Now on bbc news, its time to click. The race to make more ventilators. Robots on the frontline. And how to look sharp on a digital date. This week, the uk went into lockdown over the continuing coronavirus crisis. We were told to limit all of our activities and stay at home. This comes as the World Health Organization says the pandemic is accelerating across the globe. Hospitals everywhere are facing a shortage of equipment, including ventilators. This life saving equipment helps patients to breathe in the most critical cases when their lung function fails. The uk currently has around 8,000 ventilators in the country, but needs many more. So, how do we urgently get access to more of these machines . Can we manufacture more of them in this country . Jen copestake has been looking at some of the possible solutions. The uk government has put a call out to big businesses to help manufacture new ventilators. Already, dyson have answered, saying they are hoping to start production on 10,000 machines by mid april. But will this be enough, soon enough . Teams of engineers and doctors are also trying to come up with more Immediate Solutions to this problem, which could be cheaper and more portable. We spoke to some of them this week. Most are committed to making their designs open source and freely available once theyve been tested. These machines need to work 2a hours a day for up to 1a days at a time per patient. 50 set to respirate 15. A team from the university of oxford and Kings College london have quickly designed what they think is a workable ventilator, which could go into production right away, called 0xvent. It was presented to the uk cabinet this week and was made to special covid 19 regulations that the government published. And is driven into this box. Inside the box is a standard ambulance bag. These bags are normally compressed by hand to provide air to a patient, but in this case, we compress it using the pressure from our air supply. The device is made from a0 components, 90 of which are off the shelf, meaning they are already in the nhs supply chain and, theoretically, easy to procure. 0xvent will now be tested in birmingham, and may cost less than £1,000 per machine, compared to tens of thousands of pounds for ones in use in hospitals now. We want something thats simple and that can be built. And, sure, i can make a ventilator as fancy as you like, but ill get it to you in october, if thats alright. Thats not an option. In france, a collective have created what they call the minimal universal respirator. Theyre confident it could enter the mass Production Phase in the coming days. Theyve already shown it to a paris hospital. Its made of 3d printed components and hasnt yet been medically certified, but they say there is a need to innovate quickly in a crisis. When you need to do a tracheotomy, when you dont have the kit to do it, you use that a pen. 0k, and we are doing something that is almost similar to that. Ok, its not a full feature respirator, but it may help save people, so we must try it. This attitude to try and iterate quickly is echoed in spain, which has faced a rising death toll. This ventilator is also made from 3d printable parts. A group working out of the Leitat Technology Centre only started the design a week ago. Theyve already brought it to a hospital to try out. It is going through the final stages of medical testing, and if successful, will be ready to manufacture. It costs less than 500 euros to make and can be made in 2a hours. The group say they have been approached by manufacturers ready to produce between 50 to 100 a day once they receive approval. In lithuania, people are working on a simple, 3d printable respiratory device that doesnt need electricity. The idea has been inspired by designs from japan that have been tested on the International Space station. If the prototype succeeds, they want to make it freely available to those most in need. When we think about third world countries, where there is, like, extremely huge populations, and theyre not that developed in the medicalfield, people will die due to a lack of equipment. We also saw a sophisticated solution which could be made quickly. In canada, thornhill medical, whose Battery Powered ventilators are used by the us military, have been asked by the government there to ramp up production. Their portable intensive care device is Battery Powered and generates its own oxygen from the air. Theyre already ce marked and fda approved, and the designer believes they have the expertise to make them quickly in adapted automotive or aerospace factories around the world. If everybody puts the pedal to the metal and goes full speed, i think this could be ramped up in very large numbers pretty quickly. Its certainly inspiring to see how engineers around the world are coming together to work on this problem in the face of many challenges. But getting out cheaper, Faster Solutions could be critical for people everywhere where ventilators are scarce. That wasjen, and lets hope that technology really can be used as a force for good in this crisis, and those machines get to the people who need them. Now, with about a third of the global population currently under some kind of lockdown, we are increasingly turning to tech to stay connected, and chris fox has been looking at some ways to recreate that social feeling at a distance. Like millions of us across the world, ive spent the last week self isolating and staying at home. Luckily, ive been social distancing for about 20 years, so ive learned a thing or two about staying social without leaving the house. Hey hi, zoe. Hows it going . Video calls are suddenly all the rage, and this week, instagram added a new feature called co watching that lets you show off your favourite photos during an Instagram Video call. Oh, look for a video chat with a difference, check out house party. Its been lingering at the top of the app charts all week. Instead of calling your friends, you notify