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tv   Click  BBC News  August 13, 2017 4:30am-5:01am BST

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when a car was driven into a crowd in the american city of charlottesville, where demonstrations were being held against a far—right march. officials say there have been another two deaths linked to clashes. an explosion in the pakistani city of quetta has left at least 15 people dead and 30 others injured. the pakistani military said the explosion targeted an army vehicle and several vehicles were set alight. the biggest star in world athletics, usain bolt of jamaica, has competed in his last major championship. bolt led his team in the axioom sprint relay in london but he pulled up injured in the final straight. great britain won the gold and silver went to the united states. now on bbc news, click. this week: unexpected item in the bagging area. giving vr a good kicking. and, going up?
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err, sideways. this month marks the 25th anniversary of the self checkout. the first one was installed in new york on 5 august, 1992, in price chopper. so what does its inventor, doctor howard schneider, remember of it all? i hadn't gone shopping much, so i went to the supermarket near my house with a stopwatch. and i started looking at people checking out, and my stopwatch went "click, click" — it was a mechanical one. and, you know, isaid wow,
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what a great environment. this is so messy. good luck with any machine doing it, and i said, this would be a great, great problem to solve. and then i started building a machine in my garage. i actually spent every cent i had on parts, and i got the first machines built. see, i love self—service checkouts, but then i'm a control freak. but i do believe they save you time. until they go wrong, at which point they become a right pain in the bagging area. the technology in the machines now is less than it was 25 years ago, using 286 computers, using ms—dos 3.3. i had better technology 25 years ago than what you see now, which is the reason for a lot of frustrations. please wait for assistance. unexpected item in the bagging area. please remove item before continuing. so now people are thinking outside of the shopping basket, to try and update the self checkout and reduce the delays further. in japan, reggie robo takes your basket and bags your shopping for you.
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the system, which was trialled at the beginning of the year, scans the rfid tags on all the items at the same time. since december, the amazon go shop has been undergoing testing in seattle. once it is working, shoppers should be able to pick up their items and simply walk out of the store. swedish cafe company wheelys is working on a similar idea, although this staff—less shop will even come to you. here at canary wharf, in london, something less spectacular, but which seems to me more workable and more scalable. grab and go has been invented by ba rclayca rd. the app scans bar codes as you grab items off the shelf, and then you just go. payment is taken from the card that is linked to the app, and the receipt is sent to the phone, so you don't have to wait in a checkout queue at all.
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but, with all that grabbing and going, are you thinking what i'm thinking? in the future, if you're scanning things and then just putting it in your bag, and then just walking out, and all the doors are open, i can see more people stealing more stuff. so you can basically very easily pick up some item and then can walk out, but on the way you have cctv, you have a man on the ground basically monitoring all of that. it works in exactly the same way. so it's no more secure than a self—scan checkout, but i do wonder how many people would just accidentally miss that barcode, and leave with a lot of unpaid stuff. although, even here, technology might be able to spot them. supermarket giant walmart has filed a patent to incorporate facial recognition, blood pressure and heart rate monitoring into its stores to try and understand customer frustration at checkouts. it might improve customer service, but previous trials of the tech have been used to try to spot shoplifters, raising a few security concerns along the way. in fact, just this week, the supermarket announced it is also trialling a scan—and—go solution,
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but this one relies on shop assistant approval before you can leave. in china, which is home to several unmanned stores like this one, you need your face to get in the front door in the first place. like barclaycard's grab and go, customers scan items using their phones, and they can even heat up their grub in the microwave inside. speaking of heating things up, a similar chinese idea, bingo box, ran into problems when one of its glass—clad stores began to overheat. now, as it was unmanned, it wasn't until customers began to complain that the sweltering temperatures were ruining the food inside that the shop was shut down. it is now back up and running, and everything is cool. so it's not all plain sailing for these souped—up shops, and it will be a while before we buy our weekly groceries
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in the store without some form of human interaction or intervention. but, as our patience wears increasingly thin in this age of grabbing and going, it's no surprise that bingo box plans to open 5,000 more stores in the coming year. premier league football starts again this weekend, which i'm reliably informed is important to some people. seriously, though, fans will be excited to see what their clubs new signings have to offer. but how do you know if a new player is going to be right for your team? well, one company is using virtual reality to identify talent, and also help players to recoverfrom injuries. here is carol hawkins. i'm in manchester, home of great football, to check out a small start—up that isjoining up with premier league clubs
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for an idea that's only eight months in the making. ifeel like i'm doing pretty good. this vr system helps scouts recruit players by using statistics from virtual gameplay to decide whether or not a player would work fora team. but it separately is also being used to help injured players get back to full fitness, mentally and physically. you have injured players who will often spend anything from six months to ten months, years out of the game. and the scientists, the physios will work with them, but we do not know what they're going to do in a situation, what decisions they're going to make. now, they can play games, as well as having the treatment. the movement might be limited, but they can feel a part of the squad. they are using an htc5 headset, with the usual hand controllers attached to shin pads. and the kit is wireless, crucial for football drills. as well as this version, they are also working on one
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for goalies, which will require an extra pair of sensors. several premier league clubs are signing up to use the vr system, because it promises to bring players back from the bench faster. and the first question they ask — does it feel like a real ball? you do feel like you're really hitting the ball, it's quite strange. i don't know if‘t is the sound, or the visuals, but it is very immersive. and i know people always use that word for vr, but it does feel as though you are hitting it. but, of course, you're not. and because you are not, it's important players don't try too hard, and injure themselves even more, especially when they've cost clubs millions of pounds. we had an injured player last week who is not allowed to kick a physical ball. he's fit, he could probably run a marathon, but the injury means he cannot do it. he got in this and it was basically a case of, ifeel like i am kicking a ball.
