Now on bbc news, click takes a look at how Virtual Reality is being used to solve this problem by transporting the Emergency Services into the digital world. This week, taser training. Helpful humanoids. And. Connected cows. Moos hey, welcome to click. Hope youre doing 0k. If youve got kids, then i hope the whole back to school thing is going as well as it can do. To be honest, here, it is a little bit like that. Hows it going with you, lara . Its tricky, isnt it . I remember going back as a young child as though it was yesterday, when clearly it is not, and i think, as parents, we relive that experience through our children. We certainly do and, lets face it, education is just going to feel different this year. It is also going to be different depending on the age of the kids, really Young Children will probably be asked to bubble within a year group, older children will be asked to follow stricter rules, and universities, well, theyre facing a whole world of challenges. Yes, theyre getting set to reopen and, for many, there will be some in person education, but the role of Remote Learning is going to be more important than ever. For some courses, its notjust about listening to a lecture practical is just as important. So i took a trip to an empty University Science department to see how virtual labs could transform education as we know it. Lets go. Please wear a lab coat before entering a lab. Wheres my lab coat . Oh, there. Most will be learning via a laptop, but, for some, Virtual Reality will place them in the experiment. And today, i get to be a science student. What type of molecule is shown in the picture above . Ill go for dna. You are a genius. Im a genius 0k, it was one question. I just want to press all the buttons. But not everything goes right first time. Modules like this can let students learn about dangerous subjects safely. Meanwhile, others let you bend the rules of reality. Lets use an Inverted Microscope to have a look at some cells. Im actually inside a cell, which is, of course, not something you could do in real life. Weird. And the simulations give students access to expensive kit that not all universities could afford. In real life, this microscope would cost around £150,000. At least this means more people can actually interact with this, albeit virtually. The Vr Experience was a bit glitchy, and another obvious issue is that not everyone has a vr headset. But for universities like this one, its the pc version thats proving vital through the pandemic. This lab would be normally filled with 2a students but, because of social distancing, we can only have eight students. A mini study that showed us whether students interacted with these virtual labs in situations, that their recall of the subject matter was really improved. So obviously, when covid came along, we wanted to bring the virtual lab into every students home in the context of an online seminar where its led by an academic, and theyre asked questions, theyre checked on their knowledge as they go through the workshop. Globally, over1 Million Students have already accessed labsters tools, and the company says the pandemic is accelerating adoption. As an example, the California CommunityCollege System that has 2 Million Students, based on the urgent need, we entered a partnership with them in less than one month, and now theyre rolling out to hundreds of thousands of students right away. Whether donning a headset or on a screen, users could also do a spot of surgery, go on a field trip or even visit mars. If you want to keep exploring the lab, feel free to do so. You can say hello to our iguana or have a look. Theres a rodent. Is that a mouse . 0k, there are some things id rather only see virtually. And learning through vr isntjust for students. Professionals have been doing it too. 0mar mehtabs been finding out how the Emergency Services have been putting these to good use. Whether its saving lives in health care, battling blazes as a firefighter or keeping people safe as a police officer, the pandemic has made thesejobs all the more difficult to carry out. But what about those that need to learn how to do the job in the first place . With Emergency Services being stretched thin, and social distancing in place, it means face to face training isnt as easy as it used to be. But that doesnt mean that they cant still be trained. Sure, people have been using video calling or slide presentations, but what about. Virtual reality . First up, firefighting. Vobling have created a platform where you can customise a Fire Training scenario by specifying the environment, the type of fire itself and how to put it out. This extinguisher that they provide has been fitted with trackers to make it feel like you are operating a real one, and notjust a couple of controllers. Aside from firefighters, its designed to train office workers, so they can also learn how to tackle workplace fires. But what about the more serious scenarios . Rivr have created a way for firefighters to learn almost on the go. By filming 360 degree videos of various set ups, firefighters can put on a headset and go through the training as if they were there. Now, looking at this, i thought, isnt this just playing a video . How exactly can this be any more useful in Virtual Reality . Simply, we cant get those venues on a day to day basis cause we cantjust set fire to buildings. That also costs us in the region of between £10,000 15,000 at a time. So we ran a brief feedback session this morning with the crews that actually attended the scenario, and a number of other people who didnt go, and they were really engaged, almost entering the scenario themselves, verbally talking about what they would do and how they do it. Right, that is what is going on with firefighting. Lets move on to health care. Fundamental vr systems help train surgeons and nurses on