest in the city --

system internationally as well. The data generated by the array of

things will be used by researchers, scientists and healthcare

professionals to get a better picture of the effects of poor air

quality and pollution. When it comes to turning this information into

action, that is job of local government. These two employees

works of the city of Chicago and working out how the array of things

can help city look at a range of issues. We have pockets of increased

rates of asthma among our children that doctors have known about for

quite sometime but they do not have a lot of information on why they

happen in certain areas of the city. The role of the array is to help us

understand the issues with air quality in Chicago in a detailed

level because you cannot fix a problem if you cannot define it and

understand it. We think about how heavy pollutant vehicles, say, if we

installed hundreds of miles of biplanes, there is clear research

showing that inhaling diesel fumes, especially by cyclists as they ride

alongside traffic, can harm them. It helps us to picture and take a good

look at where the bike avenues are and how that corresponds with the

system. If you have a school or a vulnerable location close to an area

that has increased air quality challengers, the data from the array

of things will give us the ability to define a policy that will address

that. A good example here in Chicago will be a quickly growing

neighbourhood on the west side. It has evolved into one of our

trendiest residential and entertainment district. But it has

also been crisscrossed by any number of street level railroads. By

looking at data and using data we will make decisions more confidently

and we will know we'd better than many other cities have the ability

to know that because of the data that we collect. Here, the

technology has a role to play in the fight against poor air quality. But

the bigger pollution busting powers relate to local and national

government. That was market in Chicago. In London, I'm checking out

a pollution monitoring device with a difference. I will give you a

clue... This is the launch pad. With this water tank, they can launch

their prototype. They even have their own in tunnel. Imperial

College in London have a drone that can fly through the air, dive into

the water and then leapt out again. Splash! All the while, gathering

data to give us a greater understanding of pollution levels

above and below the surface. The plan is to release a swarm of them

into an area of concern. This is our response to extreme environments or

post disaster applications such as after floods toxic spills, or I'll

spills, nuclear accidents or so numb is. They are different classes of

applications and capital abilities that they had to do something. This

low-cost tool brings an enormous value compared to many other methods

such as the human going there with a full protective suit. I was going to

say, we have seen a lot of quite robots and we have seen a lot of

flying robots. It never occurred to me that is quite difficult to get an

underwater robot over great distances quickly and, so, you have

combined the two. That is hard-core. So, yes, we will just die of it in

the water and then died out and fly it that way. In some applications it

is not even accessible through the water, in floods or ice you may not

get there. On the other side, and aerial beacon may not be able to get

the information that local people need so combining the two makes

sense. During a dive, the drone fills with water and then by

releasing carbon dioxide from its on-board gas chamber it forces the

water back out as a high-powered jet which thrusts the drone back

upwards, propelling it into the air. And in the wings unfold and it comes

out of the water and it beautifully becomes this flying birdlike thing.

It is quite graceful. That was a very romantic description. Now you

know what sort of guy I am and what I get excited about. There is a

beautiful part of it which makes it elegant. And elegance in nature that

makes it effective as well. Having the folding wings might be beautiful

but for us it allows us to reduce the drag that it would experience of

the dives in the water and allows it to dive more deeply, as well is

protecting the wings an impact. Hello and welcome to the week in

Tech. A week which saw Airbus revealed plans for a hybrid car that

flies. When Jaguar Land Rover revealed a search and rescue vehicle

that is home to a heatseeking drain. And when high polluter showed off a

500 metre long test tunnel from which it hopes to fire passengers at

around 600 miles an hour. That would be a two second journey. Time to

scream. Testing begins soon. It was also the week in which the

revelation was televised. According to WikiLeaks, does the CIA can

listen in on targets using Samsung TVs. Even when users think they have

switched off. A range of other surveillance methods were exposed

including a spy department dedicated to hacking the products of apple.

