discovery. documentary. hello and welcome to you tomorrow today the science show on d.w. coming up self taught in cars are just around the corner. once they hit the road traffic flow will have to regulate itself autonomous leaching. how far along is the technology for that answer is it safe. also on the show noise as a stress factor. how

harmful is noise to our health and what kind of effects can it half. a sinking city bangkok is desperate for solutions to its flood problem. traffic jams and backed up streets could be a thing of the past with self driving cars. with a computer at the helm they could smooth the traffic flow by up to 30 percent but do artificial intelligence systems know what's going on around them. the also official intelligence systems that drive autonomous vehicles have to interpret what computer scientists call optical. patterns of light in official seem to identify objects in the true. actuaries it's crucial the optical flow systems

get it right all the time. so today. that's what 3 researchers at the max planck institute for intelligent systems into began germany want to determine. this system represents the movement of an object in different colors and different degrees of brightness depending on the perceived direction and the speed it's going in. your car is moving to the right then and then your optical is going look like yellow in the color map and the fosters move the brighter the colors so if it's moving right at a really high speed then you see it like a bright yellow thing and then if it's moving slowly then it's more towards the right to me how like a color wheel representation which sort of like shows the corresponding civil lawsuit is but stuff like happened in the video and objects move. on a rock run john that's one way the optical fly are it represents that in yellow. if

you go the other way it turns purple. the computer vision system also predicts the 5 in me front of all jets it's identified as the color of the head still moving forward or is it slowing to a stop that's key to preventing collisions for example. and it has to do all this super fast. to the computer every image is a fresh image it's like it's seeing the world every this 30 times a 2nd brand new and optical flow is what connects things across time and allows the computer to have a consistent representation of the world much more like we do. testing ai systems involves trying to trip them up the research just have indeed succeeded at least with the one they found working with certain patterns with certain colors which time the humans play havoc with this optical flow algorithm.

the researchers have identified several such patterns but this one has the biggest negative effect. with emotion. sparrows. if they cover the pattern up things go back to normal. there uncover the pattern and the ai is confused again the colors are not what they should be. this is don't count i don't if i objects track their movements any more. extent just a problem surprised us we weren't surprised that there was interference they'd already been research that identified problems with what's worrying is that such a small patch relative to such a large field of vision can have such an impact the sun shone. a patch or pattern like not only needs to occupy one percent of the visual field to

mess up the processing of a full half the field. there are people learning methods which can work in rain or which can work and in like foggy climate and stuff but we can find sort of noise pattern that's like this mist this can be a lot worse for these you know. the scientists who designed the troubling patterns they didn't just crop up what that means is that my line hackers could probably also create disruptive patterns and cause havoc on the ropes once autonomous vehicles as a ping around freely there may be a bit of a war going on between people trying to attack and people trying to produce robust systems this is exactly what we see also with any kind of security software you know hackers find a loophole in some operating system they inform the manufacturer of the new defenses are made and then you know it's an evolving system. the point of this kind

of research is to develop optimal and optimally secure ai systems for self driving vehicles the hope is that they will eventually prove safer than cars driven by fallible humans. if if the driverless cars of the future are electric they'll produce fewer emissions and that includes emissions of noise. but we're not there yet traffic still creates a lot of noise especially in cities and less isn't just annoying in the long term it can even make us sick. even when noise doesn't pose a direct threat to our body responds as if it does. the adrenal glands release stress hormones part of the body's fight or flight response. our heart beats faster

and our blood pressure rises. glucose in fact the acid reserves a pumped into the blood to supply additional energy. the immune and digestive systems are weakened. over time this physiological response can even make the sick it can lead to high blood pressure type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol and that in turn can lead to cardiovascular disease or even a heart attack. according to the world health organization or w h o one in 5 people in europe are regularly exposed to high levels of noise there isn't as much data about the rest of the world but the problem is certainly not just a european one. but at what point does sound become bothersome noise or even noise pollution and that's what research is. at the technical university of

dresden in germany want to find out. that john out and soy has created a set up that mimics the experience of traveling by automobile. he's investigating how we hear and perceive different sounds. the acoustics lab is completely soundproofed even the floor is insulated against noise the research is have to walk on a net that keeps the reflection of sound waves in this room to an absolute minimum so sounds can be measured with great precision the researches know that certain sound qualities bother us more than others. but higher frequencies always draw our attention and that makes the more problematic temporal variations are also an issue we tend to be very sensitive to sounds that aren't constant but very. so if a sound or source of noise is highly variable like the sound of

a train that passes every 15 minutes that tends to bother us much more than a continuous noise problem. sound is measured as the sound pressure level expressed in decibel the higher the pressure caused by a sound wave the louder the sound the sound wave at 90 decibels is enough to blow out a candle. a loud speaker also generate sound waves an increase of 10 decibels causes us to perceive a sound as twice as loud 10 decibels less half as loud. the sound pressure level isn't the only deciding factor frequency the number of cycles of a sound wave in one second is also an issue. with humans tend to be more sensitive to sound at higher frequencies especially in a $1.00 to $5.00 kilohertz range. that's why there are

