it is about 3:30am. now on bbc news, it's time for click. this week, we look at gaming in your gaff, holograms in your home, and dinosaurs in yourdining room! hey, welcome to click! hope you're doing 0k. i think it's fair to say that each of us have had to work out our own way to manage the last 12 months and let's be honest, i don't think anyone�*s coming out of this unscathed — i'm certainly not. lara, how are you doing? i'm getting strangely used to this existence, which i think is probably worrying in itself, but i am really looking forward to being able to see my mum and friends — even though you keep telling me that you're perfectly happy in your own company! oh, yeah! it's something i've learnt, actually. i'm absolutely fine in my own space — sometimes out walking, sometimes in reading, escaping into a movie — although to be honest, i think i've completed netflix now. but the reason i ask is i wanted to ask about gaming. are you a gamer, lara? ooh, i used to love gran turismo, but no more — rsi. seriously? so you're saying you played so much gran turismo, you hurt your thumbs? you? hmm. i don't really want to talk any more about it because i don't want to point out any more negatives about gaming because actually, during the pandemic, it's turned out there have been some real health benefits. right, and that is my point — that's what marc cieslak has been looking at this week — the idea that in these troubled times, gaming can actually be good for our mental health. sighs in the kind of climate that we're in, my inability to leave the house is addressed by being able to just get transported to 13th century japan and, like, ride around on a horse or get — take myself to new york, manhattan, and be able to swing through the skyscrapers and stuff. it's, yeah, it's a great — it's a great, great way to pass the time. video games have the power to transport us to a variety of different locations, all from the comfort of our own home. and during the current pandemic when we're cut off from friends and family, they also have the power to help our mental health and well—being in a variety of different ways. we spoke to a cross—section of people from all over the uk about the different ways games have affected them during lockdown. i feel like gaming is used as a coping mechanism for a lot of people, including myself. video gamesjust offer this — this escapism, but in a way that doesn't challenge you because at the moment, everything is challenging as it is. but when you play video games, it'sjust comforting. currently with everything. that's going on in the world, it'sjust — it's nice - to have a distraction, something to, you know, to be able to get lost in. i it can — can definitely help you, can help your mental health, gives you a chance to bond with your friends. from each other and not seeing each other in person, so games offer a great medium over which people you can see that with kids — it's normal for them to connect over fortnite and yeah, it's great — it's how people talk. yeah, cool, let's do that. amongst the people we spoke to, one particular title stands out as a lockdown favourite. animal crossing. released on nintendo switch last year, animal crossing: new horizons allows players to perform gentle tasks while maintaining their own paradise island. one thing that's really great about animal crossing is that it's just a really relaxing game. apart from the pure entertainment value games offer, allowing players to collaborate on tasks or speak to one another adds a social dimension to lots of games. currently, actively, i play monster hunter: world and animal crossing. i play both of them because i can play them with my brother. he lives in germany and i live here. yeah, us playing together has been a little bit like a, i don't know, family day out? we just had a whatsapp call and we played animal crossing for hours and just talked about things and we talked about his work and we talked about my work. but then mostly, we just spend time virtually together. there is real science underpinning the study of people's gaming habits. research at oxford university has found that playing games could be beneficial to mental health. i think it's pretty clear that people think that playing video games is helpful for their mental health. i think that they are probably one of a lot of tools that we have available to us, if we know how to play games and we connect to our friends through play. the oxford study made use of two games — plants vs zombies: battle for neighborville, and chill—fest extraordinaire animal crossing. both of these games can capture data about the amount of time actually spent playing them. the study found people that who played more reported greater well—being. our research shows actually that if you feel socially connected to those who you play with, if you have a sense of choice and volition about what games and what you want to do in them, that's absolutely correlated with higher levels of mental health. but we don't really know if, you know, maybe happier people just land on games that are great for them or if the causality goes the other way. this research only made use of two suitable—for—all—ages games and studies around different titles might produce different results, but it's the first time real data about time spent playing has been combined with research into players�* subjective well—being. but it's notjust playing games themselves which is fostering a sense of community and helping with mental well—being. hello, and welcome to the crashes r us community championship. i set up a league on dirt rally, or dirt rally 2.0 with a bunch of people that don't play racing games to decide who was the worst racer out of the lot of us. keep left on the 13th. it's turned into a real community thing and a lot of the people that take part say that it's the highlight of their week. i live with depression and anxiety and, to a lesser degree, agoraphobia and just doing the streaming, thought of being forced, in a way, to do this streaming every week has really helped to get me out of my shell and deal with a lot of the anxiety. well done. but is it games