Sound shirt. On. What makes these magical lab shades fly. Swatter copters little Unmanned Aerial Vehicles better known as drones. Drones of all sizes are playing an ever greater role in our daily lives and not just in areas like performance art. But they also have the potential to change how we farm. Grown has taken over his job its looking for fons which lie in the meadows in early summer. Each year an estimated ninety thousand animals are killed by moa but the drone allows farmers to spot them in time. Drones are finding their place in agriculture as part of a project from the university of hohenheim and the Stuttgart School for Technology Researchers are testing the use of drones for detecting and combating weans. Farmers have always struggled with weeds in their fields. They reduce yields by competing for water and nutrients but drone proves to be a help here. With the Drone Technology we can get an overview of the entire field so we can detect weed nests from the air but this means we can then apply the herbicide directly to these weed areas and dont have to spread it over a wide area in. The drone is equipped with a special camera for the Research Project after it takes off it flies autonomy over the arable land it is at the local. Following a programmed route it skims over this field of winter barley. At predefined trigger points the. Camera takes pictures and High Resolution and catalogs we need gross. The operators only need to check the flight path. For their project the researchers also record the week level with the counting frame this allows them to compare their results with the data from the drone the result is clear the drone is the winner. The advantages of the drone are that we can quickly get an overview of complete areas. And the comprehensive data can then be made available digitally. Comparison to manual mapping which can occupy several people for days large areas can be mapped with a drone in a few minutes. But first the data from the drone has to be processed at the universitys institute of medicine. Puzzle of single images a very accurate overall picture of the test area is produced. Thats followed by a complex Image Analysis. And classification into weeds crop plants and soil for example where were growing sugar beet is done with the pixel density measurement using an Image Analysis program. We measure the number of green pixels between the rows. It works like a we test. If the number of green pixels exceeds a certain threshold these areas are marked red and we know its weeds. Here the drone is tearing out an aerial attack against the corn bore a major past its carrying biological weapons the shells made of pine degradable cornstarch are each filled with two thousand wasp eggs the drone drops one every few meters. Two or three days after application the wasps hatch and kill off the pasts. Otherwise the corn borer would destroy about a tenth of the crop until now farmers have had to run through fields and spread the balls by hand a laborious and time consuming task thanks to the drone the job no longer has to be done by humans. Back to the weed hunting drought after the weeds are found the next step is to carefully spray them with herbicides all the necessary information is provided by the drones images theres no spraying in the black stockings while the red gets the most. The onboard computer automatically drives the tractor to the weed infested areas. The quantity of herbicide is measured precisely. Two weeks later the drone fly is to the treated test area to check the results things look promising. Because we used up to sixty percent less herbicide last year dealing with missiles and the sugar beets. Using a drone has economic but mostly environmental benefits and since i only treat those areas where wed start growing. Drones or even finding a place in Biodiversity Research such as rescuing endangered butterflies. Here scientists from the Technical University of munich are launching a quadrille copter. Its time reza. Lucian camera allows them to find ideal habitats for the butterfly larva or what they call micro habitat structures suitable at playing locations for the butterflies can be predicted with eighty percent probability the researchers hope the drone will help them protect these fragile habitats better. So drones are more than expensive toys or just for maximizing profits theyre also tools for research and can help to make the food we eat better for us and the environment. It all goes to show that from on high the world looks like a very different place. And heading up into the air could provide the solution to other complicated problems like in this next report. Were generating offshore wind power requires a hefty investment and a massive amount of Building Material a reckoning a single turbine can mean one thousand tons of concrete steel and electrical gear. Its easier on land but almost all the good sides are taken and resistance to what many see as a blot on the landscape is growing. Could wind energy be generated more easily and in conspicuously instead of large installations at fixed sites why not harness the power of the wind with light aircraft scientists from the university of fribourg and Research Institutes and companies around the world have been working on this idea of High Altitude wind power. System we want to bring about consists of several aircrafts that circle around each other and then produce wind energy at altitudes of three hundred to five hundred meters above land or sea my vision is that these systems will contribute significantly to the power supply in. Germany and in europe along. Here in freiburg germany a model is being used to test a fully autonomy electronic control system. This system is essential if High Altitude wind power is ever to take off because the aircraft have to react completely independently within seconds to any changes of wind direction and strength. Only then can they tap the enormous Energy Potential many hundreds of meters in the air. As this lets into shelter no misleading people at all its autonomy us flying like with drones but unlike normal airplanes our aircraft have to fly and acrobatic maneuvers all the time of so its a much bigger challenge than the plane has to figure out which actions to take based on the sensor data it uses advanced algorithms that have to be able to respond to all possible when conditions in sync and. In the future these aircraft will take to the air by being swung around on a cable. Once aloft theyll react to the wind conditions autonomy performing loop like flight maneuvers this constant back and forth and up and down transfers the winds Kinetic Energy via the tethering cable to a Power Generator on the ground. Its a highly efficient way to generate electricity but it requires a lot of Technology Small scale systems such as those made by