hello, this is bbc news — this is bbc news. with rebecca jones. the headlines at apm. a problem anywhere across the northern half of the country in the the headlines: brenton tarrant, the main suspect in the new zealand mosque shootings in which 49 people morning. nowhere near as windy to brenton tarrant, the main were killed, has appeared in court suspect in the new zealand on a single murder charge. mosque shootings in which a9 people the south tomorrow, a day of were killed, has appeared in court sunshine and showers, mild that for new zealand police say scotla nd sunshine and showers, mild that for scotland but chillier for england 00:00:14,631 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 and wales. they believe a lone gunman on a single murder charge. was involved in the attacks. prime ministerjacinda ardern has new zealand police say vowed: "our gun laws will change." they believe a lone gunman was involved in the attacks. new zealand is united in its grief, prime ministerjacinda ardern has vowed, "our gun laws will change." and we are united in our grief. new zealand is united in its grief in other news: tory mp nick boles quits his local conservative association — and we are united in our grief. in the face of efforts to deselect him as the candidate for the next election. more than a0 people are injured and in hospital, as tributes are made in commemoration to those who have died. in other news — tory mp nick boles quits his local now on bbc news, it's time conservative association in the face for click 7 and a special of efforts to deselect him programme from japan. this week, we're injapan to find the fascinating, the ferocious, and the famous — if fictional.

it's amazing to think that next year, this place will play host to the greatest show on earth. by the time 2020 rolls around, it'll have been 56 years since japan last hosted the olympic games. back in 1964, they used the event to signal the rebirth of the nation, following the disruption of the second world war. then, the focus was japan's economic

and technological explosion. now, japan once again wants to show the world that it's still leading the way in innovation. but with the country's explosive growth spurt now in the past and an ageing population on the horizon, the story this time might not be so simple. it's playing heavily on its image as the land of the robots, but finds itself as just one of many countries researching all of the other big tech areas, including 56, 8k broadcasting, and self driving cars. and transport is the subject of this project by mobile operator, ntt docomo. it's trying to predict traffic congestion, by tracking phone users‘s movements throughout the day.

docomo knows the age, demographics and home address of each of its 76 million subscribers, and also knows pretty accurately where their phones are at any time. it's used in artificial intelligence to watch how and where they travel throughout the day, and also how and when they return home at night. it can now predict where traffic congestion will occur in the evening, based on where everyone is during the day, and it's hoped that the ai may also be able to cope with the different traffic flows that will be associated with the olympics. translation: the system we have developed can track the user population in real—time. increased social activity occurs because people move from one place to another. based on this concept, we are developing some new services using this data. for example, ai taxis.

now with so many visitors flooding into japan, safety is paramount, and for the first time, the olympics will be using facial recognition to ensure speedy identification. paul carter has been to find out more. at next year's olympic and paralympic games, tokyo is expecting millions of spectators to pack into the city for its festivals of sports. among that number will be over 300,000 accredited people, including athletes, volunteers, media and other staff — all needing access to restricted areas. developed byjapanese firm nec and based on their ai engine, called neo face, they claim the system is 99% accurate and almost immediate. but how well does it work in practice? i've come for a demo to find out. in orderfor a facial recognition system to work, it needs a record of your face. so unfortunately for this system, it's now going to have to get

a record of this ugly mug. translation: the system recognises your eyes, face, size of your face and other features, using hundreds and hundreds of points, and then matches that with the photos that are registered on the cards. now that the system has a record of my face, all i need is this card. i'll see if it works. good to go. but you can't talk facial recognition without concerns about privacy. i asked the spokesman for the organisers what they'll do with all those faces. the personal data collected through the application process will be securely guarded and will be destroyed in the most appropriate way, once the games is over. now, when anyone tells you things are going to be more

efficient, and in this case near instantaneous, i'm always a little bit suspicious, but i have to say the thing that's most impressive about the system is that in the dozen or so times i've tried it, it's recognised me pretty much instantly every single time and it's seen my face from a wide variety of angles and it still seems to work, so i think in this case, those claims actually hold up. but of course, controlled demos are very different from real—world applications. the proof will ultimately be in the queueing. that was paul carter, and someone else who's been having herface mapped recently is kate russell, who went in search of japan's latest online craze. welcome to a new age

