Swingin' Satellites

[Music] this week swinging satellites and fruit sensors to keep the city that never sleeps lit up and using tech to get better at football apparently [Music] why are we throwing an apple at each other because this week's first story is about launching satellites into orbit oh you're not going to try and launch this apple into orbit are you no but if i did which direction would i have to launch it not upwards not up because if i did it come straight back down again that's gravity that's gravity no if you wanted this to go into orbit you would have to make it go really fast sideways about 17 000 miles an hour so as it fell it missed the surface of the earth and just went around it that's why rockets need so much fuel exactly which has been a problem since forever but there is another way to get this apple to go that fast any ideas god amaze me so you could attach it to a long arm and then start spinning it round and round and round and round and round getting faster and faster and once you're at the right speed you let it go that's bananas no it's an apple all right here we go oh my gosh 200 miles an hour [Music] you're not gonna believe what i can see through this window in fact you're gonna have a hard time believing this story at all i certainly did to start with in this chamber is a new way to launch satellites into orbit oh my gosh it's becoming a blur 400 miles an hour and it's just that far away from us yes and can you just one more time go over what it is you're planning to do because it's like i still can't believe it so spin launch is capable of literally throwing satellites into space we'll cut the laughing yep you heard it right david and i are currently looking at a live video feed of a prototype spin launcher in new mexico when the full-size one is built it will take a small satellite stick it inside a giant dart load it onto a 100 meter long arm gradually spin it round and round faster and faster and then let it go at 5 000 miles an hour don't believe me i don't blame you this idea sounds completely nuts well you know what's nuts is rockets rockets are combustion chambers that burn cryogenic propellants at temperatures that are greater than like the surface of the sun they have thousands of components that are made out of the most exotic materials known to man and they're on the verge of blowing apart at any possible minute i i think uh i think spin launch is quite a bit less nuts than a rocket and look as the day's gone on i've started to believe it by getting the projectile above the atmosphere you've done away with the need for most of your fuel and most of your weight without air resistance a much smaller rocket can then get the satellite up to 17 000 miles an hour and into orbit spin launch gets you most of the way there and then there's a small rocket that gets you all the way there right okay the vehicle is passively stable so you can see has a heavy tip in the front fins in the back that provides passive stability that stabilizes it like a dart so if it comes out a little bit sideways it automatically stabilizes how many g's is this thing pulling as it goes around so the system pulls 10 000 g's at peak speed you can't put people in this can you cannot put people i mean you can put people in but you won't get people out to prove it works these guys put an iphone 4 into the accelerator and got it up to 12 and a half thousand g it still works the company says it's eventually planning for up to five launches a day and it will cost about half a million dollars per launch compared to seven million for a rocket launch before then testing is ongoing using the 33 meter arm in new mexico and a 12 meter arm here in long beach california and i've been invited to witness a test launch first hand now the 12 meter accelerator won't be launching into the air this much smaller projectile will be fired down a tube and straight into a steel plate what happens to this after it's launched from that so this mostly turns the dust as it hits the end of the tunnel oh my gosh now where were we oh yeah 500 miles an hour so now you're going about as fast as a jet the actual projectiles and the spinning arm are made of carbon fiber pretty much the only substance that can withstand the forces involved 700 miles an hour and in order to spin up to nearly 1 000 miles an hour today this entire chamber needs to be a near vacuum and that's why we can hardly hear anything if this were full of air we'd get a sonic boom on every single revolution you can hear a little bit can you hear it just a little bit a little bit of vibration too here we go so he's doing the long sequence nine here we go in my mind this has gone from nonsense to plausible in the space of a few hours and in october last year the first test launch in new mexico proved that the carbon fiber dart could not only launch but also survive a landing in which it buried itself in the desert i have been blown away by a launch technology that doesn't blow things away in fact by throwing things away there's less to throw away i mean we just watched something launch there was no great big fireball or smoke clean it's clean it's very clean i mean at some point that was going supersonic straight towards us and then it went round more than it came towards multiple times per second oh wow multiple times per second thank you for letting go at the right points it's all it's all in the timing you have to nice which made more mess though the dart or the apple oh ultimately it has to be the dart i think well whilst you were having fun in la i was still living la vida las vegas oh you weren't out all night again were you no i was actually off at the crack of dawn looking at small city tech beneath the bright lights of this city that never sleeps seems to be a sensible side it's now gambling on becoming a world leading smart city a safe efficient and sustainable still kind of noisy oasis las vegas isn't the obvious place to be trying to be a sustainable city it's full of big bright lights you've got huge casinos why not why not las vegas everything else here is big over the top where the capital of entertainment around the world why not be the world's smartest city the city that is leading edge right above you are these palm trees that are made out of steel but they're actually solar panels so sustainability is kind of in our dna all the electricity the city of las vegas uses or consumes is actually we produce so we're actually in that regard net neutral on the ability to consume and generate electricity there are several solar initiatives um in las vegas in and around the nevada valley which provide that sustainability effort it turns out that because of the issues to do with