President trump says hes hoping to name a woman within the next week, as his choice to replace the Supreme Court judge, ruth bader ginsburg. The proposal has triggered a battle between republicans and democrats about chosing a replacement, before the us president ial election. The British Government says its going to impose stiff financial fines, on people in england who fail to quarentine themselves, as part of coronavirus restrictions. Anyone who tests positive for the infection, or is contacted through the test and trace system, will be legally required to self isolate. The chinese owners of the tiktok social media app have agreed to form a new company with two Major American Companies, oracle and walmart. The new partnership will run tiktoks Us Operations, after President Trump threatened to ban the app as a danger to national security. Now on bbc news, click. This week working together and staying apart. A new slice of apple. And theatre through the looking glass. Hey, welcome to click, hope you are doing 0k. It has been a big week for me, look where i have been. Yes, on my first train for six months. And look who i went to see, only my good friend lara lewington, who is smaller than she looks on tv, i had forgotten. True but that picture doesnt help. It was really lovely to see you, and maybe next time
i will get the train to you. And if i do, i might be needing this. Laughs. Right, now, i have been looking at this on your social media feed and if i am honest i am still having trouble processing it in my head even now. I dont blame you, my husband bought it for me as a romantic gift you would have thought after lockdown he would be sick of the sight of my face, but it seems not, even if the dimensions are a bit strange. Somewhat, who said romance is dead, hey . But inspired by that i have come up with my own, i have made my own version on a budget, so. Thats me, isnt it . There we go. Laughs. Nice, it is more flattering than mine. Well thank you, no worse i guess, no worse. Now listen, if you are going back to work you may have to wear a mask either on the journey or in the office. For some people at work in bigger offices, all they have to do is maintain a social distance from their colleagues if they can. Yes, butjen copestake has been
to see how Computer Vision is being used to help keep people apart, both on the commute and in the office. During the pandemic we have seen innovations in ways to monitor Peoples Movement and activities to help stop the spread of the virus. This includes using drones like draganfly, that can pick up on people coughing. And this system from cameo, which detects whether or not people are Wearing Masks. Cameras, data and Computer Vision software are used to ease the process of returning to work, including a first of its kind system in one of londons busiest train stations. Here at St Pancras International station they are using something called Digital Twin Technology to help monitor Peoples Movements around the station. And they can determine from that different ways to encourage people to move apart during the commute. A digital twin is an up to the minute replica
in digitalform of a space, including the people in it. The entire station is scanned by openspace before the pandemic, working with the department of transport and innovate uk. 30 bespoke cameras equipped with 3d cameras are dotted around the station with another 20 on the way. Flat against the surface of the ceiling, they are separate from the current cctv system. So we have got 3 cameras working in this part of the station, one above our head and two along this line, and weve meshed those cameras together so they can give us a continuous view of Movement Across the concourse here. So what makes them different to the cctv cameras . These are much more precise cameras. These are cameras that are able to specifically pick up the movement of people to a certain level of accuracy, so we can then process the data within our digital twin. This is the first time anywhere in the world a digital twin is managing the real Time Movement of people in a train station, and the first system of this kind making operational
decisions about social distancing. People pop up red or green depending on if they are two metres or more apart. All the data is anonymised in keeping with gdpr. Video data is combined with wi fi ticketing information and the team has access to huge amounts of pre and post covid Movement Data to help develop the software. Station staff can then steer people to areas which are clearer, redirect lifts and escalators and provide staff at hotspots to encourage social distancing. I think it has been very challenging from our perspective to give confidence to our travelling public around the steps we have taken to make sure that when they go through our stations that we absolutely have robust plans and procedures in place. From the train to the office, a different kind of system is implemented here using pre existing cameras. The Second Home Co working space saw a reduction in users since the start