them when youre free for a chat, and up to eight friends can drop in to the same party. Its owned by fortnite maker epic games, so of course you can play games here too. If you miss playing board games with your friends, board game arena lets you choose from a range of modern games, and some classics like chess and backgammon, to play either against your friends or against internet strangers if you prefer. Most of the games are free to play, although the website is so busy at the moment, it says its given priority access to premium subscribers at peak times. Heres a tip if you prefer to play your own board games. Some of the video calling apps, including zoom and skype, will let you start a call on your phone, but invite your computer as a guest participant using just one account. So you can video chat over here and use your phone as a camera to stream the game board. Now, this is the only game ive got in the flat to demonstrate with. Its a secret admirer board game where players have to work out who fancies them and call them on this phone. Is it matt . Hi, sorry. Its not me. Oh, its not matt oh, no bad luck, spencer now, being in isolation doesnt necessarily have to put your dating life on hold. Im trying a new app called filter off. It was originally designed as a way to beat catfishers, fake profiles, because instead ofjust swiping yes and no on people to try and find matches with people you think are hot, instead youre matched with a set number of people to do speed date video calls on an evening. So what you do is you tell the app when youre free well, im not doing anything else tonight and then you are matched with people. And my first chat will be with zach, founder of the app, and i dont even get to see his picture, just a few facts as sort of conversation starters. And its counting down now. Your date begins in a few seconds. This is actually very tense hey, chris. Hey, zach. Hows it going . Good man, how are you . Looking good ive actually brought you to one of my favourite dining spots. Its my kitchen. Thank you for that. So, why did you want to create filter off . Yeah, so i created filter off to give people an easy way to see if they vibe with one another, and i think the best way of doing that is through video. Couldnt this potentially be more brutal, that youve actually spoken to someone, and then they dont match with you . I mean, thats the risk, right . But you could also show up on a date and then you never get texted. You cant use the excuse that youre busy, because i know youre in isolation if your online date goes well and you get as far as netflix and chill, then check out netflix party. Its a web browser plug in that synchronises programmes with your friends, so youre all watching the same part at the same time. Its free, and it even adds a chat window, so you can share messages without missing the action. We often think of Virtual Reality as a solitary experience, but there are a growing number of Multiplayer Games to try online, like this zombie shooter, arizona sunshine. The strangest thing for me is how you really do feel like your friend is in the room with you. Its a totally different experience from a video call. Hey and if fighting off zombie hordes is a bit too close to the bone right now, try rec room, which is Cross Platform and free. The game lets you hang out with friends, play games together, and even interact with strangers in a way that somehow gives you a feeling of being connected to the world. Perhaps when we come out of isolation in a few weeks time, well have made some new friends along the way. Hello, and welcome to the week in tech. It was the week a new daily covid 19 Symptom Tracker was launched by Kings College london and health start up zoe to let anyone share their data with researchers and the nhs. Phone sales dropped by the industrys biggest ever amount since the invention of the smartphone due to upheaval of manufacture and supply. And kids gaming giant minecraft is offering its educational lessons to children forfree during the pandemic, complete with tours of the International Space station. In more good news for parents, streaming Service Disney launched across most of europe, albeit with reduced picture quality. The platform follows netflix, youtube, facebook and others with a 25 lower bandwidth as internet traffic spikes. People should avoid using their microwave at the same time as their wi fi. Thats the advice from media regulator 0fcom who this week gave out tips on how to improve your internet speeds. Other tips included enabling wi fi calling on your smart phone and downloading films in advance to reduce reliance on streaming. And, finally, an oscar winning composer has come up with a new musical composition, but shes not the one performing it. Hildur gudnadottirs latest piece is being performed by a robotic musician as part of an Art Exhibition in zurich. The robot arm was programmed by a swiss firm. Roll over, beethoven. 0ur lives have changed dramatically with novel problems needing novel solutions. Across the globe, Healthcare Systems are flat out. The coronavirus is proving an unprecedented challenge for us humans. But we are starting to see how robots could help us out. Hey, temi. Whats the weather in london today . Here is the weather in london, united kingdom. We met temi a couple of years back. In more normal times, we talked about the weather and had a cup of tea. But now, temi is on the front line of this crisis. Thousands of the devices have been interacting with contagious hospital patients in china, hong kong, japan and korea, as well as some care homes in the us. The bots autonomously move between patients, providing remote video chat with doctors and nurses, even taking their temperature from up to 60 centimetres away. The ai embedded, voice activated device can run amazon alexa, as well as other voice platforms such as tencent in china. Todays chips are so advanced in power, that enable us to do a lot of very, very complex