WikiLeaks say that the CIA is out of control. Apple and Google say they

have plug the holes and Samsung said it takes privacy seriously and will

be listening closely to the concerns of its customer. Facebook was left

red-faced when the BBC pointed out its platform was being used by

convicted paedophiles to share sexualised images of children. And

because the BBC shared the images with Facebook to help clean up its

platform, Facebook reported the BBC to the police, accusing the

corporation of distributing images of child exploitation. Want to buy a

cheap house? This one took only 24 hour was to print and cost $10,000.

artificial intelligence ahead of us, it is no surprise that tech giants

are investing big time in data sensors. Super brains to make

intelligent decisions in the cloud. But is this the best tactic? Here's

Dave Lee. And video is taking a different

approach. -- NVIDIA. It wants to do all that computation on this. NVIDIA

is best known for creating chips to handle high-end graphics, at

increasingly the company is looking to apply that computer power to data

and AI. This week it introduced Jetson T X two, the latest in their

line of what are essentially supercomputers on a chip. So, the

Jetson TX2 is really for artificial intelligence at the age, devices

like robots, drones, portable medical devices, which need a lot of

intelligence, but they are really small and they have small power. So

Jetson is going to give them the level of performance they need to do

artificial intelligence in that small size. So a drone that has

artificial intelligence on board is going to help find people that are

missing in the wilderness, say, and find them and deliver them first aid

and supplies. Experimenting with the new gear, people said it has many

practical applications. There are many reasons why you might want to

keep your computer power on a local device like this. For starters, it

is much more secure, because your data is not being sent to and from

the cloud constantly. That means some decisions are made quicker,

which, if you are riding in a soft driving car, you will probably

appreciate. -- self driving. There are many microcomputers on the

market and most of them strive to be as cheap as possible. Not NVIDIA's.

The Jetson TX2 will cost at least $400.

It is that time of year again. I've arrived at London's wearable

technology show. Only some of the highlights don't seem to actually be

wearable. Well, I've always thought that one of the most natural uses

for augmented reality would be to provide such now have in a car. --

satnav. That is one of the functions this device provides. It has this

section on the dashboard, when images reflected onto this small

piece of glass, and then we also have this dial on the steering wheel

which allows you to run through various functions. Things like being

able to change or music, or answering phone calls without overt

in your eyes away from that route straight ahead. The only thing is

that you are actually changing the length of focus, so even though I'm

looking in the same direction, looking at the screen does take my

attention away from the road a little. Probably for less time than

a separate satnav screen over there, though. Smart rings, vibrating

coats, sportswear tracking your every move. It has all been thought

of. The market for wearables reached an all-time high in 2016, with 102.4

million devices shipped. But the focus has shifted away from smart

devices connecting to multiple apps to simpler ones connecting to just

one, and that seems to be a trend reflected here. If you are

travelling somewhere on foot and you need to find your way, then some

satnav in your shoes would of course be ideal. This device has been

around a little while, which can attach to the laces of a pair of

trainers. But now it also slips inside and insole, so if it is time

to turn left, well, your left foot will vibrate. Time to turn right,

and your right foot well. Last year we featured a different type of

vibrating in Seoul. This is a prototype which is aimed at the

elderly or firm to help them maintain balance. This year, the

same company has a different product, a device for people

suffering from Parkinson's. It will shine this laser light in front of

each foot to help them put each but steadily in front of the other.

Within Parkinson's there is a symptom called freezing of gate,

which is fairly common. -- gait. It makes an individual feel as if they

are glued to the floor at any moment during walking. As you can imagine,

if your feet are suddenly not following you, you become quite

prone to falling. Researchers found you can use visual triggers and

sensory cues to enable a person to continue walking and taken another

step. And another insole on display. This seems to be a theme this year.

This time it is a personal safety alarm. If you want to activate it

you type your feet together twice and you'll selected emergency

contacts will be told there is an issue. -- your selected. To switch

it off, you type your feet together three times. Some products on show

were more finished than others, but overall it was a good glimpse at how

some of the latest wearable tech is looking right now.