of virtual youtubers — animated characters, driven by real people, to entertain and inform. hiyori works for a government department responsible for promoting tourism and business in the region of ibaraki. live streaming channels have become incredibly popular, but they usually feature people. hiyori already has 96,000 subscribers and it seems japan has really taken to the phenomenon. almost 2.5 million people subscribe to watch kizuna ai. and then there's the slightly disturbing case of a horse called baacharu. i am at spice studios in the back streets of tokyo and they have kindly agreed to give me the full v—tuber treatment.

all of these cameras around here are going to understand where my body is in the 3d space that we are in and that will translate to the avatar moving, and then this camera is going to capture my facial expressions and translate that to the avatar as well. so my transformation is about to take place. hello, my name is natsu. the beauty of this system is that you can be any character that you want and the application will mirror your movement in real—time, allowing live performance and view interaction online. ——viewer interaction.

translation: since the end of 2017, v—tubers have become more and more popular. we decided to use this idea because it would be compatible with our viewers. although v—tubers are popular injapan, this london based channel was among the very first. hello, bbc click. i have been making youtube videos since 2011. her vlogs are remarkably human. in fact, she seems completely unaware she's an animation. it always happens when i have to get up early, i can't sleep the night before... but this cgi clip took 20 hours to produce. using motion capture allows the modern day vtuber to deliver a lot more content in the same amount of time. translation: using what we already have, we can move them in real—time. activating the gloves is what is new about the system. it is incredibly

detailed, the movement. i mean literally wiggling my little fingers, do a little circle with my fingers. so what is next? we would also like to put her on esports and promote here not only to the japanese, but also to the international audience. the world is so crazy right now, can you ever see a time where she might run for government herself? translation: i never thought of it, but that is interesting. in a world of growing distrust in politicians and increasingly pervasive celebrity culture, that idea might be more pressing than is comfortable. and on that cheerful note... bye— bye. hello and welcome to the week in tech.

it was the week we celebrated 30 years of the world wide web — while social interactions took a hit as facebook, instagram and whatsapp faced outages across the world. and, the national crime agency revealed a new cartoon targeted at four to seven—year—olds to teach them about staying safe online. it was also the week we got a genderless voice assistant. a team of linguists, technologists and sound designers created it. it's aimed to help fight gender bias in smart assistants. more details were revealed about harry potter wizards unite. the augmented reality game was created by the pokemon go creator. players will be playing spells, searching for items, and battling death eaters.

a japanese company has announced plans to work with toyota to develop a human operated space robot to be launched in 2029. and finally, meet metafly. it's an insect inspired drone that has created quite a buzz. it can reach speeds of up to 11 miles an hour and fly for up to eight minutes on one charge. lightweight and highly manoeuvrable, it can even be flown indoors. when it comes to building a country, you'd be hard—pressed to find a more unpredictable bit of land than japan. perched atop four tectonic plates, japan's islands are in the heart of the volcanic zone of the pacific ring of fire. there are over 100 active volcanoes injapan, and each year, about 10% of the world's earthquake energy is focused around the country.

understanding nature in japan can mean saving lives, but how do you predict the unpredictable? i am on my way to oshima, about eight hours by night boat out of tokyo. oshima is the start of a chain of islands with a violent history, a history born in fire. i am here to meet this doctor and his team. between them, they have spent decades studying mount mihara, the active volcano at the heart of the island. oshima was near the epicentre of the infamous great kanto earthquake in 1923, that killed an estimated 140,000 people. since then, mount mihara has fallen into a cycle of erupting every 30 years or so.