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psychologically, it is massive. i am now in the rehab drill and there is a man to my left who is tracing a s with his foot. now, i cannot do that, because my balance on these prosthetics just is not there. sorry, physios! but i can see how that would be very useful for injured players, but not just injured players, in hospitals. players will complete a set of exercises and drills which will be scored, and their fitness can then be judged by coaches. elsewhere in the sport world, american football is embracing vr quickly. strivr there is a company out of stanford university, currently working with seven nfl teams to allow players to practice anytime, anywhere, without the same physical tolls. and in the netherlands, another vr company, beyond sports, has a contract with both arsenal and stoke city for match analysis and vr training. but, back in the uk, a man who won premier league titles as a player and coach with manchester united thinks
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the new technology can really help. i think it benefits both amateur, professional and grassroots. you can put pressure into the situation. the technology is part of sport now. football, possibly, have had a reluctance to use it, but it's moving in that direction. but the kit they are offering is not cheap, with packages starting at £5,000, and increasing to more than £20,000 a month. but the potential benefits of vr to the football clubs that can afford it are intriguing. coaches want to train and test footballers in the most effective way, by recreating the pressure and intensity of performing in a packed stadium. so what would the manager with the most premier league titles under his belt, sir alex ferguson, think about it? do you think fergie would have been up for it? he would have a look at it, yeah. i think he would. he was open to all that sort
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of stuff, as long as it made a bit of a difference. 0r sometimes it's what people like, you know, players like it. they like something new and fresh. top clubs are big businesses, and the money in football is only going to increase. and, as it does, teams will be looking for any way to improve. as you watch your team this weekend, remember that last—minute winner or fingertip save might be the result of some hard hours spent in a virtual world. hello, and welcome to the week in tech. it was the week that the us military announced it might shoot down civilian drones if they fly near american bases. and, the telephone numbers and e—mail addresses of game of thrones stars were leaked by hackers demanding a ransom from tv network hbo. faceapp has pulled a new feature labelled as "racist", which allowed users to edit selfies into caucasian,
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asian, indian, or black. and social networking behemoth facebook is taking on tv and youtube by revamping its video offering. labelled "watch", it would feature specially commissioned shows, as well as cat videos and clips of people falling over. and disney is going to pull its content from netflix, after the house of mouse announced that in 2019 it's launching a rival video streaming service, dedicated to family friendly disney fare. don't you worry, pal. you had a good run! there's no word yet whether the service will show any marvel or lucas film content — like star wars, which disney also owns. and finally, the man who made passwords a massive pain now says much of what i did, i now regret. bill burr created the us national institute of standards and technology's guidelines, including things like changing your password every three months and using complicated character combinations.
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he now thinks this is a waste of time, as people still pick rubbish passwords which hackers can break. they are just harder for us to actually remember. weather, particularly in britain, can be changeable at the best of times. for all the dramatic change to come over the next 2a hours, i should know, having spent a decade as a weather presenter before joining click, it's notjust about knowing the forecast, you also need to be prepared whatever the weather. and, if you are not that organised, luckily i found a couple of devices that should be able to help... sunflower, open. this prototype autonomous sunshade can be voice controlled, or use artificial intelligence to know what to do, when.