calculations in order to bring data from multiple sources in real time, so the robot can understand how the environment looks like, how the user looks like, and specifically for the corona situation, this is what you need. Naturally, there are regulatory and practical issues as to how easy it would be to implement this kind of tech around the world and, of course, a robot is never going to replace human interaction. But right now, we need all the help we can get. Help is also at hand from this robotic arm, designed by researchers at chinas tsinghua university. The wheeled device treats patients on behalf of medical staff, too. It can be controlled remotely from anywhere in the world, performing typically close contact tasks such as ultrasounds and mouth swabs, as well as listening in to organs without the need for a stethoscope. Robots do not have to be high tech to be handy, though. School students in taiwan have used lego to build automated disinfectant spray bots. Ultrasonic sensors detect any approaching hands and start a motor that presses the trigger of a plastic sanitising spray bottle. The idea doubling up as a reminder of the importance of regular hand washing during the pandemic. Some of these ideas are clearly more impactful than others but it is a United Global approach to deal with what is a global problem. That was lara, and robots are not the only machines that have been enlisted into the fight against covid 19. The battle against the coronavirus has also gone airborne, as Danny Vincent reports from hong kong. Governments around the world have been experimenting on how to incorporate drones to mitigate against the coronavirus. During the outbreak in china, the government deployed drones to warn people off of the streets, sometimes by following them all the way home. Chinese companies are the World Leaders in Drone Technology but their use in this pandemic has gone worldwide. It has also raised questions about privacy and state surveillance. Here in hong kong, the government encourages us to work from home. I conducted these interviews remotely, over the internet. I have also self isolated during these turbulent times. In south korea, the local government has been working with the Drone Company dji to disinfect the streets of seongnam, a city half an hour outside of the capital. South korea has been praised for its response to covid 19. They have adapted drones used for agriculture to spray disinfectant from the sky. They call this drone quarantine. Translation drones can be effective and precise in areas where humans cant easily reach because they can spray disinfectant from a height where humans are not able to reach. Drones are also more suitable for disinfecting things like trees. And because it can spray from 2 4 litres a minute, it is very effective. These drones were developed originally for the use in agriculture. They have multiple nozzles that sit underneath motors, controlled by wireless powered handsets. Its fpv camera allows it to transmit data back to the pilot. Here in seongnam, they say they can disinfect an area ten times faster with drones than with people. With the progress being made with artificial intelligence, dji believes it isjust a matter of time before we see automated drones helping with everyday life. But it is notjust dji using drones to disinfect. At the height of the outbreak in mainland china, other Drone Companies like xag employ drones to disinfect urban areas. Xag r80 agriculture robot is also been deployed on the ground. It can spray disinfectant at 360 degrees and is controlled by a wireless transmitter. In south korea, the city plans to wider deploy drone quarantine. This may be social distancing 2. 0. That was Danny Vincent. And well be checking in with danny for regular stories from asia over the coming months. Now, when this is all over, it is hard not to think that some things just wont go back to the way they were. And one of those things might be business conferences. Last week, it was supposed to be taiwan based htcs massive shindig with people flying in from all over the world but, when this could not happen, they went ahead with it anyway in Virtual Reality. Stephen beckett was invited, and this is how it went. Virtual reality headsets have had a rough ride over the last few years with, its fair to say, plenty of excitement and a definite dollop of disappointment. But maybe now is the time to give vr another chance. Can it help us meaningfully connect, or is itjust a glorified video call . So, like a lot of people right now, i am stuck at home, but that does not mean i cant go somewhere and it also doesnt mean i can get out of doing myjob. Certainly not with one of these around. Hey, this is great nice to meet you. Should we can shake hands . Were allowed to shake hands in vr. Shake hands, yes. We cant do it in real life but we can do it in the virtual world. Many organisations have been looking again at vr as a host of global conferences have been cancelled due to covid 19. Im standing inside a preview of engage, a Vr Experience used so far for education but now, its being souped up to host a conference for hundreds of people. Htc is one of the main vr headset manufacturers in fact, they made the one im wearing right now. If theres any company that should be able to take their conference virtual, it is them. So where are we . We are this is the main venue for the presentation, the virtual vive ecosystem conference. So we have a conference every year. You know, because of the coronavirus, we have had to do it differently this year, which is why we worked with engage to create a virtual venue. Everybody from anywhere in the world who wants to came can join. Some people will look at this and theyll say, this is a kind of glorified video call, a glorified skype call. What do you say to that . So when you are doing videoconferences and you feel very safe and youre just looking at a screen, now im going to do something really weird, im going to get