that means another one is due any time now. translation: on the day of the eruption, hundreds of crows were perched on the stone pagoda, which was peculiar. i went to the crater late in the afternoon. there was a seismometer placed just above where we are heading to right now. we're on our way now to the summit of the volcano to check an instrument that the researchers have here. you can see in the background behind me, some of the smoke coming out of the ground from the active volcano. and we are surrounded everywhere by this black magma, leftover lava, some from the 1986 eruption. that eruption started over here and down this hill, towards the town of 10,000 inhabitants. fortunately, it didn't quite make it, but they did have to evacuate. the team are visiting the mountain today to check and repair the sensor stations that they have

dotted around the volcano. volcanic rock is just a small magnet so if you heat up a magnet, magnetisation vanishes. then we can detect some change. before the eruption of the volcano. the team's measurement stations can only track a relatively small area. to map more of the mountain they need a bit more perspective. this unmanned helicopter can cover a much wider area and gather much more data. but it is not something they can do every day. over one third of people injapan live within a hundred kilometres of an active volcano. so having an early warning is invaluable. but knowing what to do if an eruption does occur is just as important. back on the mainland, researchers are using computer simulations to predict where ash could fall in the event of a major eruption. they are using historic records

and samples from the last eruption of mount fuji over 300 years ago. translation: the day of the eruption, the blue skies were filled with volcanic ash. the closer you got to the volcano, the thicker it was. more than a metre of ash fall according to historical documents. heavy motorised traffic. people were living simple lives. imagine if something of this scale happened in this day and age, full of electronic technology. who knows what kind of damage it would lead to. it is a complete unknown for us. over in central tokyo the team's data is already starting to have a practical impact outside of the laboratory. this is where all that data ends up. this is the volcano and earthquake monitoring room at the japan meteorological agency. these guys are here around the clock ready to raise the alarm should anything be expected. translation: the japan meteorological agency are tasked with raising the alarm

in event of earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. and now new research is bringing that rapid response to other types of extreme weather as well. japan's geography means flash floods can happen in minutes. translation: 20,000 rivers are recorded and assessed in this country and i think this is unheard of in any other country. injapan, landslides and flooding have ta ken many lives. even in recent years. advancements in radar sensor accuracy and map data means the system can raise the alert about dangerous flooding in near real time. every ten minutes if they need it. slowly but surely researchers across japan are understanding how these seemingly untameable natural events work. and each time they do it makes the people of japan a little safer. one of the memories that will always stay with me is our visit

to the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant that was devastated by the great 2011 tsunami. exploring the wrecked reactor site showed just how difficult it is to build robots that can navigate wreckage and rubble as well as a human can. today i have come to waseda university to meet a machine that was inspired by the fu kushima disaster. warec—1 is a big beast weighing more than 150 kilograms. the need to move across uneven terrain has caused roboticists to investigate many kinds of designs. and although robots with wheels or with snakelike bodies can handle tricky terrain, they are not so good when you need to get hands—on. after we reached the destination the robot has to perform, it has tasks like turning a valve or manipulation of switches

or opening doors, something like this. it requires big power. in order to actually manipulate things, warec—1 would need additional hands or fingers of some kind. for now, the team are just investigating the best way to move. crawling low and slow over the rubble. i notice that it is notjust using its four legs, it is also using its belly. yes. so all the legs can come off the ground at once. i don't think i have seen that before. yes. actually this is a new locomotion style proposed by us. it's quite difficult, even for a human to walk at this place. but if a robot moves with a crawling motion it will be very stable because its belly is almost on the ground. so it has a very low centre of mass. spikes on the belly help to stop it slipping on the rubble and also help

it grip onto corners as it hoists itself up and down. and although it is not strictly a self—balancing robot, it does not really matter if it takes a tumble because it is symmetrical. so it can still work, back to front and upside down. as you can see, when it is not in its weird spiderlike form it is actually quite human shaped and human sized. there is a good reason for that — because it is expected to work in an environment where a human would work so it needs to fit in the same spaces and certainly not weigh any more than a human so it does not disappear flew the floor. does not disappear through the floor. japan is one of the few places where robots are leaving the laboratory and entering society more widely. where other places may have reservations about robots taking jobs, japan desperately wants this to happen. in the run—up to the 2020 olympics, japan is looking for more ways than ever to have bots