in particular that are helping people through these tough times, and can they spend too long playing them ? obviously, you can spend too much time doing just about anything, even exercise, and so the question really becomes not how much are you playing a game, but why are you playing a game? so our research indicates that if you're playing a game because you feel like you want to, it's probably good for you, it's probably related to — it kind of fits with nicely with the other parts of your life. but if you tell us that you're playing because you feel like you have to out of a sense of compulsion, you actually aren't having much fun, you're doing it because your�*e kind of like a hamster in a wheel and really, it's the quality of engagement, not the quantity that matters. while people have clearly been enjoying playing games during lockdown, the use of specially designed video games as therapeutic tools is being explored by healthcare professionals. us developers akili interactive have already developed a game called endeavorrx, for use as part of adhd treatment in children. it's intended to work alongside existing methods. there's also a game called sparx from new zealand, which has been designed to treat depression. research in this area continues. you're the hero, defeating the gloom. life during a pandemic can sometimes be frightening, but even staying in and avoiding contact with others comes with problems of loneliness and anxiety. games can offer relief and virus—free worlds of endless possibilities to explore with friends and family. and sometimes, that's something we all need. hello and welcome to the week in tech. it was the week that facebook lifted its ban on political advertising, which had been in place since the november us presidential election. the chinese province of inner mongolia may soon ban bitcoin mining, due to excessive energy use. and google�*s virtual reality cardboard headset is no longer for sale in its online store. it was also the week that a japanese billionaire launched a search for eight lucky people tojoin him in space. yusaku maezawa is the first person to book a ticket on spacex's mission around the moon, and he also booked all the seats available on the flight. he originally said he would give the seats to a group of artists. screening for his space friends will start later this month. the last of us i! scored a record—breaking 13 nominations at the bafta games awards. it's the most nominations a game has received in the awards history. they will be held entirely online on the 25th of march. a team at mit has developed tiny drones with the characteristics of insects. weighing 0.6g, these machines are around the size of a bumblebee and designed to withstand collisions. and finally this week, we saw robots with sensors with skin—like characteristics doing some very delicate tasks. here's one grasping an egg while it's being pulled away. the soft tactile sensor was developed from city university of hong kong. the dexterous and gentle handling includes the ability of this robot to thread a needle with sensor on its grip. we've seen foldable phones and now it's time for rollable phones, expandable phones? i'm not exactly sure what we're calling this format yet, but it's the first time i got my hands on a real working of it. you just swipe here on the power button and the screen goes from 6.7 inches to a 7.4 inch tablet. like a folding phone, the point is to combine the convenience of a regular—sized smartphone with a bigger screen of a tablet, so if you're working or watching a movie, you can switch to that bigger screen, and oppo says it's experimenting with letting the motor stop at any point of the expansion so that the screen can adapt to fit any kind of video. now, i think they've done quite an elegantjob of this. you just swipe up on the power button and the phone opens up. and swipe down on the power button to close it again. there is a little bit of motor noise, which you can hear in a quiet room, but i don't think it is too distracting. and obviously, i've tried squeezing the phone to force the motor and when you do that, the motorjust kicks in and closes the phone. with flexible phones, people always ask me if there's a crease on the screen and yes, on this phone, there is a crease on the display where it rolls inside the phone. but just like with the folding phones, when the screen is on and you're using the device, you don't notice the crease at all, and the screen does not feel spongy or flexible to type on — it's solid behind there, so it'sjust like typing on a regular phone. there aren't only scratches on this display from the mechanism but then, it is just a concept phone that i think�*s been kept very safe and it has not been out in the wild, although oppo says it can open and close more than 100,000 times without breaking. now, because this isjust a concept phone and is not going on sale, some of the key questions of how this would affect battery life, i can't answer at the moment. other companies including lg and tcl have teased that they're working on a very similar rollable phone to this — although oppo is the first company to get a working version in my hands. they say they developed this independently and have applied for lots of patents for the technology inside it, but they're not going to sell it, so i asked the company why they're showing it off. oppo believes in only bringing products to the market when they meet a really strict product testing process and at the moment, we have not pushed this device through that just yet. it is to show our innovation and ourforward thinking into new technologies. it's always exciting to see new formats come to the market — whether it's foldable devices be huawei mate x or something like microsoft's surface duo, which is two screens hinged together, but they do typically also come with a hefty price it may be that we don't see too many of these out in the wild until the price shrinks. that was chris fox and i love the idea of these roll—out screens, always have, but they just are taking so long to arrive! maybe next year. maybe. maybe, but in the meantime, i've got a bit of excitement for you — the kids are going back to school next week. spencer, how are you feeling about it? i'm not saying a thing. i'm not saying a thing! 