right up close to you, 0k . Now, can you do this on video . Chuckles. Does that feel awkward . It is a little bit intimidating. Yes, exactly. The thing with video, it is fantastic and, yes, you can communicate. But inside Virtual Reality, you feel like you are in the room with the person, and thats something you cant do on any other platform. Beyond more natural human connection, being in vr means you can do and see things you might never do in the real world. Now, if you put your trigger on the chicken, you can move him. Oh, yeah. Its not every conference you get to hold a chicken, is it . Were actually in the hippo, stephen. Well have to move back. Oh, im inside the hippo. A lot of people would say that vr has not really taken off in the way that people were hoping it would. Whats your take on that . The hassle of using the device and a change in peoples habits is right now outweighing the benefits for the average person. This is where it changes from now, going forward. The catch with a Virtual Conference is that it can happen in any time zone, and this one is happening in the middle of the night for me, so after a quick round of basketball oh, nearly play on the xylophone and a group hug, i am off to get some sleep. Ok, so it is 2am. Im it is well past my bedtime but it is also the perfect time for a conference on the other side of the world, so im just going to get a few vr things set up and then were going to try and see if we canjoin, just in time for the opening speech. Lets see if it works. It better work oh, look. Wow, here we all are. Oh, look, alvin is here. Ok, it is starting. Oh, shall i sit down . Im causing a problem he is looking at me. And of course, you cannot applaud in a video call like you can in the virtual world. You can see the start of a really, really good idea there. I can imagine what that would be like if the headsets were a bit lighter and a bit easier to use, and the computers were a bit stronger and the graphics were a bit better. Give it a few years and i can imagine that this is something that people might want to do. Even so, is it enough to stand between me and my bed . Not quite. Maybe in a few years. Next week, unbelievably, in the middle of all of whats going on, it is clicks 20th birthday. I know and so, were going to bring you something that hopefully will take your mind off things for a little bit a blast back to the past and a look at our greatest hits since the year 2000. I wish you well. Be safe and we will see you next week. Hello there. Through the first half of last week we had some spring warmth. In fact, last tuesday, temperatures got up as high as 19 degrees. This week, starting on a much colder note. Certainly during sunday temperatures for most of us didnt get out of single digits. And we start monday morning with those temperatures around about freezing. High pressure in charge of the scene, a strong area of High Pressure out to the west. This really has been dominating our weather for the last couple of days, feeding winds in from the north. Weve had really strong winds through the weekend, the wind easing a touch during monday and some notice also some slightly lighter colours of blue coming into the mix, just signs the air might not be quite as cold as it has been. Now, having said that, still quite chilly on monday, a brisk breeze and some showers across northern and eastern areas across the midlands and even into wales through the day. Any wintriness in the showers becoming confined to the very highest ground in the north with that air turning a little bit less cold. We will see a fairly brisk breeze but not as windy as it was, say, during sunday. And those temperatures justa notch up, 9,10, 11 degrees, although that is still a little below par for this time of year. Now, as we go through monday night well continue to see large areas of cloud feeding down from the north, well see some clear spells as well, one or two showers here and there and as you can see from the green shades on the chart, yes, it will be a chilly night but most places will probably hover just above freezing. So, a change in the feel of the weather into tuesday. Our area High Pressure sinks a little bit further south and that allows us to draw the air in from the atlantic. It cuts off that flow of air from the north, so its not going to be quite as cold with this west or north westerly wind toppling in. Still a lot of cloud, some spells of sunshine, one or two showers, but those temperatures up to nine or 10 degrees. Now, as we move into wednesday, for northern ireland, for england and wales, its a similar sort of day. Large areas of cloud, some sunny spells but we will see a frontal system bringing some showery rain into northern parts of scotland. The winds starting to pick up here once again but those temperatures again just a touch higher at ten or 11 degrees. Now, for the end of the week, some changes. Our area of High Pressure slips away south westwards, a low pressure dives in from the north, another frontal system into scotland, rain and snow with that, another shot of cold air for the north of the uk but for the south of the uk, it looks like it will stay that bit milder. So, to sum up through the week ahead, a chilly start, some rain and snow, particularly in the north, a lot of dry weather as well but it should turn milder from the south later. Hello this is bbc news im simon pusey with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. Almost 1,300 people have now died from coronavirus in the uk a rise of 209. Deserted roads and empty parks a top official says the uk could face up to six months of restrictions. In the us a prediction from the leading government expert that coronavirus could kill up to 200,000 americans with a peak in around a fortnight. For the next two weeks and during this period, its very important that everyone strongly follow the guidelines. And life and death in india as Prime Minister modi apologizes for a chaotic lockdown that has hurt