the Swiss Company who are already undergoing testing showing that the underlying principle is sound but its not yet fully controlled automatically. With the. Kings of cinema like with a normal wind turbine which you can simply switch on and then it turns these planes would crash immediately if the control system fails for just a second this means the electronics and our control louka rhythms are essential to operating these systems a lot of research is still needed weve come maybe a third of the way to having real High AltitudeWind Turbines and operation between homes. Until then the Research Team still needs to work out a lot of the details from the optimum length of the cable to the best shape of the aircraft to the flight maneuvers that provide the greatest energy yield above all it must be safe. And. If you think about it is not a tremendous number of things could go wrong and through the theme of. If just one of these aircraft were to crash causing something bad to happen all of this would grind to a halt for at least five or ten years the technology is not entirely without risks but im convinced we can make this automatic system a reality. And then we can have autonomy aircraft flying over large areas of the sea but not allowing us to produce cheap electricity for europe and the whole world so that the researchers will soon take their aircraft out into the open and begin a series of flight tests in a few years time perhaps wind power will no longer mean fixed turbines atop concrete posts and instead autonomy aircraft with control electronics from fribourg will reap the. Energy of the wind. Staying in the sky for the moment check out this view from the International Space station. And that brings us to this weeks viewer question that comes from kenya. Kevin watch etoo from mombasa wants to know. Other planets will also have skies. The sky is everything you see when you look out into space. So its all the same sky whether viewed from pearse. Other planets. Moons. Asteroids or comets. And just as no face is exactly the same as another the sky is in these various places also look different. From the near side of the moon the earth always appears to be hanging in a black sky. The sky above our home planet is different because earth has an atmosphere that scatters and reflect sunlight so during the day the sky appears blue. In contrast the sky from mars looks reddish because dust in its atmosphere contains iron particles. At night our sky is dark but only by distant stars the moon and other planets near the center of the milky way however where stars are much closer together it would be light all the time. The heavens above have always stimulated human imagination and the spirit of research. When someone is very. Happy they say they were in seventh heaven but thats another story. If you have a science question send it in by going to our website. If we answer it on the show well send you our d. V. D. Featuring a lighthearted look at some of albert einsteins most famous theories the most important thing is to never stop asking questions. We have a question for our facebook friends what do you feel when you look in the sky. Deepak tiwari says its like floating in space along with the earth. Say at chaffey qusay and marvels at the beauty of it all. For alaska says it makes him realize how small we are. While a look at the sky helps silva raj chill out. What makes the modern city well the architecture among other things. Many builders think the higher the better and have built towering concrete constructions. But concrete doesnt hold up forever so whats to be done when buildings and bridges start to crack and crumble researchers are working on how to stop the decay before its too late. Minneapolis in two thousand and seven at the height of rush hour a bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed taking more than one hundred vehicles and a construction crew down with it the tragedy was a wake up call about the safety of infrastructure. Structures must withstand the dhikr day she. In the mode when whether or snow every day. Often the damage is not apparent or its difficult to assess. The laney hard to see of this with federal institute of technology and third is searching for solutions buildings are even willing organisms about reacting evolve with their environment and what we would like to do with our Sensor Network is us actually install an ironic system which conveys information on the health of this. This new building at the institute has been outfitted with more than one hundred sensors they measure force unload defamation vibration and more. The information is gathered here just like sensory cells in the human body the sensors relay information about the condition of the building. And it happens in real time big data has entered the world of construction but first the data must be readable. The times and the like this the five. Forms and from different sources so we engineer would have trouble interpreting something that is plain. Its. Which is where were coming. The new Institute Building has a special construction it consists of a timber frame these beings are held together with steel cables. Its a very flexible way to build. Fiber optic sensors are built into the frame they measure the strain at critical junctures. When the structure is placed under strain it can distort in two ways vertically due to a heavy load. Or horizontally due to vibration. This defamation follows certain basic patterns. And the patterns are always the same as long as the material remains intact. If these measured values exceed a certain level the system sounds an alarm for example to a smartphone. That tells the researchers that the structure is slowly reaching the end of its lifespan. A bridge in western switzerland the Research Team has installed sensors here too the sensors are also designed to work in older structures like this one thats nearly sixty years old. Most bridges have a lifespan of fifty to one hundred years the team wants to continually monitor the Structural Integrity of the bridge to maximize that life span. But like in many countries many structures in switzerland are nearing the end of their lifespan monitoring every single building road and bridge with sensors is impossible so hard to see is taking a systematic approach. Instrument number of components that is in the cab of the population of of the network so for instance when theyre on the way network. There are a couple gores of components not bear similar characteristics are of a similar material were build up the same period and are experiencing similar loads. Currently this isnt whats being done the city of zurich checked with concrete bridges once a year. In the future census is supposed to replace these annual checks. But the engineer whos in charge of this department for the city isnt