different ways to express the sound pressure levels. d.b.a. level is weighted to approximate the way the human ear hears we tend to perceive sound in easily or double frequencies as the most bothersome. the world health organizations european guidelines recommend that traffic noise levels shouldn't exceed an average of $53.00 decibels of a 24 hours at night it should remain below $45.00 decibels according to recent findings many places in europe exceed those guidelines. for courts and it is estimated that about 4 percent of all cases of coronary heart disease and that means above all heart attacks are due to traffic noise. so within the european union about $50000.00 fatal heart attacks per year can be attributed to traffic noise. so it's high time for new

legislation to limit noise pollution. what's your vision of the future we asked you on facebook which questions you think science should answer by 2050. wrong things the thing to solve is how to increase human lifespan while maintaining good health. now i would like to know the answer to more philosophical questions is our soul eternal and is death the end of our existence. that b.n. is concerned about how we can transit more quickly to environmental a friendly energy sources. also has an

ecological concern he says that water is likely to be an expensive resource in 2050 and so we need low tech ways of producing fresh water so that people won't lack is . thanks for your comments. water shortage is a serious threat to future life on. our planet is heating up and dry seasons are lasting longer and longer. in. the united nations' predict that 135000000 people could be displaced by 2045 because of a lack of water at home. engineers from munich have an idea that they think might help. this is a big moment for her after the. plant is receiving its 1st supply of salt the startup wants to make fresh water for regions where it's scarce engineer and physicist philip for plant it will be using the salt solution to extract water from

the air we're having to put our new salt into the unit and are keen to see how much water our evaporative can produce we've tested it in the lab now it's for real. the new process could bring much needed drinking water to the world's arid regions . engineer spend hasnain is helping to test the pilot unit in germany the basic principle behind extracting water from air is a simple one. a concentrated salt solution absorbs more stir from the surrounding air the resulting more tie loop solution is then heated using solar energy to evaporate the water in that water vapor then condenses yielding distilled water the salt solution is also used as a coolant during the condensation phase. this eliminates the need for a separate cooling system and helps reduce costs.

has applied for a patent for this invention. on top of the container is the absorber unit it brings the salt solution into contact with the air. you can hear the salt solution being talked into the young and then it flows down through this corrugated cardboard or. when you have an idea on how to improve the process and reduce costs it makes you happy as an engineer and entrepreneur. that awful. next the fan in the absorber unit is switched on. as are you can you can feel hear how the fan is pulling et into the unit. the system is powered by the sun one square meter of solar panels yields around 3 liters of drinking water

a day. systems are designed to be installed on rooftops the cost about $1600.00 euros for a 4 person household. as in the business aspect isn't our primary goal we wanted to invent a system to provide water in arab regions using more people that have a lot of namely the sun. the basic concept is a solid one but some of the details have still to be worked out. during the test phase the system needs to be optimized to extract as much water from the air as possible. a number of glitches keep cropping up. this is a recurring problem is that bubbles start to form as the water heats up that introduces an end to the pump and then we have to turn off the unit. stack now the water levels rising again grated worked up we were able to remove the bubbles and

keep the system running that's good. ultimately we want to automate the process. before the testing continues philip for plank a has an appointment with a visitor from a variant center for innovation and technology transfer. for meyer focuses on energy technology we ask him what he thinks of aqua harris' invention. doesn't it it's an interesting technology with a lot of potential it's not likely to do any direct harm to the environment but it will affect the microclimate it's the same with any technologies take cars for example from a system might work in isolation but when you have a 100000 of them the impact is different this will see when it's implemented as humans i guess it's. for her it's test phase here in germany it will last for 6 weeks then the unit will be shipped to morocco there it will be set up at an orphanage near merrick cash to be tested under realistic conditions. this

winter so we're looking forward to seeing how much water we can extract that we need 23 the same humidity in the system to work your journey we have 4050 or 60 percent humidity so not realistic conditions in morocco we'll have the real thing it'll be interesting to see what happens with your session on. aqua harris test unit produces distilled water. it's free of impurities but that doesn't mean it's ready to drink quite yet. the water needs minerals but that easy to act by sending the water through a mineral cartridge that you can drink it or not uncommon this one about there. is an essential life force but too much of it is also dangerous floods and storm

surges are among the consequences of climate change it's temperature. rises by 2 degrees celsius 360000000 people could be affected by floods. rising sea levels are a threat to asia's large coastal cities mega cities that are home to millions. this is a buddhist temple one of many across thailand. what sets what can somewhat chin apart is that it's now out at sea the coastline has receded a kilometer over the past half century. the advert some look at the takes us on a tour. there used to be a school over there where the water tank is now alive but everybody looked at nobody thought about prevention or solution. the erosion of the land has

