Original version

BBC World Service Online

Click

Digital Planet

Magazines & Reviews

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Technological and digital news from around the world.

Digital Planet: 31/07/2012

Factual: Science & Nature

31/07/2012

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, 31/07/2012

How a person with paralysis might control a wheelchair with eye movements alone

A report on how a person with paralysis might one day control a wheelchair with eye movements; How email is being used to track populations; News of the singing bridge

Researchers have created a system that could enable people with paralysis to control a wheelchair with eye movements alone.  It requires a camera from a video games console, a modified pair of spectacles, and some clever code.  The new eye-tracking system, from hardware that costs a few hundred dollars, rivals existing ones costing thousands of dollars. The system is good enough to control computer games but, say researchers, it could potentially even enable wheelchair control for people with disabilities. Aldo Faisal, one of the team behind the GT3D eye tracker joins Click to discuss the system.


German researchers have found a cheap way of gathering data on emigration in populations.  In many countries gathering official statistics on migration is expensive and subsequently incomplete or out of date.  But email accounts might change all that.  Emilio Zagheni from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research talks to Gareth Mitchell about the use of anonymous email traffic.  


Have you ever imagined that a bridge sang to you as you walked over it?  Well it might just be that you have been crossing the Millennium Foot Bridge in London.  It is the work of a team including the music producer Martyn Ware whose sound sculptures have been deployed in various public spaces over the last decade.  The latest project, close to the iconic Tower Bridge, has been opened in time for the Olympic Games.  Click talks with Martyn Ware and the poet Mario Petrucci about their collaboration on Tales from the Bridge.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Digital Planet

31/07/2012

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service