of the pandemic. Now they have introduced an alert system for staff to enforce social distancing. The data from two of the cctv cameras here in this Co Working Space is being analysed in the cloud by an Artificial Intelligence engine that is able to determine how many people are in the space, the distance they are keeping, how long people are staying distant, and even if people are talking, singing or sneezing. You can act on it quite quickly, you get alerted, i get alerted on my phone, so if there was a crowd congregating i can split up quite quickly, so we have a one directional system but if people were bumping into each other than wed definitely looking at re routing people into a different way. Apart from distance which is the most obvious one, there is also a whole slew of more nuanced behaviours, including everything from what people are engaged in, all of which has different effects on the particulates and the spread of the particulates. Are they Wearing Masks or not, how long are they spending in each others presence . So it is a very rich picture of covid safe behaviour. All around the World Companies are taking advantage of advances in Computer Vision. Amazons warehouse system uses Image Recognition and depth sensors to measure the distance between people. Employees who stay six feet apart get a green circle around them, while those who dont get a red one. Computer Vision Company numina tracked the paths of where people are walking to better understand where hotspots are. The images are immediately stripped of any human characteristics and made into boxes with simple labels like pedestrian, car and bus. Back at st pancras there are plans to embed robots into the digital twin system next. They could be used for cleaning and help enforce social distancing, saving workers from further potential exposure to the virus. Jen there, and until there is a vaccine were going to have to get used to some of these sorts of measures. Of course the other way to keep things up and running,
though, is regular and quick testing. Which could help keep anyone with the virus away from others. Right now in the uk there are problems with people being able to access tests, but there are new types of tests currently being trialled. Different researchers are trying different methods, and the problem is that right now we dont know how well any of these will work. With current tests taking a day or more to come back, many of us are hoping for newer tests that could give results while you wait. Normally, developing a procedure takes a long time, and the work is rigorously Peer Reviewed and tested before we even get to hear about it. But right now, every new theory and every new test is being publicised much earlier in its development, leading to claims which can sound too good to be true, but which we all want to be true. Some companies are trying to develop on the spot testing that could take just 20 seconds. This one is investigating using al to recognise the coronavirus in samples of saliva. Other patients in hospitals and care homes are using portable machines like this that deliver dna swab results injust 90 minutes. No lab needed. The uk government has also partnered with the Oxford University spin out behind these little and large devices, capable of analysing swab or saliva samples in 90 minutes. But there is a thought that it might not matter if the tests are not that accurate. Now this does sound counter intuitive, but its an argument that has been put forward by economist and bbc presenter tim harford. You are saying that is not a disaster. It is only a disaster if we ignore the fact that the test is imperfect. So just to put some numbers on it lets imaginei in 1000 people is infected at any one time, which is not a million miles away from the situation
right now in the uk. And lets say the test gives 10 false positives, so out of every ten people you test, the test says they are positive but actually they are not infected at all. Run those numbers, you test 1000 people, one of them has got the virus. And then 100 of them have, are wrongly flagged as having the virus, because you have a 10 false positive rate. So then you have 100 times as many people being given false positives as given a true positive. So that sounds like a total disaster, it sounds like you couldnt possibly use that information. But think about it in another way before you gave everyone the test, you would have thought1 in 1000 people has the virus, but now you are able to zoom in on a subset of those people, 100 people, and now you know one out of 100 people has the virus. So the other 900 people
are probably fine. But if the alternative is to lock down everybody, to tell everybody they have to stay home and tell everyone they cant go to school or a restaurant, maybe the imperfect test could be better. We just have to use the information in the right way. So your latest book, how to make the world add up, wasjust being finished, i think, as we were going into lockdown. And i wonder whether you looked at what the virus was doing around the world, and whether that taught you anything about statistics . Well i am sad to say it underlined the point i was trying to make in the book, which was that while we tend to think of statistics as a kind of political weapon, that you know, people lie with statistics and they try to win arguments with statistics, actually statistics are a way of seeing the world around us, seeing things we cant see any other way. So they are a bit like you need radar to spot incoming bombers, we need statistics to spot the incoming virus. So i am trying to get people to take the numbers seriously as a way of seeing what is true. Hello, and welcome to the week in tech. This week, apple announced the launch of a new workout Subscription Programme called fitness . It forms part of a bundle of Services Including news and arcade, now branded as apple one. Facebook unveiled a new version of its oculus quest vr headset with more power and higher resolution. The new device also comes with a significant price drop. The entry level version will be £100 deeper than its predecessor. And sony confirmed the price of the forthcoming playstation 5, matching the 500 price of its rival the xbox one series x. Google says it has gone beyond being Carbon Neutral, and has now compensated for all of the carbon it has ever produced. It comes as a range of big tech firms have committed to reducing or eliminating their carbon footprint. British based chip designer arm is being sold to the American Graphics chip