do the hard work. here's kate russell. these self—driving electric wheelchairs made by panasonic have already been rolled out for testing at tokyo's haneda international airport. but what is new is my luggage buddy here. you can pop your suitcases in there and it will follow the wheelchair wherever it goes, slowing down and speeding up as necessary when it goes up and down sloping surfaces. perfect for an airport. if a roaming traveller walks in front of the chair, it will stop along with the luggage caddy. although in a crowded airport, i can see wandering people getting in between the luggage and the chair which might lead to some frustration. panasonic hopes to have the chairs available in airports and public spaces across japan in time for 2020. in the past, japan has not had the greatest record for accessibility.

with a0 million visitors expected to come to the olympics and paralympics, organisers have pledged to use this as an opportunity to fix these problems and make tokyo a more inclusive and accessible city. disabled passengers in need of assistance will be able to summon a wheelchair through an app. it will then take them where they need to be without stress or hassle. something i'm sure able—bodied travellers could appreciate after a long journey as well. for many visitors coming to the olympics next year, the japanese language will be challenging to say the least. we have looked at several translation tools on click before but the one that paul carter has found looks like it is straight out of a comic book. perhaps the olympics and paralympics greatest achievement is their ability to bring people from all over the world together. but as well as being positive, it can also bring challenges, notably around language.

one japanese graduate student, supported by an accelerator alongside tech firm panasonic has created a special project to try and get the world talking. fukidashi is the japanese word for speech bubble. it is a system with a screen on each side linked by bluetooth. words spoken by one person will be translated on the opposite screen and vice versa. we'd investigated whether people use, actually, a phone to communicate with foreigners but nobody uses that. i think because a phone is more like a way to ask a concrete specific issue like "where is the station?" the technology behind it is not necessarily anything new. it uses google's api to facilitate the translation. but the application of the technology is really interesting. although only a prototype at this stage, it is hoped the system can be rolled out at points

across the games. and beyond, the creator hopes to take the system much further. at the next stage, maybe people can have small devices like fukidashi to use everywhere, anywhere, any time. it would be great. at present, the system can work between four languages — japanese, english, chinese and korean although there are plans to extend the language range much further. the prototype also currently requires access to a data signal to function. amazingly clear. i almost want to take with me for the rest of my time injapan. can i keep it? and that is it for our olympic special from the tokyo olympic stadium which next year, of course, will be at the heart of the action. don't forget that we live on facebook and twitter. thank you very much for watching and we will see you soon.

hello. we have seen just about every kind of weather across the uk today, so is there any north, heavy rain any south, showers bringing rumbles of thunder. for some, there have been a few glimmers of brightness stop underneath this area of low pressure, with the code edge, some slightly colder air is trying to bump its way north currently. through this evening, we will see the snow across the far north of england and southern scotland turning to rain. one way or another, it could be a challenging night if you are travelling out and about for

your evening out. still some heavy snow to come for the highlands and aberdeen child. rain and a sleety, snow mix across southern scotland. some rumbles of fund for and ice will be an issue as the sky not to clear. through the evening, rain pushing its way across the south—west of england, the midlands, eventually into east anglia and the south—east. skies clear behind at a0 time then it looks like heavy showers will pack into north wales. the wind remain gusty, they will stack to ease overnight, but but still those gusts strong enough to do some damage. from nine m onwards, a wet end to the day across the south—east and east anglia. clear skies following, the low off into the north sea. stoke breezy behind the north sea. stoke breezy behind the low, showers carrying into northern ireland, of england, and to the north of scotland. chilly across the north of scotland. chilly across

the northern half of the uk, ice could be a possibilityjust about anywhere across the northern half of the uk for saying on sunday. on sunday, we are on our rear edge of low pressure, still breezy, not so much as today. we could see bands of showers going off, still wintry weather for scotland and northern england for a time. heavy rain pushing into wales out of the south—west of england. christ and writers on sunday likely to be the south of england. higher into the single figure range. next week looks like it will become quieter, drier and less windy.