this is bbc news, the headlines: police in thailand have moved in to disperse pro—democracy protersters who have gathered around government house in the capital bangkok. the government has brought in an emergency decree, in response to a series of protests. they've banned gatherings of more than five people. france and germany have announced new restrictions, to try to stop the spread of coronavirus. a strict night—time curfew has been imposed in paris. in germany, bars will be forced to close early and there will be limits on people meeting, in areas with rising numbers of cases. tough new restrictions are coming into force in the uk. schools in northern ireland will be closing for two weeks. all pubs and restaurants, hairdressers and beauticians will also have to shut their doors for a month. officials have suggested hospitals are only ten days away from being overwhelmed. now on bbc news, click.

this week — the zoom room boom. but will it continue to bloom? ai gives your webcam the eye. and paul makes friends with tens of hens. hey, welcome to click. hope you're doing 0k. it's been nearly seven months now since we all packed up our camera kits on this programme and took them home. even back in march we were being told we needed to get ready for the long haul, but i'm not sure many of us were able to mentally prepare for that properly. how are you doing, lara?

well, i can't believe it has been that long already. i think there's a strange sense of us restarting this again. i suppose things had got a little bit back to normal but now we know we will be continuing for quite a while. one thing that i am starting to feel better about, though, and i think quite a few other people may be as well, is starting to differentiate between home and work life, even though it's all happening in one place. yeah, it is tricky to get the boundaries right though, i have to say. for example this is what happens at my place every week. i have to take over the entire living room and then we have these loud script meetings somewhere else in the house beforehand. of course working from home can mean a lot of video calls, and that puts you at the mercy of meetings being interrupted by the dreaded free... er, yeah, that. which is really annoying when the person speaking was about to make a brilliant point. i think what lara was about to say is that chris fox has found

a new way to keep talking even when your internet isn't playing ball. hi everyone, thanks forjoining today's video call, hopefully you don't notice anything unusual about my face — because this isn't technically a live video of me. in fact i am not even looking at the camera, i'm using computer trickery to make it look like i am. what you've just seen is one of several tools being developed by nvidia, the graphics card maker, that it hopes will change video calling and make it possible even on really slow internet connections like at my mum and dads house. streaming video can use a lot of bandwidth so the idea is to send just a few key components instead, a reference image of the caller and facial expressions. these can be recompiled at the other end, closely matching the original footage. this is still in development. it only works if you have a static background and there are a few times where my avatar looked a bit weird, but this is using

a fraction of the data that video calling would. nvidia says this technique uses about 3 kilobits per second of video, although, obviously, you'd have to layer audio on top of that too. the other benefit is that they can use face tracking data for other things like animating an avatar in real—time for you to use in your video call, although i'd probably choose a more exciting design than this. i've been told on twitter it makes me look like jacob rees—mogg. they can also use face tracking data to change the direction you're looking so that you're facing the camera. the question is, is this me? i mean, it looks like me and it is controlled by me but it's not me, it's more of the puppet of me, isn't it? to get philosophical, i called nvidia's richard kerriss and asked him whether using avatars like this might make video calls less personal. well, hopefully not. hopefully it's driven by you or driven by me and we would then be the puppetmaster —

in your analogy, but i think it's — you know, if i can have a better experience in my conversation with you by having a clearer picture and less diversions of things, whether it's noise or video backgrounds and stuff, i think that helps personalise it more. we've seen the capabilities of deep fakes and the kind of things people use it for, isn't there the possibility that people might use this kind of technology for dishonest purposes? good question. but that's not our intent. our intent is really to improve the workflows that people deal with on a given basis, and, look, there will always be ways that people can — you can make movies of yourself just by doing this. i have seen kids in school doing that. my daughter, someone got in trouble at school because they made a rather lengthy loop of them paying attention in class. there will always be that kind of stuff but that is not our intent. how do i know you are not using it now? are you using it now? (laughs). i will be right back, i'm going to get a coffee and we just keep talking. no, i'm not using it now, i'm not in the lab. right now it's in the lab