a number of causes human activity storms and the rising sea level the other tells us they're experiencing climate change directly here and he's amazed by the indifference he encounters or die nobody shows any interest when we talk about it people just carry on as if it were business as usual even when i tell them about global warming nobody cares. they're. just 20 kilometers from the coast is the thai capital bangkok built on marshy ground in the delta of the child prior river 14000000 people live in the metropolitan region much of the land is just a metre and a half above sea level. climate change scenarios for c. the gulf of thailand being hard hit under an optimistic scenario the sea level could rise 3 meters over the next 3 centuries. in the worst case it could rise 7 metres. so does bangkok have

a future persistent extensive flooding is already a problem and it's set to get worse fast this. city has been the country's capital since the late 18th century but there's talk about moving it geologist town or what their own plans are called has been tracking coastal erosion for decades nor is it shows us photos of what can somewhat chin temple taken in 1974 when it was still on dry land. which is a 1000000 people living near the coast are under imminent threat yet. if you are thinking about to protect the effect of that in a wide. that range of foolishness you have to think about that. he says planting mangroves along the coast would help combat erosion but what about bangkok itself. there were people will still be able to live there but they will have to change their way of life there will be more rain and floods and nightmarish

traffic if we just carry on the same way but i don't expect bangkok to just sink into the sea like the temple. that currently the sea level is rising half a centimeter a year. and the city is sinking 2 centimeters a year. bangkok used to be called the venice of the east because it was crisscrossed by lots of canals but many of them were filled in as the city grew. the sunset canal still runs through the center of the city. the remaining canals helped drain the area but they're often overwhelmed. in 2011 floods devastated much of thailand parts of bangkok were under water for 2 months. your hand and lead the city has flood barriers

pumps and drainage tunnels and work is underway to improve the flood control systems. we're going to continue to have this under control we already have the technology to monitor the situation no technology will advance and we'll still be on top of things a 150 years from now. at the temple in the sea the monks have to enter via a window the floor of the prayer room has been raised. despite the trying conditions but some look at the plan you is determined to stay. if i leave there will be nobody left who remembers what happened. what erosion has done here. or where. people in bangkok just don't care anyway. he says the temple should serve as a warning to all that we must treat nature with respect.

mangrove forests could provide some protection to bangkok's coastline. and planting more trees in general is good for the climate because there absorb the greenhouse gas c o 2 from the atmosphere but they only have a limited capacity. if you are in algeria has been thinking about the alternatives and sent in a question. could artificial trees help mitigate climate change. real tree is only important ally in the fight against climate change they slow down global warming by absorbing climate killing c o 2 through the natural process of photosynthesis c o 2 is used to produce glucose and oxygen.

researchers in switzerland calculated that $900000000.00 hectares of additional forest could absorb 2 thirds of the. c o 2 generated by human activity that could help limit global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius. but critics say it's unrealistic to plant a forest on an area about the size of the united states. and existing forests will need to be preserved instead they're being destroyed for example to make room for agriculture. some scientists say that one day artificial trees might absorb up to 1000 times more c o 2 than their natural counterparts they wouldn't even need to look like natural trees. fans like bees could suck c o 2 out of the air using special filters but the world would need $250000.00 of

these systems to remove just one percent of the world's c o 2. then the carbon dioxide would need to be stored underground because the artificial trees don't convert the c o 2 into oxygen like natural trees can. so replanting forests is necessary in any case what. but artificial trees might one day do their part in mitigating climate change. if outlet is right why abbate even if they. do you have a science question that you've always wanted on say it we're happy to help out send it to us as a video text over a smell if we answer it on the show we'll send you a little surprise as a thank you cannot just ask. do you find us at d w dot com slash science or top of the line at d.w.i.

underscore site tech on facebook dot science. next time it's. all about may what keeps them healthy. and it's also about sex what does sperm actually do join us next week when we put men under the microscope by.

sebastian god going to 40 or so more but they become a footballer for buying me my life in science do we all begin stories in my fukushima to a little bit of just moments ago but. is recall seeing a lot of voters. coming up on w. oh his secret tool. but

a loose doily the food and his art moves the matter of perspective. the kinetic images of sergey cutting out. the experience the mesmerizing duality of his creations 1st hand. the book your romex for in 30 minutes long t.w. book. here i am back and. stick closest place to helen was missing limbs and standing kin. and friends does a camp that all trains keamy and more. than you. nice news and keeping.

mom. well established story. nikos a. must. start as january 27th on d w. an exclusive interview with enron con. stance prime minister speaks with the editor in chief in export burns what's khan's perspective on the kashmir crisis and the present what does he hope results from the these negotiations in afghanistan why has he remained silent about the plight of the week or so in china and what our interview with iran khan on january 20th starts at 730 u.t.c. on d w. in the army of climate change. was remiss of you so. much nice to.

what ideas do they have of their future. d.w. dot com africa there goes the mechanisms cutter. good little chat about the. this is d.w. news and these are our top stories iran's supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei has addressed the nation during friday prayers for the 1st time since 2012 he praised the country's recent missile strikes against u.s. forces in iraq in retaliation for the killing of iran's top general. both of libya's rival leaders and many world leaders are expected to attend an international peace summit in berlin on sunday they are hoping to secure a last things.