convinced that sensors are the solution. If they dont when these alternate sensors have their uses but when it comes to bridges there are many things you cant measure automatically in the end you always need a person to make decisions and take responsibility that the methods and tools that were developing are not that bad that they replace the experts or replace the engineer the engineer will always be required to think that this is in the end were simply providing a new way forward in the Decision Making process. Lenny thought see is convinced the sensor system could have detected the excessive load on the minneapolis bridge in time. Safer structures with longer life span thanks to big data thats it sees a vision of the future. When the volume is turned up loud enough a concert becomes a visceral physical experience one that you sense not just with your ears but with your whole body. Its an effect that a couple of students decided to play around with and the results of their work could change how people who cant hear interact with music. Benedict fogler has a severe hearing impairment but thats not stopping him from savoring the music performed by this amberg orchestra the shirt hes wearing convert sound into nuanced vibrations. Before the concert the students set up eight microphones around the stage each one near a different instrumental section the sound they pick up is. Converted into data which then triggers vibrations inside the sound shirt. Are they something to the cellos or on the right the violas or over there. So we can lay out the sound from the microphones to the specific pads on the sound so short that. A Software Program converts the audio into data which is sent to the wearable device the wireless process and several people to wear the shirts at the same time. The garment is fitted with sixteen micro actuators the strength of their vibrations corresponds to the intensity of the music was applied to you hope i get home as soon as the drums began and the entire orchestra started playing a bit louder than i felt it was happening i could feel the drum beat somewhere near my kidneys. I had to sit down for a moment. And if you lean back when you sit down then it feels even more intense because youre increasing the pressure on the vibration elements that are built into the shirt and. Martina bagman is donning the sound shirt for the second half of the concert the hamburg local is totally deaf shes always accompanied by a sign Language Interpreter and initially shes a little startled by the vibrating sensations on her upper body. And you know. Its an unusual feeling thats not like using hearing aids. Im not used to feeling things in my body like this and. Thats why they said from the beginning that you can regulate it. So that it will make you feel sick. And i can imagine that you might need to turn it down. The applause that accompanies the entrance of the musicians registers a strong signal the actuators respond to volume fourteen a backman finds the power of the vibrations overwhelming. She was chosen to try out the sound church by lottery more than five hundred people applied for now the wearable is only a prototype. Of his own as i thought wed like to see more sound shots available so deaf and hearing impaired people can experience music. Perhaps in particular for those who became deaf later in life these who know what music sounds like one and him as it was one thousand visas. The original idea for the sound shirt came from an ad agency the concept was further developed by sound specialists in england the test version has been around for a year now. For martina the first forty five minutes of wearing it were very intense. To jefferson and stand out of unfounded vibrates in different areas so takes a bit of time to figure out which area corresponds to which instruments yes its a new experience for me. It will take a bit of time to get used to it. Benedict fogler is completing a thesis on the hi tech wearable as part of his undergraduate degree hes hoping to become an audio visual engine near his hearing impairment affords him a unique perspective. On how to get them its right on your body but you dont usually experience music in such a direct way rather than just affecting that year this has an impact on the entire body thats more intense than just hearing. Hes very interested in martina baird mens experience since shes totally deaf she can only rely on the vibrations in the shirt benedikt folklore on the other hand has limited hearing enabling him to benefit from hearing aids so for him the experience is a combination of both sensations. Check out the latest and greatest topics from the world of research on our website dot com slash science and if youve got something to share get in touch on twitter or facebook. Next week well be looking at silk worms and the prized fibers they span researchers are now able to copy the process in the lab and are using the material they produce to make for example artificial bone more on their fascinating results next time on tomorrow today see you then. Enjoy the conflict zone fronting the powerful. This week conflict zone is invalid and my guess is a politician on the needs hes a member of the European Parliament and the social democrats who have just suffered less tummy defeat now that the votes are counted germany has it. In thirty minutes g. W. Gets about that. Its all about the system inside. Its all about George Chance to discover the world from different perspectives. Join us in sponsored by distinctive instagram or others that do. W. Stories the topic each week on instagram. And the fresh d. W. That i may speak your language to talk about. For content in dari pashto and order prospects for returning our web special getting at the refugee journeys of life in germany and the prospects for those returning home. To join the discussion on d w dot com and on facebook. Prospects for returning. D. W. Maybe for my. Crime fighters the new season of radio crime thrillers begins. Moving. On Domestic Violence cyber crime and Human Trafficking for investigative cases that will keep you on your toes a Crime Fighting stories at the base idea ever so every young person needs to listen to crime fighter and share tell a friend tell a friend to a friend crush fighters dont miss it. Sustainable protection for the earth ideals designed to preserve our ecosystems they exist around the world. Global ideas takes the next step protection for our planets biological diversity trailblazing projects. D w dot com slash global ideals. This is deja vu news live from berlin independence for the kurds in iraq baghdad says no kurds celebrate though as their vote for independence gets about one hundred percent approval theres talk in baghdad of sending in the troops so where is the vote to secede from iraq heading also coming up. As