and we're doing a lot of testing on it and soon we'll have it in early access for a lot of the video conferencing companies and let them focus on what tools and things that they need for their product to be great. nvidia hopes its tools will be integrated into the big video calling platforms. the first one to sign on as avaya. and we are seeing ai tools creep into our video calling software. we have noise suppression in zoom and eyeline correction in apple's facetime. but, for me, the one ai feature i hope they can add next is one that could eliminate unnecessary video calls. that was chris. now, one of the companies that has had huge success during the pandemic is zoom. it may have been founded in 2011, but it's only really been since march this year that saying you're zooming someone has become part of everyday conversation. so spencer has caught up with harry moseley, the company's chief information officer, to find out a little bit more about the zoom boom and how he perceives the future of work.

the world changed for pretty much everyone in march and suddenly most of the world seemed to want to conduct video conferencing en masse. i would imagine that the world changed for zoom pretty drastically at that point, yeah? one could say so. i mean, if you go back to december 2019, we had north of 10 million daily participants on the platform, in march it went to 200 million people, and in april it shot up to over 300 million daily participants on the platform. so it we were running out of capacity in our new york data centre we were able to borrow capacity from our denver data centre and if that ran out we could borrow capacity from santa clara. because, you know, as the sun comes up in the east, the data centres in the west are quiet.

i want to talk about your virtual background, because that's the thing that's just amazed so many people. can you explain what's going on? because it looks to me like it is trying to find the human being, and as i move different objects across my body you can see it kind of removes them, which is very... it obviously knows that that is not part of a hand, that cup is not part of my body, and so it's removing it from my hand. what is going on? it's mapping out my body, so it can recognise my face and... and it's also focused on the room. but, typically, when you walk backwards into the virtual background you actually disappear into the virtual background — i don't know if you've noticed that. yep, yeah. because it's — the camera seeing, you know, sort of, it's seeing the physical presence and then it's — but then it can't see it because it ' out of range

and then it sort of lays over the virtual background, it's pretty clever stuff. what zoom's success shows us is that the world is waking up to remote working. but some companies were ahead of the curve. gitlab is a software firm that helps programmers collaborate on development and has been all remote since it was founded in 2014. with 1,300 employees living in 65 different countries, it's been developing solutions to the problems other companies are only seeing now. when the crisis began, most companies who shifted to all remote actually saw productivity go up, and this is because everyone was transitioned to a single playing field where everyone had access and the same amount of information, and we were all drafting off of the relationships that we had already built. but now six or seven months into this, if companies are seeing productivity decline, well, you have to understand that many people have been thrust into their homes with

a suboptimal workspace. they haven't had time to optimise their workspace, they may even be working at home with a spouse or kids at home that are also learning. this is a disaster for productivity. so i see it as no surprise that things are starting to dip. i think humanity deserves a round of applause for it taking this long. you can'tjust cobble together phone calls and zoom an email and expect work to just happen. you need a central point to funnel all of your work through. companies now have a choice, if they invest in tools and processes to make this a core part of their strategy, one year from now they should see productivity numbers that would never be possible in a co—located space. in fact, gitlab has published everything it knows online, so anyone can benefit from it. but it's notjust about moving the office to home. so there are a few golden rules to doing remote well. the first is that you have to have complete executive buy—in.