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ok, the main function here is probably pretty obvious, and that is to protect you from the sun. this device aims to be a little bit more clever than that. as the sun moves throughout the day, the top of the umbrella will also move. the panels on it will be harvesting solar power and also making sure that you get maximum protection wherever the sun is. so some of the other functions in here? well, there is a camera and a microphone providing security when you are out. there's also the ability to be able to play music i ask it now, through voice recognition i should be able to do that. sunflower, play classical. classical music plays by launch later this year, it is expected to be able to fully connected to the smart home, as well as virtual assistants amazon eco or google home. all very well — if a price tag of up to £3000 does not bother you... sorry, hang on, ijust need to charge my phone...
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and for those moments the sun isn't shining, well, you wouldn't want your washing getting wet, would you? so, how about a smart clothes peg? peggy is still at prototype stage, but the finished product aims to be able to track ultra localised weather using these sensors within the device, as well as pulling data from online forecasts so you know whether you should be putting your washing out or not. handy, if it works. but for keeping yourself dry, well, a few smart umbrellas, in all shapes and sizes, have emerged in the last few years. as much as this umbrella may look difficult to miss, it is, of course, quite easy to leave your umbrella at home when it's going to rain, or just to leave it anywhere, but this connects to your mobile
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phone so it should stop you from being able to lose it. if you move too far away you will receive an alert and if you wake up in the morning and the internet says it is going to rain? well, you will get a reminder on your phone to make sure that you take it out with you. the problem was, i did seem to get more alerts than were actually required. if you are taking a trip to the beach this summer, then hopefully your issue won't be rain, but it could be thirst. so, if you've been waiting for a drink delivery service to bring cold drinks to your sun lounger, then you are in luck. well, at this estonian resort, anyway. the cleveron drone aims to safely drop—off drink orders from two meters above. i'm not sure i would opt for something fizzy... the company claims this is the fastest response time ever for commercial drone delivery. so whatever the weather has in store for you this summer, you now know how much better
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prepared you could be in the future. i seem to be living in a time when all of the tech from my favourite childhood sci—fi films is coming true. we kind of have back to the future hover boards, we do have jet packs from the james bond films, and robot vacuum cleaners from the jetsons. and kate russell has been to stuttgart in germany to uncover the latest storybook tech turned real. the picturesque town of rottweil, germany. home to fearsome dogs... chocolate box buildings... and a 246 metre tower housing the tallest observation deck in germany. that this tower isn't just about great views. built by elevator company thyssenkrupp, it has 12 lift shafts
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running inside of it. one is used to transport passengers to the top. the others to test the latest in elevator technology. as buildings get taller, life gets more complicated for elevator engineers. if a building is reaching a certain height, it has the tendency that the wind and the sun brings a certain sway to it. it's actually a big problem for the traditional elevators. if the frequency of the ropes equals the frequencies of the building swayed, you get harmonics and things happen which are not so good. to counteract this sway, thyssenkrupp have installed a mass dampener, weighing in at 240 metric tonnes. it can also be programmed to create sway and test how their tech handles different weather conditions. there's also the thorny issue of what happens when things go wrong. the tower houses a 250 metre fall shaft, which is used to drop things from a fantastic height, to see how they break...
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argh! whoa! that's going to —30 into the ground. that's mad. that makes me feel quite dizzy. the tower is also used to test ideas designed to tackle some of the biggest problems facing high—rise living. already today, lifts take about 40% of the usable space of a building. if you build higher, you need more lifts, and you are ending up with only lifts, which makes no sense. so our inside area is in the core of the tower. and only a few people really have the chance to see what we have built, and what is running there. an elevator without any ropes, so this is something revolutionary. instead of steel ropes, the cabin is carried by linear motors, the same tech that drives japan's bullet train at 500 km/h. as well as eliminating the speed
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and height restrictions of today's tech, it allows passengers to travel sideways as well as up and down, just like willy wonka's fantastical elevator in charlie and the chocolate factory. behind the scenes, behind the car, we change this exchanger 90 degrees. get prepared for the horizontal movement while people are entering and leaving, and as soon as the doors close, we can go sideways to the next shaft. this is the most important thing, that we come back to a circulating system. so reinventing the paternoster. using this circulating pattern means a lift shaft could hold ten or more cabins, much more efficient than the single up—and—down ride today's elevators are limited to. and this will only become more important when we start looking at elevators reaching perhaps i,000m or more into the sky. that was kate, and that was amazing.
