Digital Planet

By BBC World ServiceTechnology

Digital Planet episodes

May 04, 2021 Tech does not impact teenage mental health
There is little association between tech use and mental health problems in teenagers, according to a new study by the Oxford Internet Institute. Lead author Dr Matti Vuorre explains how they analysed data from 430,000 UK and US teenagers and found little or no associations between adolescents’ tech use and mental health problems. But he says the data they were using is limited. Ideally, he wants to use the data that big tech companies hold on our tech use. The findings are published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.
Africa Teen Geeks and Africa Tech Week
Founder and CEO of Africa Teen Geeks, Lindiwe Matlali, discusses her work in technology education and improving access for African children. During the pandemic she set up online schooling for South Africa, reaching over 600,000 children, and is working with Unicef to improve access to coding and robotics education across the continent. She also runs the ‘Knit2Code’ scheme that teaches women python coding through knitting, empowering mothers and grandmothers to support their daughters’ technology education.
AI colourisation of historical photos
Gwen Katz, a historical novelist and games designer, explains the problems of colourising historical photos. To test the efficacy of colourisation AI she compared the artificial colourisation of black and white photos with their colour originals and found that the bright colours of the original images were lost when colourised by an algorithm. Marta Mrak from BBC R&D discusses how the problem of loss of colours is being solved, by providing the algorithms with reference images, as well as future challenges for designing neural networks to colourise film.
Presenter: Gareth Mitchell
With expert commentary from Ghislaine Boddington
Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz
(Photo: Two girls wearing face masks looking at their phone. Credit: Getty Images)
36 min
April 27, 2021 Indians tweeting for oxygen
The latest wave of the Covid-19 pandemic affecting India has caused heart-breaking shortages of essential medical equipment across the country. As hospitals run out of beds and basic supplies like oxygen, citizens are turning to sites like Twitter and Instagram to source medicines, exchange knowledge and hold the government accountable. Ananya Bhattacharya from Quartz India explains how social media has influenced the response to the pandemic.
Illegal Brick Kilns in Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, the brick making industry provides thousands of jobs and supports the country’s rapid industrialisation – but the kilns used to make the bricks can be heavily polluting. Laws aim to mitigate the environmental and health impacts, but many brick factories have not implemented these changes. Dr Nina Brooks and her research team at Stanford University have developed an AI model that uses satellite imagery to identify which kilns are operating illegally, and hope that it can be used to encourage more factories to abide by the law.
EU and AI regulation
This week the EU Commission published proposals to ban “AI systems considered a clear threat to the safety, livelihoods, and rights of people” and to increase the legal regulations of biometric data, such as facial recognition software. Technology journalist and independent researcher Dr. Stephanie Hare joins the show live to explain the proposals and their likely impacts in Europe and across the world.
(Image: Instagram)
The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Bill Thompson.
Studio Manager: Duncan Hannant
Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz
47 min
April 20, 2021 Malware on mobiles
16% of mobile phones in emerging markets like Brazil Indonesia, South Africa and Thailand are infected with malware, compared to 2.6% globally, according to a new report by the mobile anti-fraud firm Upstream. The company looked at one billion mobile phone transactions in 23 emerging markets covering nearly 840 million users. One mobile device in Brazil tried to make almost 16000 purchases from an app in just one month. CEO of Upstream Dimitris Maniatis explains their findings.
Tech under the ice sheet
The cryoegg, is a small device that monitors the most extreme of environments, streams of ice-cold water flowing under glaciers. It's a rugged device that wirelessly transmits data back to the surface of a glacier from one and a half kilometres below the ice. Dr. Mike Prior-Jones and Dr. Liz Bagshaw from Cardiff University are using the device to monitor glaciers in Greenland.
Indoor Solar Cells
We live in a world with more and more smart devices in our homes and, of course, all of them need electricity. A potential way to supply that power is via the lights we use indoors. A recent paper shows that there are new, environmentally friendly, and safe materials that could help make this a reality. Digital Planet reporter Florian Bohr found out more.
(Image: Getty Images)
The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Ghislaine Boddington
Studio Managers: Bob Nettles and Giles Aspen
Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz
48 min
April 13, 2021 Overcoming internet shutdowns in Myanmar
Internet shutdowns continue in Myanmar and now two new reports show the impact these have had. Top10VPN estimates these have cost the country’s economy more than $1bn, while cybersecurity firm Recorded Future Inc. has confirmed how people are still trying to connect with each other using Bluetooth and messaging apps like Bridgefy as well as accessing the dark web. Samuel Woodhams, Digital Rights Lead from Top10VPN, is on the show to tell us what they’ve observed.
Vietnam water salinity app
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has launched an app in Vietnam to help rice farmers save their crops. High salt levels in the water channels between fields can now be monitored remotely and results sent to farmers’ mobile phones. High salt levels can destroy an entire annual rice crop so the app is significantly improving yields. Kisa Mfalila, Regional Climate and Environment Specialist for Asia and the Pacific region at IFAD, explains how the app works.