ideally have at least one or more of the executives that work off—site by default because, remember, your work flows and communication will largely follow how the executives are arranged. so that's step one. step two is you have to be crystal clear about your values. if you google gitlab‘s values you will find an extremely comprehensive list of not only our values but how we live those values when we don't see each other in person day—to—day. the company has real enthusiasm to share what it's learned from remote working. an almost evangelical desire to help others work from home just as well. but, of course, not everyone‘s going to share this optimism. and many will still feel it simply isn't the same. when everybody is working in the office, collaboration is great. when everybody is working virtually, collaboration is great. we're not going to have that though, we're going to have a hybrid model where you have some people in the office and some

people working from home. so how do you collaborate across that digital divide? the second thing that doesn't work in this hybrid model is culture breaks down. what do i mean by that? when you hire new people into the company, how do they get into the fabric of the organisation? how do they meet other people? it's different when we're all in the office and people can walk around, meet people, knock on the door, say "hi, i want to introduce myself, i havejustjoined." in the virtual environment that doesn't work so well. we're going to see, you know, augmented reality, virtual reality and 5g come to bear, we're going to see things like holograms and being able to see people in 3d. i think that sort of, you know — we've talked in the past about things like the notion of touch and the notion of smell in a virtual environment. you know, ifundamentally think that we will begin to see those things in the future too,

because 5g is going to enable — we don't know what 5—g... there's a lot of things we know that 5g will do. and there's a lot of things that we don't know what 5g will do, and i think the ability to have a more immersive experience in a virtual environment, i fundamentally believe we will see that. imagine a world where... you know, let's say there is a dozen people in your circle that you work with, you know, closely. imagine a world where you could set this group up and you could add all these people. maybe you interact with them on a frequent ad hoc basis. much like when you go into the office, as they come into the office you see them, so you log onto the network, you see them, you don't hear them but you can see them. you can wave, you can click them, you can touch them and say, you know — it turns on their speakers and microphone, you can

say "good morning, how was your weekend?" much like you would in the virtual, in the real office. i think, you know, and then everybody, you know — has a red background for when they are in a meeting or on a call, has a green background when they are not, and so now i see like spencer's free because he's green. there are still challenges to forming good relationships if you are only meeting people online for the first time. often it is that sitting down, having a coffee, after you've met them online that really solidifies that relationship. i tend to agree — it's like once you've met a person in person, in the physical world so to speak, then connecting with them offline in a virtual world works really well. if you are meeting the person to the first time virtually, i think itjust takes more effort to sort of... ..create that sort of true

collaborative, true relationship like you would if you had met them for the first time physically. hello and welcome to the week in tech. it was the week google, amazon, facebook and apple all faced criticism in the us following a 16—month—long congressional investigation. the report from democratic lawmakers argued that the tech companies had too much power and that they must be reined in. the report suggested several changes that could lead to the break—up of the companies, however republicans disagreed with many of the report's recommendations. facebook announced that they are taking action to deal with material relating to the qanon conspiracy theory. the social media platform banned all qanon accounts, pages and groups across all its platforms, although they say it will take some time to remove the content. facebook also removed a post of president trump's, where he falsely claims that

covid—19 is less deadly than the flu. twitter labelled a tweet for violating its rules about spreading misleading information. if you've been wanting to take your vr gaming experience to the next level, this vr treadmill makes your whole body the controller. you run, jump and crouch in place while anchored to a bar, which is then reflected in the virtual space. and finally, if robot news is driving you up the walls and onto the ceiling, well, they're not too far behind. toyota's latest robot development hangs upside down, helping with household chores like loading the dishwasher, wiping surfaces and clearing clutter. hello. this is l] calling with my top tips on how to win at video conferencing. first up, you probably don't

need to buy new kit to look and sound better on camera. to improve your sound, wear headphones if possible — it stops your mic picking up noise from the speakers and makes your voice sound clearer. you can check your video and audio work by going into preferences. you should see the volume meter to responding to your voice... one, two... ..and the video tab will show you what the shot looks like. for a better shot, have lights in front of you and avoid having windows behind you, if you can. this means that the cameras don't have to compensate for the bright light in shot. of course, this doesn't matter at night. to avoid the nostrils from below shot, aim for your camera to be the same level as your eyes. you might like to put the computer on some books or something similar, as long as it's stable. it's also a good idea to check there is nothing incriminating in the background. if you do choose to go with a virtual background, make sure your computer is powerful enough and that the backgrounds not going to upstage you —