0h! ohh! over the course of the past year, one of the benefits that we've seen is there has been a growth in virtual experiences — ways of being able to remotely visit museums or galleries. yeah, and these places have done absolutely brilliantjobs, no question, but i have to say these virtual tours are not quite as good as actually getting on a bus and going on a school trip in the real world, are they? ah, you may say that, but how about a dinosaur coming to your living room? well, i've been testing an app that does just that, with a little bit of help from none other than sir david attenborough. the museum alive app has been released as a continuation of david attenborough�*s bafta—winning film of the same name. using augmented reality, the app combines some of the newest production methods with some of the oldest stuff that we know about our planet. taking you on a trip to meet some prehistoric creatures and have a look at some natural history. david attenborough: this is museum alive. smilodon, a great cat with immense sabre—shaped teeth... the detail is incredible when you zoom in. ok, i've got to get around to seeing those teeth. at the moment the experience features three animals. we've got an opabinia, which is an ancient sea creature, over 350 million years ago. we have diamorphodon, which is one of the first flying pterosaurs. and we have smilodon, a sabretooth tiger which many people will probably recognise in the likes of ice age. david attenborough: there are some extinct creatures - here that i have always wanted to meet. where you can zoom in, the detail is just incredible. and it is notjust about the creatures. navigating the landscape itself is part of the experience. there is a tree going out of my carpet. yes, that provides a photo real quality because they were captured using photogrammetry pipeline. so things like the bark of the tree and the scene where dimorphodon, the flying dinosaur, jumps off, you can actually go in and see high—resolution detail. and that type of experience we have not seen before on a mobile device. we may have seen it on a desktop gaming machine and/or a headset in dr that's tethered to a gaming pc, but now we're starting to see that type of quality being delivered on a mobile device. it does only work on an iphone 8 or above though, or a similarly aged ipad. there is no android version. and at the moment there are only a few creatures to look at but more are being created, including a not—so—dead dodo. and this is also a testbed for creating this sort of immersive content both for ios and for android, to educate and to entertain using just that computer that you keep in your pocket. oh, wow. augmented reality is just coming on in leaps and bounds, isn't it. it reminded me of those 3d animals on google but, wow, these images, especially close up, were quite something. yeah, ok, well, iam going to raise the bar and go past ar. now, you have used microsoft elements? i have. i had a bit of a career change and oversaw a building site. i got to build nasa's perseverance mars rover before it even existed. it's an amazing bit of kit and this week it was omar�*s turn to put on the hololens, to meet its creator, and talk about the new ways that we could be working together in the future. as we settle into 2021, we are going to be hearing a lot about augmented reality. amongst others, facebook is set to launch that smart glasses this year. they are even working with the company behind ray—bans so they may even be something you'd consider wearing... sorry, google glass. but since 2016, it is microsoft who have been pushing forward with hololens across loads of areas, including design, engineering and medicine. and this is the latest iteration of the device. 2019's hololens 2 — a lighter, slicker upgrade to the original and it allows users to experience what is calls mixed reality. but what is that? well, it is sort of similar to augmented reality except that instead ofjust overlaying virtual objects in front of you, you can actually interact with what you can see. and the assets are anchored in the real world. and at their ignite digital conference, i'm about to hear about their new platform, which they say will change how we collaborate virtually. the largest mixed reality show ever created. umph, right, there's quite a few announcements and there's quite a bit to unpack there. first up, the big announcement is around microsoft mesh, a new mixed reality platform that enables people to join and share the same experience wherever they are in the world. and it is notjust for the hololens, it can also be accessed via a vr headset, a computer or evenjust your smart phone. and as you can see, there's a few things that you can do while in the space, such as customised your own avatar, you can also import and manipulate 3d objects, such as this hermit crab, which i will make tons bigger than it should be. the man behind hololens is alex kipman who i got to meet through the new platform. but in the end it was easier just to speak to him over video call. you know, ultimately for me, this ability of using mixed reality to displace both space and time is something i have a ton of passion around. i am from brazil and imagine what i wouldn't give to be able to have my daughter experience her cousins in brazil, socially present without being able to be physically in the same location is something that i have been very excited about for a long time and to be honest i think it is a killer experience for mixed reality. the promise of a truly collaborative platform is huge but, as always, it is all about the applications. as we all speculate on what the future of the office will be, consultancy firm, essentia, have created a virtual space for their employees to connect, hang out and interact. and whilst mesh initially presents people as avatars, it will move towards what they call holoportation, as alex is demonstrating here, which is a full realisation of yourself in the virtual space. until now, hololens