That was Lara. Now, if you are a parent, like me, it has probably

crossed your mind that your kids might be using technology a bit too

much. How long are they spending on their phones? How much are they

texting? But the popularity of texting amongst young people isn't

all bad. Sumeet Dowson has been exploring how one organisation is

using it to deal with serious issues for young people.

Every Monday morning, this woman spends four hours texting with

people in need. She is a volunteer counsellor for crisis text line, a

free support service in the United States. Councillors and textures

remain anonymous for privacy reasons. -- texters. We have a lot

of middle schoolers who are concerned about what is going on and

they reach out to us during the day. They might be concerned about

sitting alone at lunch, for example. We have texters texting in because

they are in a domestic violence situation. Most texters are young,

under the age of 25. People tell us everything. They spill their guts.

Typically by the third message. Nobody overhears you, you don't have

to wait, even to be in a quiet place a quiet moment. The millions of

messages exchanged on crisis text lines make up a data sets teeming

with mental health insights. It reveals when texters struggle with

eating disorders and where they have suicidal thoughts. The data was also

used to build an algorithm. The model essentially performs triage by

analysing each word in the message. So a person who is thinking about

arming themselves would have a higher priority in the queue than

somebody who is out after a breakup. -- harming. We quickly learned there

were other things that were even more high-risk, that we didn't think

of or didn't know. Things like #kms, which means "Kill myself".

Conversations which reference things like either broken, Tylenol, and

Bill, draino, all the household drugs that are within reach. The

data is another mice and texters can opt out of data sharing. To promote

mental health research some data is shared with researchers. Scientists

at Stanford use natural language processing to study about 3 million

text messages. They uncovered five phases in the conversations. The

introduction, problem setting, exploration, problem-solving and the

wrapup. The best councillors were really quick to get through this

problem exploration phase. They were really good at getting to the heart

of the issue to understand that, and they were quicker to move on in the

conversation, which means that they then had more time to spend in this

problem-solving phase. At the end of the chat, texters can rate their

experience and the council. The researchers found that effective

councillors avoided canned responses and able to shift the texter's

outlook. We built an algorithm set that could measure different kinds

of perspective change from talking, using lots of negative words, to

talking about more positive words, to talk about how much you focus on

the past versus the present and future, and how much you focus on

versus other people. The next step is to create training tools for

councillors, like real-time feedback on the conversation, and exploring

the potential of a conversational agent. A robot. While data science

and tech gets these self-professed data nerds that the crisis text line

very excited, it will not use chat box. -- bots. Every messages read

and reply to buy a human. We couldn't let you go without

mentioning this mind controlled robot that responds really well to a

certain thought. In collaboration with Boston University, MIT's

computer science and artificial intelligence laboratory has

published a system which allows human uses to correct a robot's

mistakes by thought alone. It uses the signal we produce when we detect

a mistake. It is called the error potential. The user wears an EEG cap

and watch as the robot sought paint and wire into two bins. If they see

the robot making a wrong choice, they simply think, that's wrong! The

cap picks up that thought and the robot will correct its mistakes. We

are interested in exploring the possibility of combining the

potential -- error potential with other types of signals, which might

be easily reliable. Even though these are baby steps there are

tremendous applications that could happen in the home, on the factory

line, or in the floors, so this technology can help support people

in their daily activities, whether they are at work, at play, or in

transportation. Pretty interesting stuff, although admittedly, I think

that is still in the far future. So how about I tell you about something

in the more immediate future? Next week, click is going to India. We

will be travelling across the country to meet the people working

hard to change lives, save lives, and maybe one day try out a new

life. I can't wait. It is going to be brilliant. Join us on Twitter

throughout the week for more techies and behind-the-scenes photos and we

will see you next week in India. -- Tech news.