unless, of course, that's the idea. if you're struggling to minimise background noise, play with the noise cancelling options in the advanced audio settings tab. this can help you clean up your audio. now you're ready to go live, it's a good time to brush up on some zoom etiquette. once you click on the link, you will either be ushered straight into the conference room, or you will enter the waiting room. if you're presenting, some people like you to keep your video and audio off, until asked to enable it. best practice is to enable video first, then audio. you can use the icons at the bottom of the screen or, if you want to look really smooth, use the keyboard shortcuts to toggle the video and audio. if you like checking on your reflection, move the preview window to the top of the screen, near the camera — you're more likely to look like you are paying attention. if you don't have a starring role, you can stay on mute and temporarily unmute yourself by holding down the space bar. if you can, avoid typing on your computer while you're presenting, especially if you're using the internal microphone. we can all hear that clattering unless you're on mute. there's an old saying on tv —

always assume your mic is hot, or live, so don't say anything you don't want broadcast. and always assume, if you're using the chat, that you might accidentally send your hilarious observations to everyone by mistake! there's currently no standardised way to end a call, though it's perfectly acceptable to wave or, if you want to be discreet, you can type your thankyous and goodbyes in the chat window. before you go, unless you're wearing wireless headphones, remember that you're still plugged in. that's better. that was lj. now, over the past few years, we've found ourselves spending more and more time inside food computers. now, these mainly involve growing food in special nutrient mixes inside shipping containers. you may remember the strawberries that we saw in paris and the delicious salad that i tried in los angeles.

the idea is to both precisely control the growing conditions, but also produce food closer to where it's going to be consumed. but now, there's a new idea. it's not about growing fruit or vegetable, but insects. paul carter has been to find out more and filed this bug report. rooster crows. wood farm. a family run business in the green fields of cambridgeshire. home to fourth—generation farmers charles and joe, a flock of 28,000 free range chickens and now, 6 million wriggling black soldier fly larvae. don't worry — these are for the hens. winner, winner, chickens‘ dinner! oh, my god!

there are millions in there. you don't need to stick your hand... you don't need to touch it. i don't want to touch it any more than you do. i really don't want to touch it. no. the chickens here are used to eating locally milled wheat. sounds delicious! but now, home—grown insects are on the menu, thanks to this ai—connected containerfarm. it's a system which allows by—products to be upcycled on site into high—quality, high—protein animal feed. the climate—controlled system is made up of trays stacked on robotic rollers. each holds around 20,000 larvae, which get their own snacks and liquid feed. all this is controlled by a panel on the wall, with an app also in development. typically, industrial—scale insect farms grow and process larvae on site before shipping to customers. better origin, the university of cambridge spin—out behind this trial, say they want to democratise insect production to farmers themselves. if you think of feed, right. it travels a very long distance

to get to the point of farm. soy usually travels from brazil, ok? by putting a system on site, you can dramatically cut down on all that food miles. not only that, you can do it vertically. but the smartest bit of all this is the ai that's monitoring the bugs. a combination of sensors speak with each other, sharing data around temperature, humidity, ph and motion. computer vision systems analyse how quickly they consume their food and how much they're moving. this information is put through a neural network to detect how each tray of insects is performing, if they need more less food, and if they are healthy or not, so the farmer can intervene. of course, the main thing for farmers like charles is that it's easy to use and results in happy hens. the trails that we've done, we've seen that the gut health on the bird has been fantastic,

we've seen the feather coverage on the bird has been fantastic, so all round, we think it's probably the best enrichment we've ever come across. now, it would be click if they didn't familiarise myself with the grubs and get in with the hens, who've been hiding inside the barn from the rain. try to get in before they get out. laughs. come on, girls! laughs. it's grubs up for the chickens — quite literally. i have never seen anything like it. they love it! they're pecking my feet! it's a good job i don't have feet! laughter. that was paul with 12,000 of his new best friends. paul is online now. paul, how was it with the chickens? it was pretty intense. i never thought i'd get that up close and personal with so many chickens at once!