how to perform certain tasks during procedures. By using haptic feedback through the tools, the user can feel how they are doing in the virtual procedure. Is this on something, is it. Am i touching something . No, its in the air. And the system is also accredited, which means it is also a way for some in health care to earn credits for the course. And their multi user system means students can remotely patch in to virtual surgeries to watch and learn, an alternative to traditional learning and examination. So the pandemic has just accelerated, in my view, a trend that was already taking place, and that is about being able to go 2a hours a day into a learning environment, now that they cant get into the operating room as easily as they used to, the numbers of cases are dramatically reduced. People dont want to come into hospital at the moment, and this is an opportunity to fill some of that gap. But for more covid 19 specific scenarios, a ospital in taiwan is already trailing another system. Created by simx and htc, doctors can use this vr set up to train how to interact with patients who may have covid 19, such as putting on protective gear, taking temperatures and gathering medical samples, so theres less wastage of real ppe and no risk of contracting the virus. Thats health care done. So, finally, lets look at the police. We went out to the Police Constabulary in derbyshire where officers are learning how and when to use a taser in Virtual Reality. Normally, youd be taught in a room where someone in a big blue padded suit would approach you with a rubber knife, and officers would use mock taser cartridges to secure the bad guy, like this. But these cartridges are expensive, around £30 a pop, and being in a room in your workplace isnt exactly the same as a life threatening scenario. So Virtual Reality company avrt have created a massive space using these sensor mats where officers can put on a headset and roam around a virtual environment. Would you mind just stepping onto that side for me . They can be transported to a normal street, an alleyway or a rooftop to create a more realistic feeling. And an instructor even adds a voice so it feels as though youre dealing with a real person. And things got intense. Put the weapon down, put the weapon down stay on the floor, stay on the floor stay on the floor, please it highlights a few flaws that we have in sort of real Life Training in terms of, obviously, people come to do a role play and there is somebody in a big blue suit, theres a taser suit, and it kind of gives people a precondition of what the things going to happen. So in the vr world, its just nice that we can input certain scenarios we are not aware of. I completely mirror that. You do get fully submerged into the scenario which you dont think you will by putting something over your face and ears. But as soon as that headset goes on, and the headphones go on, you do get straight into it, and you forget about everyone else around you, and you just deal with what youre seeing. Then it was time for me to give it a go, to test how immersive it really was, and see if it would affect whether i pulled the trigger or not. Put the knife down, hey, take a step back david, david, go back 0h, hey. David drop the knife, drop the knife david, stop, stop where youre standing ive got a taser do not get any closer, put the knife down put it down that dont feel good, honestly. Honestly, i. Twice, twice ive gone into that and i have purposely not fired this, and the third time i forced myself to fire it, forced myself, and i hated it, i knew i would hate it, and i did hate it. I really did feel stressed, and the instructors personal responses to what i was saying piled even more pressure on me. I really did think about the gravity of actually firing that taser. I think thats enough, i think weve done enough now. Yeah. We happy . Cool there is, i think, an issue with trust between the public and the police force, and a lot of that is down to how force is deployed by the police force. There is a huge story that goes on before the deployment of a weapon, before a weapon is even drawn, before any use of force is engaged. We can really capture, right from the start, that first interaction with someone, measure what sort of empathy were getting from our police officers, and actually make officers accountable for the training of their Decision Making process, right up to, and including, that use of force. But do these simulations actually help people to learn effectively . One of the Research Challenges is proving the effectiveness of the training. So youre training for a dangerous situation and making sure that transfers to the real world is a challenge because you cant ethically or safely expose people to this dangerous situation to see how well they perform. What ive seen in this area is that people have a tendency to be very excited about this technology, and perhaps not ask to see the evidence that its effective. I think it should be used cautiously until we have the evidence to use it to a greater extent. So crossing from the real to the Virtual World may seem like an obvious alternative to traditional training, but, given how much is on the line with the work of these Emergency Services and how new this all is, perhaps its better to use Virtual Reality to complement, rather than replace, for now. Hello and welcome to the week in tech. It was the week that Ghost Robotics teamed up with the us air force on exercise to database with robot dogs. Google abandoned plans to lease an office in dublin for over 2,000 staff. And microsoft revealed the smallest xbox ever the series s would go on sale in november alongside its most powerful console, the series x, and 200 cheaper. It was reported this week that south Korean Semiconductor manufacturer samsung and sk hynix would no longer be selling components to