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not that the most impressive innovations always have to be the highest—tech, of course. as i've often said, some of the most inspiring innovations are those in the developing world, that use pretty low technology to do really important things. case in point — dan simmons heard about a group of people who are using a mobile phone to save lives in nairobi. i'm on my way to thika, an hour's drive south of the capital, to see one of the first centres in kenya using phones to diagnose cancer. it's essentially a smartphone with a scope offering 42—times magnification. that allows the camera to be placed a comfortable distance away from the patient. a powerful light comes with the system. its even brightness is critical
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to avoid misdiagnosis. violet, what is the biggest change that you've seen since this was introduced to your clinic? so you show them the picture... yeah. and you say, you tell me which one of these you are? so they do their own diagnosis. so they are going to do you out of a job, if they can
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do their own diagnosis with a machine! laughter. they are not going to need violet anymore, are they? yeah! many women do not go for the screening. it has been too expensive, and because of a lack of education, many who do go feel it's a waste of time if they get the all—clear. that's why violet's job is to explain as well as test. i use this to check your cervix... scans used to cost $40 to $50, over half a week's wages. this scan costs $10. when a patient comes, you view their cervix, you have an opportunity to address them, you have an opportunity to talk to them about cervical cancer. so the hurdle that was previously there was education in relation to cervical cancer. but now we have seen an improved attitude toward cervical cancer, and increased screening. and, with this, we can screen any woman, anywhere.
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the system isn't cheap. it is sold at $2,000 a unit, but it has already seen an 80% increase in the number of women being scanned at this clinic over the last year. if kenya's new government decides to back the scheme, it could become a major weapon against a major killer. that was dan, in nairobi, and that's it for this week. over the next couple of weeks, we're going to give you the chance to rewatch two of our favourite programmes from the year so far — the two india specials. we'll be travelling across the country, to meet the people working hard to change lives, save lives, and maybe one day discover new life. i hope you enjoy watching them as much as we enjoyed making them. do not forget we are on twitter and on facebook. thank you for watching, and we'll see you soon. good morning.
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well, despite a few nuisance showers across north—east england, for many of us, saturday was a promising day. and a ridge of high pressure continues to build through the night, so clear skies here, withjust a little bit more in the way of cloud across the essex and kent coasts, with the legacy of those saturday showers. but, generally speaking, it is quiet start to sunday. it will be a chilly one, not necessarily in towns and city centres, but in rural spots, expect low single figures to greet you first thing this morning. but there will be a light breeze, and with those clear skies comes lots of pleasant sunshine. so not a bad start to the day. as we go through the afternoon, cloud will start to bubble up, and we'll see a few isolated
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showers, but hopefully they'll be few and far between. favoured spots likely across scotland and northern ireland. if you dodge the showers, with light winds, 17 or 18 degrees will feel quite pleasant. certainly a better day through the borders, north—east england, down into lincolnshire, in comparison to yesterday. fine, dry and sunny. yes, the risk of an isolated shower further west, into wales and south—west england. but again, you'll be unlikely to catch those, so highs of 19 to 20 degrees here, and low 20s quite possibly, again if we get the sunshine continuing. so, if you're heading off for the final day of the world athletics championships, whether it is the morning or the evening session, perfect weather conditions for those spectators, and for the athletes. and a similar story, as well, for the premiership matches taking place today. very nice indeed, largely dry here. now, as we move out of sunday, into monday, a change to come. a weather front moves in from the west. it'll bring the heaviest of the rain through scotland, in particular, and north—west england. light and patchy into northern ireland, wales and south—west england.
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the best of the sunshine, really, through east anglia, the east midlands, down into the south—east corner. here, we could see highest values around 22 or 23. but, even in the cloud and the rain, we're looking at around 15 to 19 degrees. so once the rain clears through and the brightness returns, not too bad an affair. that front will still clear away. it is not going to bring that much in the way of persistent rain across the east, but it will do so through tuesday night, into the start of the day. so on tuesday it looks as though we'll see a scattering of showers, but not a bad affair. 17 to 23 degrees the overall high. that front still to clear away, and then another waits in the wings for wednesday. but, ahead of it, it stays relatively quiet, so not a bad day on wednesday. it will cloud over from the west with that rain arriving, but that is going to be the story this week. there will be some spells of sunshine from time to time, but also, we can't rule out spells of rain. this is bbc news. i'm duncan golestani. our top stories: one person dies
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as a car ploughs into a crowd of people in virginia after a day of racial violence. 0ur message is plain and simple, go home. you are not wanted in this great commonwealth. the attack followed earlier clashes between far right and anti—fascist protestors, president trump calls for calm. we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides an explosion in the pakistani city of quetta leaves at least 15 people dead and 30 others injured. and disasterfor usain bolt as his final race before retirement ends with an injury.
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