has always been geared towards workspaces and it is interesting to see consumer—focussed uses are being explored. lune rouge, founded by cirque du soleil�*s la liberte, is starting to explore how the platform might enable people to remotely attend concerts, theatrical performances or even family events, but it is the partnership with niantic, the creators of pokemon go, that may grab the headlines. this was of course the way hundreds of millions of people were introduced to ar as a concept. so what better way to show off? now, before we get carried away, this isjust a proof of concept for hololens. you're not going be wearing one of these looking for pikachu anytime soon, i'm afraid, but this is a glimpse and that is more than enough to excite most people, including me. and the impact online was immediate. what is notable here is not just seeing pokemon in ar but it's the idea of playing, socialising and exploring the world with your friends. but the undoubted star of the show was film—maker and undersea explorer, james cameron, who has been using mesh for his upcoming series, ocean explorers. i think this is going to expand rapidly. i think that the opportunity for people to interact artistically, creatively, maybe create music, maybe create art, work together on film projects and so on, it is going to expand beyond the zoom platform into actual spatial collaborative work spaces. i think where i see the value of this now that i can be certain of is global interaction with people. they can emit little hearts if they like what you're saying or whatever it is. it is fun. i think it is the future of social interaction and collaboration. there are tons of possible applications for the platform but despite being able to access mesh on most devices, you'll have to shell out over £3300 to get the truly immersive experience. at that price point it really is pie in the sky and they will have to bring the costs down. i think that this is not a new idea. these are not new ideas that microsoft is proposing, none of this was some extraordinary, brand new concept. but the difference is it's microsoft. they have the people, the money, the brainpower, the infrastructure to actually act on what they are proposing. the idea of teams virtually collaborating especially strikes a chord as we remained separated during the pandemic. do not expect to be hanging out with your co—workers as a hologram just as yet but immersive platforms like this may change how we interact in the future. omar there and his new friend, the giant hermit crab! and hey, james cameron talking about underwater stuff, who would have thought. anyway, we will hear more from james cameron in the coming weeks because he has more interesting things to say on other tech stuff too. but for now that is it for this week. as ever, you can find the team on social media — on youtube, instagram, facebook or twitter @bbcclick. thanks for watching and we'll see you soon. hello. march may have come in like a lamb, but the lion has now arrived early. and, after a stormy night, we have a very windy thursday to come — yes, some sunshine, but also heavy, blustery showers. all around an area of low pressure that's sitting to the north of us, but the tightly—packed isobars right across us indicating that wherever you are, thursday will be a very windy day. but it's england and wales bearing the brunt of the strongest, most disruptive winds, particularly early in the day as we see this area of wet weather move across northern england, wales, the midlands, and on towards east anglia. first thing in the day, the strongest winds will be wales, western england, gusting up to 70 mph, maybe more exposed coastal hills, especially in wales, very rough seas and large waves hitting the coastline here, so that could be disruptive in terms of flooding. and the winds across england and wales as they continue to gust, 50—60 mph, maybe a little bit more in places during the morning, could be disruptive before easing gradually into the afternoon. weather—wise, wherever you are, it is sunshine and blustery showers from heavy hail and thunder. these are your wind gusts at the end of the afternoon, so they're easing a bit in england and wales, but still very windy in northern ireland — in fact, the winds picking up again in northwest scotland, approaching 60 mph at this stage. single figures in scotland and northern ireland, 9—12 celsius in england and wales. and it remains very blustery overnight thursday further showers around increasingly falling as snow into the hills of scotland, perhaps northern ireland, into the pennines, as well — some here with a covering of snow at the higher ground as friday starts. and these are your temperatures. and then, for friday, spot the difference — yes, there'll be drier moments and sunshine, but there'll be further heavy showers around, some with hail and thunder, and still falling as snow into the hills of scotland, northern ireland, northern england, perhaps into wales at times, too, the higher up you are. and, ifanything, perhaps a little bit cooler on friday. and then, into the weekend, well, still low pressure. a frontal system bringing more wet weather more widely overnight and into saturday. then saturday, it's sunshine and showers. bit of a lull first thing sunday, but this weather system bringing more rain at least into western parts as we go on through sunday. so, a selection of locations here for your sunday weather. and then, looking into next week, well, it turns drier and calmer once again, as that march lamb makes a comeback. this is bbc news, i'm mike embley. our top stories: hope — as the world marks exactly a year since the pandemic was declared, with the vaccine now reaching some of the most cut—off communities. the motion is adopted. nearly $2 trillion approved by lawmakers to kick—start the us economy, with some of the money going straight into americans�* pockets. fallout continues from the oprah interview — it's revealed meghan complained to itv herself about comments made by piers morgan. people injapan return to the ocean to pay tribute to those killed in the tsunami ten years ago to the day.