huawei. New orders would not be ta ken after september 15. The move follows us sanctions on the chinese tech giant. American car manufacturer General Motors took a 11 stake in electric Vehicle Company nikola. Gm will help make the Badger Hydrogen electric hybrid pick up truck. The badger is expected to go into production by 2022. Uber laid out plans to go fully electric vehicle fleet by 2030 in north america and europe with the rest of the world coming online by 2040. The company says it will spend 800 million to help drivers switch to electric cars. And finally, the Consumer Tech show efa took place in berlin this week, bit online, bit in person, far fewer spectators and, unsurprisingly, highlights included coronavirus related tech, including this mini dishwasher called bob, adapted to sterilise face masks with uvc light, and wearable air purifier from Japanese Company creative technology. Now, in recent years, technology has played a big role in making homes more accessible for older people and those with care needs. Smart devices, for example, which we now take for granted. But one university in scotland is trying to take things to the next level, and paul carter has been to find out more. Youd be forgiven to thinking its regular saturday morning, im at home watching click. But actually, im not at home, i dont usually have three robot friends in my house. Peppers here, peppers watching click as well. Im actually in a laboratory thats made to look like a home, and what you cant see is its absolutely fully kitted out with sensors and internet of things devices to enable people who have care needs at home to live more independently. Some you might recognise, you might have in your own home. Alexa, turn on the kitchen lights. But there are also a raft of other things embedded all throughout this set up to detect the various needs of the people that might be living in somewhere like this, including some help from these fellas. Hey, pepper. Part of the wonderfully named national robotarium, based at Heriot Watt University in edinburgh, this so called Ambient Assisted Living Lab is almost fully functioning, and includes a lounge, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. It uses a combination of sensors, cameras, internet of things and Cloud Technologies to provide a space where researchers, care providers and end users of assisted Living Services can co create technologies and solutions. But why does this need something built to look like a flat and notjust a conventional lab . Its very important for us that it looks like a domestic environment, where people can actually carry out the normal activities because one of the reasons is that we want to collect the data about those activities and we wanted to do it in an environment that is as naturalistic as possible so that when we use the technology in the real world, in the real environment, we are more sure that that technology will work. This laboratory is designed to be used for Real World Research by postgraduate students, using data to study what applications and solutions can be used by care providers in the future. Its also experimenting with robotics to see how these can be used to complement existing Care Services and to test the interaction with people using them. We are testing rfid, radio frequency identification. You may see some of the tiles on the floor that we are testing at the moment, and they provide the information on whereabouts of humans, and that we can also understand that by using machinery techniques and detecting disturbances in the radio frequency environment that tell us where people are in their home and, again, to understand how well they are moving about, if they have fallen down, if they need any help. Normally, this lab would be working with the most important people in this process, the end users of services. However, coronavirus, like most areas of life, has impacted the lab and its ability to carry out its work. However, one phd student has created a 3d model of the facility and, through cameras already installed, its hoped it can be used remotely. The fact that theres a real focus on the end user and this being a collaborative process is really positive, and i think also the lab has Remote Access so, even with social distancing in place, more and more people can become involved, and the more people that are involved, i think the more suited the tech will be for meeting individual needs. Now, smart homes of the future concepts arent new. Indeed, on click, weve seen many iterations over the years, but the people involved in this project say their aim is to create and provide realistic, Affordable Solutions that arent just a concept. That was paul. Now, you may remember that, just before lockdown, our very own nick kwek moved to australia for a year, and what a year its turned into. Not one we expected, i can tell you that. But we do occasionally check up on him to see how hes doing. And hes been keeping well away from other people, as he should have been doing, but he seems to have been spending some time with some cows. Yeah, right. So behind brazil, australia is the second largest exporter of beef in the world, and the farms there, theyre just enormous. Some are the size of small nations. So nicks been looking at the tech that helps keep the cows happy and healthy whilst keeping track of their movements. Rockhampton, the beef capital of australia. Home to many a head of cattle, some more static than others. Cow moos in the remote farms around here, producers frequently can go a full year without manually checking on their livestock. But now 0ld mcdonald is using tech to get daily status updates. No, the cows havent started their own whatsapp group. They are part of a system that uses a field full of gizmos to inform farmers all about their herds health. At its heart are these solar powered