Computer Modelling of the Canon of English Literature
The Canon of English Literature – the books that are considered to be worthy of studying - are overwhelmingly written by white men, with books written by female novelists often considered less literary in comparison. Now, a new project “Novel Perceptions: Towards an Inclusive Canon” aims to use computer modelling to investigate the public’s reading preferences. It's led by Professor Sebastian Groes from the University of Wolverhampton, who has just launched a Reader Review survey asking for responses to 400 recent novels. The novels will also undergo computer analysis that will look at sentence length, vocabulary and grammar difficulty to see if an algorithm can identify a best seller.
(Image: Getty Images)
The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Bill Thompson.
Studio Manager: Nigel Dix
Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz
43 min
April 06, 2021 Phones sending data every 4.5 minutes
Our smartphones are sharing data every four and a half minutes according to research from Trinity College Dublin. Telemetry, automated recording and transmission of data, from Apple and Android devices back to these company’s servers is going on even if the phone is only used to make calls. Professor Douglas Leith is on the programme and explains that even when a user has logged out of sending telemetry or they are not logged on, data is still being transmitted.
R.U.R. versus Q.U.R.
The 1921 play Rossum’s Universal Robots (R.U.R.) by Karel C̆apek gave rise to the term “robot,” but the 1941 short story Quinby’s Usuform Robots (Q.U.R.) by Anthony Boucher more accurately reflects today’s robots says Professor Robin Murphy from Texas A&M University. Robin, herself a disaster robotics specialist, is on the show to discuss how these two different ideas developed in very different social and political climates and what we can learn from both these Sci-fi stories.
Virtual Stadium Noise
If you've been watching sport in the last few months you may have noticed that stadiums are almost empty. But when you watch the game, it's very likely that you will hear a crowd cheering the players on. So what's going on? It looks like broadcasters are turning to video games, for the sound of the crowd. Our reporter Chris Berrow has been finding out.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Angelica Mari.
Studio Manager: Giles Aspen
Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz
50 min
March 30, 2021 China’s online restrictions increase
The Chinese government’s highly restricted approach to online freedom of expression has intensified during the COVID pandemic – not surprising maybe, but the implication of this on Chinese citizens and countries across Asia is significant. That’s one of the findings of research published by Chatham House. Harriet Moynihan, from the International Law Programme at Chatham House, is one of the authors of the paper and joins us on the show.
Cellulose Electronic Thread
For electronic textiles to enter the market on a large scale they need to be sustainable. Now scientists at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have developed thread made from conductive cellulose, which can be threaded through a sewing machine. The sewn garments can even be washed in a machine. Sustainable wearable tech would massively reduce electronic waste and could also lead to better healthcare monitoring eg blood pressure or heart rate of the person wearing the smart clothes. Sozan Darabi explains how they developed the thread and how she had to use her sewing skills to create the outfits.
Evil Corp – the board game of tech giants
Fancy becoming a tech billionaire who can save the world? Well you can by playing a new board game called “Evil Corp”. The game allows you to play as one of 6 Evil CEO billionaires intent on accruing billions of dollars and start-ups. The aim is to “Save the World, No Matter the Cost”. The games’ inventor Alfie Dennon says he wants us to think about the power tech tycoons have over our everyday lives online, in how we shop, work and play.
Image: Chinese flag displayed on laptop screen, plus smartphone with block symbol displayed
Credit: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Bill Thompson.
Studio Manager: Giles Aspen
Producers: Emil Petrie and Ania Lichtarowicz
54 min
March 23, 2021 AI chatbot takes witness statements
Court cases can collapse due to unreliable witness statements. These are often taken some time after the crime has happened – but what if it was possible to take a witness statement very quickly using AI chatbots? Dr Julia Shaw is on the programme discussing her latest research into using an AI chatbot in reporting harassment in the workplace. Not only are statements taken more quickly, they are done better by a machine than a person, as people can interrupt, misinterpret, judge or incorrectly record statements. The AI chatbot sticks to a script and allows the witness to do the same.
Machine learning to understand Tinnitus
AI is helping to advance research into tinnitus, a condition often described as a ringing, buzzing or hissing in the ears, which affects up to 1 in 5 adults. Clinicians currently have no objective means of diagnosing tinnitus and must rely on the accounts of people living with the condition. But machine learning algorithms, combined with brain imaging techniques, are allowing scientists to develop a clinical tool to measure tinnitus objectively. Anthea Lacchia reports.
Women’s Engineering Society Prize
Shrouk El-Attar describes herself as an Electronics Engineer, a bellydancer, an LGBTQ+ campaigner and refugee. She is the winner of the WES Prize IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award, to add to a multitude of prizes she has already received. She’s helped design a pelvic floor trainer - a treatment for incontinence - and is redesigning the breast pump to allow women to express their milk much more easily and quietly. Gareth finds out what inspires her and more about the tech she designs.
The programme was presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Ghislaine Boddington.