climate water management and so on vegas really has to be at the tip of the spear in sustainability initiatives okay and it seems to mean business starting with this pilot that's taken to the streets all around las vegas so many cameras and sensors have been installed and they're collecting enormous amounts of data right here's a lidar sensor and that's keeping track of pedestrians and vehicles to check that they're moving around efficiently and safely there's even a sensor just above this street sign which is triggered by emergency vehicles so the lights can turn green for them as soon as it's safe to do so carbon monoxide monitors have also been built in to monitor the flow of carbon heavy traffic and we know this isn't a city polluted only by day at night time this is one of the busiest spots in vegas there are delivery vehicles dropping off mini cabs picking up so that curbside activity is being tracked by cameras and sensors and as soon as the vehicle stops it'll feature here on this screen it has two and a half minutes to do whatever it needs to do and once that counts down to zero all an alert will be sent to a local traffic warden to come and give them a ticket this can also help keep law in order in this spot video analytics are being used to see if anybody's climbing up on this side or doing any other sort of vandalism there'll be an alert triggered and then a speaker will tell them that they need to get down it's also looking at how much rubbish there is around so if there's a fair bit to clear up someone will be told to come and do so and this is just the start next is the tracking of the huge sprawling buildings here and how they use their energy but at the heart of all this is data and that data is being shared through what's called a digital twin what we're building is essentially a digital brain for a city this enables all of the sensors placed around the city which are monitoring everything from air quality to traffic pedestrian movements security to all be brought into a single system and then processed using artificial intelligence you'll be able to go anywhere in the city virtually and see things like how many spaces are available in the car park or how many uh you know watts of electricity are being used by vehicle chargers and that sort of thing the technologies employed in this project uh are 5g artificial intelligence or ai another one is blockchain another one is digital twins and we're going to use the internet of things and that means everything around us is becoming smart and connected and we're able to tap into that in a very safe and secure way so whilst las vegas benefits from a bit of smartening up now the hope is that this could easily be replicated in other cities [Music] hello welcome to this week in tech it was the week that google was sued in the us over accusations it deceived people about how to control location tracking nvidia and meta announced plans to build the fastest ai supercomputer in the world by 2022 and youtube said it was exploring nfts for its creators following the likes of twitter and instagram next and you have to see pictures of this a flying car has completed a 35 minute trial in slovakia it takes two minutes and 15 seconds to transform from car to aircraft and once its wings are extended the air car can hit speeds of over 100 miles per hour and fly at an altitude of over 8 000 feet the world's most powerful space telescope has reached its final stop one million miles from earth the james webb telescope has entered orbit around the sun where a giant shield will allow it to take pictures and finally drones to shoo away pesky pigeons researchers in switzerland have been using an autonomous system that spots the roof invading birds and then sends them a drone to harmlessly chase them away while flocks can gather for hours the ai system cut loitering down to just a couple of minutes it seems that ai is eagle-eyed there's all kinds of tech being woven into football to improve both the players and the beautiful game itself such as video assistant referee and goal line technology but what about us the fans of the sport the sunday leaguers the ones who hope to go pro one day or the ones who play every week until we can't run anymore well now let's take for us too a few companies who provide state-of-the-art kit to the pros have now created consumer versions of their products first up we've got stat sports whose vests are worn by players underneath their shirts they house black pods which are trackers that collect different data points on the wearer and now they're letting the public give it a go too they've gone into partnership with the biggest club in football arsenal who've used their wearable tech for years now consumers will be wearing a slightly different vest but the black pods that they'll be wearing are exactly the same ones that the gunners use but here's where it gets a little bit more interesting i've got the kit on i'm out on the pitch i'm ready but then i'm in a lot of pain so i've had to sit out for now but we've got producer rose over there doing it for us so we'll be looking at his data oh and am i glad he did where's omar i hope there's a real injury no he did it it did not watch the replay what's the replay once he's done we'll check out the data that's being collected on the pod total distance run max speeds intensity and fatigue i and whilst you're at it you can compare yourself to players at the club to see how far off you are from reaching their level and what you need to improve on and if you register outstanding results you could be referred to arsenal maybe with a chance to make it big 94.2 64.5 very happy with that he's a whole 11 kilometers an hour faster than you he's also a whole 16 years younger than me when i came to to arsenal i was probably never be the the quickest however it gives you a perspective on how much you actually run because you get accused of not running at all you're not at the center half but it gives you a great foundation to build the play it up to their physical top abilities because that's what you need that's the foundation to reach the highest level to reach the top there we are right so omar talk talk me through speed is one of the metrics we would we would get within the the gps unit itself and when we are doing speed testing there would be players kind of competing against each other and having a look at the ipad to see who's quicker and but it does it increases that competitiveness well then next item this is another system for the pros result it's a virtual reality setup with foot trackers so users can kick around a digital ball now they're offering a uh a bit of a scaled-down version for the consumers on less powerful