i know that you were not particularly looking forward to seeing the insects. how did that bit go? well, i think they sent me on purpose because the member of the team most terrified of insects as me. but, fortunately, part of the beauty of the system is that it is automated — you don't have to touch them, it is all done automatically. they come in big trays. and, as you saw, the farmer just takes the trays in and tips the bugs straight onto the floor, so you don't have to get your hands dirty. oh, we'll get you next time, i promise. as we saw, there is potential for sustainability in this set—up, isn't there? there is. part of the beauty of this system is that it can be integrated anywhere, even on smaller farms, and the idea is that it is going to reduce their footprint and enable them to produce more of what they need to on site, so they are not having to import things like soya

from the other side of the world. and the chickens love it. so, in theory, you know, everyone's a winner. well, paul, thanks for doing it for us. anyone wants any eggs, by the way, paul's your man. and that is it for this week. as ever, you can keep up with the team throughout the week. you can find us on youtube, instagram, facebook, and twitter at @bbcclick. thank for watching and we'll see you soon. bye— bye. hello there. when you think back to the start of october and just how wet it was, it's probably a good thing, actually, that we are in the midst of quite a quiet spell of weather. for many of us, we will have skies like these, over the next few days — often pretty cloudy, but with some brighter spells at times. high pressure to the north of the uk. low pressure in northern italy. and between these two areas of pressure, we've got north—easterly winds feeding in. and those north—easterly winds are dragging in a lot of cloud from the north sea. thick enough to bring some scattered showers across eastern areas

of scotland at the moment. and we've got a few heavy showers just running into north—east england, although these will ease over the coming few hours. temperatures about 5—8 degrees celsius for most, but a bit colder where the skies do manage to stay clearest longest. on into thursday, then, and these north—easterly winds will continue to feed the cloud in for many areas. the west is best in terms of any sunshine. but i suspect we will have quite a few showers at times through the morning across the wash area. and then the showers probably break out more widely across east anglia, as you head into the afternoon. all the while, we'll see this line of showers, through most of the day, affecting east kent and running on into the channel islands, where, for some, it could be quite wet. although, for many of us, again, away from those eastern areas, it will be a relatively dry day. brisk north—east winds gusting about 30 mph, around some of the north sea coasts, will make it feel rather cool. now, we still have those north—easterly winds for friday but, if anything, they're a little bit less strong. and again, friday is the day with rather a lot of cloud around,

a few bright or sunny spells, and we will continue to see an odd shower or two popping up. the majority of these, again, affecting eastern parts of scotland and eastern areas of england. what about the weekend weather prospects? well, a lot more of that cloudy weather on the horizon, with a few light showers from time to time. now, you'll start to notice the winds going round to more of a northerly direction, across the far north of scotland, bringing the showers in here. so a greater chance of seeing some showers for shetland and orkney, where things will start to get a little bit cooler. otherwise, again, a lot of cloud around, some bright or sunny spells and temperatures 11—14 degrees. sunday sees that colder air moving a little bit further southwards across the north of scotland. so temperatures will be dipping away here. again, a lot of cloud, a few brighter spells, but i think a greater chance of seeing showers across the northern half of the country, turning colder in aberdeen — highs of eight on sunday.

this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm mike embley. our top stories: police in thailand move in to disperse pro—democracy protesters gathered around government house in the capital. france and germany announce new restrictions, including curfews, to try to stop the spread of coronavirus. the first lady reveals that 14—year—old barron trump contracted covid—19, but suffered no symptoms. could grey power be the x—factor in the presidential election? we report from a retiring, but not exactly shy, battleground in florida. how many of you just want this election to be