Image: AI chatbot
Credit: tadamichi/iStock Getty Images
Studio Manager: Giles Aspen
Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz and Emil Petrie
45 min
March 16, 2021 Is Bitcoin energy use unsustainable?
It seems that the price of Bitcoin cannot stop increasing, but how sustainable is Bitcoin itself? With such huge energy demands to keep Bitcoin mined, are some countries risking the stability of their electricity supplies to take advantage of the Bitcoin boom? Financial economist and founder of the blog “Digiconomist”, Alex de Vries is on the show to answer these questions. He says, in his paper published in the journal Joule, that the entire Bitcoin blockchain network consumes as much energy per year as all data centres across the world.
Access to the internet – affordability and lack of infrastructure still a major barrier
It’s the web’s 32nd birthday, yet its creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee has warned that too many young people cannot connect and that the digital gap has widened during the pandemic. His comments come just after the latest ITU/A4AI report into the affordability of the internet, which found that nearly half of people with 4G coverage are not online as it’s too expensive to connect. A4AI’s Executive Director Sonia Jorge returns to the show to discuss the latest figures. TBL also called for a global push to connect young people. The WebFoundation has announced a list of global web champions, and one of them, Ian Mangenga from South Africa, joins us on the show to talk about her project Digital Girl Africa.
(Hi)Story of a Painting
(Hi)Story of a Painting is a new animated VR series to be premiered at the SXSW Online festival. The five episodes take the viewer on a journey through iconic paintings and tell the stories behind them; the artist’s practice, struggles and successes. The series’ co-creator Gaëlle Mourre, is on the programme to discuss how she created this gaze tech-led immersive experience, and made it safe to view in our own homes during lockdown.
Image: Mining rigs of super computer inside the bitcoin factory ‘Genesis Farming’ near Reykjavik, Iceland
Credit: Photo by HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP via Getty Images
The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Angelica Mari.
Studio Manager: Giles Aspen
Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz
44 min
March 09, 2021 The cost of bias in AI fintech
We’ve been discussing bias in AI on the programme for more than a year now but what is the actual cost of it? KPMG is publishing a report, commissioned by the fintech company Finastra, which examines the size of global consumer lending markets and the potential impact of algorithmic bias in money lending decisions. Amber Sappington, Head of Data & Analytics at Finastra, discusses the potential problems and why there’s an urgency for the industry to acknowledge the problem and act on it.
Problematic Smartphone Use
‘Smartphone addiction’ has been in the news, following the publication of a new study by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience Library at King’s in London. However, ‘Smartphone addiction’ is not a recognised medical condition. Gareth speaks with Dr Nicky Kalk, one of the authors of the study, about problematic smartphone use, and if it will be recognised as an illness.
Virtually Shakespeare
The Royal Shakespeare Company, the Philharmonia and Epic Games are amongst 15 organisations who are premiering a new live performance of “Dream” (which was inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream) using motion capture to tell the story of Puck. The aim is to create a shared live experience between a remote audience and a group of physical performers where the live audience can directly influence the world of the actors. Unlike a regular live stream, audiences will play an active role in world-building and the wider storytelling experience, as they would in any gaming environment. Reporter Hannah Fisher has more.
The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary by Ghislaine Boddington.
Studio Manager: John Boland
Producers: Emil Petrie and Ania Lichtarowicz
Image: Young woman uses digital tablet on virtual visual screen at night
Credit: dowell/Moment/Getty Images
40 min
March 02, 2021 Will algorithms always be biased?
Will there ever be equality in machine learning technology or will our cultural biases continue to be reflected in algorithms? Dr. Sandra Wachter from the Oxford Internet Institute argues in her latest research that data bias is unavoidable because of the current bias within western culture. How we now try and negate that bias in AI is critical if we are ever to ensure that this technology meets current legislation like EU non-discrimination law. She’s on the programme to discuss how we make real progress in AI equality.
This research has come from the Oxford Internet Institute, whose Incoming Director is also on the show – Professor Victoria Nash tells us of her plans in the new role.
EdTech in Malawi
A programme which allows seven year olds to have three lessons a week on ipads in Malawi is narrowing the learning gap between girls and boys. With an average class size of around 60 pupils with one teacher, young girls are often left behind and drop out of formal education, but with this individual approach many more are staying on in school. The programme is so successful it is now being rolled out to hundreds of schools, with the hope of going nationwide. Director for Education, Youth and Sports Lucia Chidalengwa of Education, Youth and Sports in Malawi’s Ntcheu district explains why this approach is so successful.
Online learning via your games console
With COVID cases rising in many countries and some regions even facing a third wave of the pandemic, many children around the world will continue to learn remotely – but what if there is no computer or laptop for them to use at home? How about converting a games console into an online school workstation? Reporter Chris Berrow shows you how to do it by powering up his games console and getting online to learn.
(Image: Getty images:)
The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Bill Thompson.
Studio Manager: Giles Aspen
Producers: Emil Petrie and Ania Lichtarowicz
42 min