headsets like the quest we're still really testing the user it's called player 22 and though you can only use your hands and not your feet it still has a number of drills to test the user be it their reactions fitness and accuracy but there's also a very football specific drill heading something that can hurt in real life so to make it less painful they've made a drill for it in vr oh okay that's enough all right [Music] what oh hi top that was weird the heading itself it was it was really accurate but not having the pressure of the ball on your head is kind of strange i could get used to it but i'm curious even though you're not actually hitting a ball you're still moving your head around quite a bit and your brain inside might be bouncing around so during a game we can see players heading maybe up to 20 ball depending on their position but that's going to be multiplied significantly during training heading a ball is i think four times more impactful than not so obviously that level of safety is increased by using vr and removing natural impact with the ball itself and to be fair even the kids were enjoying it that was amazing that was really good wow this is cool which is a good thing as heading is something that's banned in games for children under 12 in the uk the fa have also made new measures to reduce the amount of headers in professional training sessions to lower the risk of long-term damage so maybe they just need to switch to heading virtual balls instead last up we have player maker wearable trackers that go inside of these moulds which fit around your boots these are used by pro clubs such as fulham and club rouge but now the company has come out with their consumer version uno you put the trackers inside the mould and then slip them onto your boots connect them to the app via bluetooth and then play away as you're playing they're supposed to pick up physical metrics similar to stat sports but also things like kick velocity time on the ball number of touches and more and you can also compare yourself to the pro players on this platform too i used a lot coming back from an injury so i could get back to the numbers i was getting when it was fit the feedback from the playmakers gave me that and i knew what i had to work on so and it really accelerated me getting back to where i was pre-injury so even in injury these trackers are useful however there is a problem with all of the products that we've looked at they're just so expensive player maker uno 200 quid stat sports 250 quid and rezzell it's only 11 pound in the store but to get a quest in the first place at least 300 pounds it's hard to justify paying that much for extra data when kicking a ball around the park is free but also i remember something per said to me quick lags but quick thinking you know especially and making the right decisions on the pitch will make you to a world class player if you would look at me just based on physical data when i was younger i probably wouldn't have made it so everyone is on a different path so we need to respect that so maybe these are nice to haves rather than essentials as reaching that next level of footballing greatness takes more than just extra data so maybe techy isn't the answer that was omar left his ball behind oh my goodness what are you doing in the middle of this park oh i'm just relaxing doing a spot of yoga are you really in my coat in the freezing cold i tell you what on the subject of relaxation do you use meditation apps do i look like i use meditation apps maybe you should listen nick quack's up next and he's been looking at the latest music therapy apps that not only play you soothing music but also listen back to you to understand you more oh that sounds relaxing why didn't you tell me earlier [Music] you're playing the strings you're bringing them towards yourself the sound hole is at your heart and it feels like you are healing yourself by each plug niela hunter is an early base composer and harpist with a special interest in spell work other worlds and healing she's crafting new songs for a local startup that aims to prescribe music as medicine there's a lot going on in the sort of new age community right now and i think even the term itself kind of has a negative connotation it can be a little bit hokey a little bit uh la if you will but i really think that neil's approach was interesting to me because it was really about science sauna founder neil is convinced that good mental health is all about brain wave frequencies and that his tailored tracks can lower them from an anxious beta state to a calmer alpha state we've been conditioned as a society to view music as a means of entertainment and we listen to bob marley john mayer all different types of pop music all the time and we think that it's having this relaxing restorative effect on us but it's actually further engaging our brains it's making our brains work harder whereas our music has a restorative effect on the brain a 23 drop in stress levels apparently but sona isn't the only player in this space dutch outfit alpha beats monitors your stress level as you use it and it rewards users for chilling out and punishes them if they don't by utilizing your phone's accelerometer and gps sensors it measures your breathing subtly changing the sound of your favorite tracks along the way the brain is always searching for the most optimal sound so in order to get there it will just try to find solutions to get to a better music experience and we reward the search for the best music alphabets can also take live data from your smartwatch and using ai aims to eventually produce personalized playlists meanwhile sona is now seeking approval from the us food and drug administration joining the growing music prescription sector promising better health and a potential replacement to costly pills we've just gone through one of the most dramatic experiences in human history being able to bring goodness and calm through sound to anyone is important it's definitely important yeah are you feeling relaxed though no everything is under tension right now just pretend you're a tree or something yeah all right i'll do that shall i can we finish now yes that's fine all right that was nick and that's it from us as ever you can find us on social media on youtube instagram facebook and twitter at bbc click doing this sort of thing i think i've pulled my chi thanks for watching we'll see you soon bye [Music] you

Channel: BBC Click

Views: 19,639

Keywords: BBC, BBC Click, BBC News, Click, Technology, Tech, click;, google, facebook, robots, football, ar, vr, ai, spin launch

Id: bWxzzDLb73w

Length: 24min 29sec (1469 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 01 2022