specialist nvidia. Nvidia said the deal, worth 40 billion, will create the premier Computing Company for the age of Artificial Intelligence. And finally, is there life on. Venus . Scientists have discovered what they say could be potential signs of life floating in the clouds of the planet. A new scientific paper reveals the discovery of gas called phosphine, typically associated with living organisms. The future really is in the cloud. This isnt fog, its smoke. California is a state reeling from wildfires. Flying into San Francisco this week from london, you could barely see the city. My name is James Clayton, and i am the new bbc and click San Francisco technology reporter. And i have landed at a pretty weird time. Ive been to San Francisco a few times before, but this was San Francisco only different. Mandatory masks everywhere, the airport almost completely empty. The streets quieter, much more so than london. Ive come during a monster week for tech though. Many of the stories based on theme that are likely to dominate tech journalism in the years to come. On monday, oracle agreed a deal with tiktok to oversee its Us Operations, after mr trump said it would ban the company if it couldnt find a us suitor. Ill be doing more on how tech is being dragged into a geopolitical battle between china and the us. It was also a week that twitter launched its election hub, to promote Accurate Information and resources for voters. How Companies Like google and twitter and facebook regulate their platforms
in the run up to the elections are likely to have a massive impact on that november poll, and it is something that click will be doing more on. It also happened to be a week when mr trump visited california, sparking controversy by refusing to acknowledge Climate Changes impact on the environment. Going forward, could big tech do more by notjust being Green Companies themselves, but by leading the way in innovation, perhaps even reversing some of the damage that humans have done to our planet . At apples launch on tuesday, the company didnt release an iphone or arm based macbooks but he did send its new iteration of products around healthcare. But it did centre its new iteration of products around healthcare. Including a new apple watch that can measure oxygen levels in the blood. How the world of tech responds to covid 19 in the coming years is likely to be
crucial in our battle against the virus. And finally this week, google was grilled by senators asking questions about anti trust. Or, in other words, are Companies Like google monopolistic . Whether massive tech Companies Like facebook, apple, and amazon are simply too big and whether they should be broken up, remains a central challenge to governments around the world. The tech stories that we have seen this week perhaps underpin the fundamental question of our age how can we harness the progress that humanity has made for good and not bad . That was James Clayton who, as he says, is our new man in San Francisco, and hes online now. James, not even off the plane and we ask you to start filming. Well done what a time to move to San Francisco though its a really strange time for two reasons. I mean, obviously, youve seen those kind of horrendous pictures of california under this huge blanket of smoke. And its notjust california, its pretty much the whole of western america. It is oregon, its washington. And then, of course, you have covid 19. Covid 19 has affected the us very badly, and california is no exception, and its really noticeable. How do you feel about being there . If you look at all of the conferences that are coming up, literally all of them are virtual. So the chances of me actually being able to get there and, you know, review products in the same way as my predecessor did, well, its going to be quite unlikely for now. I know that different people feel differently about Climate Change within the us, and the big tech giants have certainly committed to trying to go Carbon Neutral or i think google now says it is Carbon Neutral. Do you think the arrival of forest fires at the doors of these companies will change any of their behaviours or focus any of their attention . I think the next stage is are they going to really invest in the kind of innovation that the world might actually need to try and reverse some
of this Climate Change . And at the moment, microsoft have committed a lot of money to that so have amazon, so have apple too but its really only been the last year that has happened. What else are you looking forward to covering . Well, the big tech story of the next 5 6 weeks is going to be about social media with the us elections. Youre already seeing all sorts of disinformation and all sorts of challenges and problems that Companies Like facebook and twitter and google, who owns youtube, are having to make, you know, when trying to regulate what should and shouldnt be on it. Well, were really looking forward to hearing more about it from you over the coming weeks. James, thank you very much and stay there you know, all of these launch events that we have been talking about and, indeed, the run up to the us election, they are all like theatre really, arent they . And that links perfectly to the next bit of the program. Yes, theatre has had
a particularly tough time of it since march, and until actors can tread the boards