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U.S. Government Works to Secure Cyberspace; Greece Outlaws Playing Videogames in Public; Researchers Study Roaches to Create Robots
Aired September 21, 2002 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Today on NEXT@CNN, from terrorists to teen hackers. Threats to cyberspace touch everything from your home computer to utility grids, and military systems. Now, the U.S. government has proposed solutions. Find out what authorities want you to do.
Imagine a country where playing video games in public is illegal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am not worried about it because, well, first of all, it's ridiculous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is no strict authoritarian nation. We'll tell you where it can be a crime to click.
And, if you think roaches are good for nothing, this researcher might have an argument for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They can seem to go anywhere, and nothing seems to stop them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: He uses roaches as inspiration for robots.
All that, and more, on NEXT.
JAMES HATTORI, HOST: Hi, everybody and welcome to NEXT@CNN. I'm James Hattori, this week from Stanford University at the northern end of California's Silicone Valley, where the federal government recently unveiled its first-ever strategy to secure cyberspace. To the disappoint of some, the proposal does not contain a new set of government mandates. Instead, it's relying on people like you to be the frontline of defense.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): Cyber threats range from al Qaeda terrorists to teenage hackers, according to the White House pointman on Internet security. RICHARD CLARKE, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL STRATEGY TO SECURE CYBERSPACE: We also know that there are nation states that are forming offensive military units that would use cyberspace against us in a future war.
HATTORI: Not only are information networks at risk, but also computer-controlled utility power grids, air traffic control, even military operational systems.
So, after 10 months of work, the White House unveiled its proposed strategy to make the Internet more attack-proof. Seventy recommendations and goals for homes and businesses, government agencies and schools, suggesting standards, promoting education and crisis management.
For individual users, basic recommendations, like avoiding simple passwords, changing them every six months, updating anti-virus software and downloading patches to fix security flaws. The strategy relies on voluntary efforts, because the government doesn't have the expertise to deal with rapidly changing technology.
CLARKE: Informing people that there's a threat, talking to people about how they might want to identify vulnerabilities in their own systems, that's an appropriate role for government.
HATTORI: But will the message get through?
DECLAN MCCULLAGH, NEWS.COM: If federal agencies take this seriously, if Congress changes the laws based on the president's suggestions, then this could have an impact, but that's a lot of ifs.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Over the next 60 days, the white house will seek public comment on its cyber-security strategy before forwarding it to President Bush for his approval.
Now, a different type of cyber-security. In Florida, technology is giving some pretrial defendants a "get out of jail free" card, but it's not exactly free. As Mark Potter explains, there's a price: the defendant's movements are monitored via satellites and computers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Seminole County, Florida, north of Orlando, a college student arrested for alleged drug possession studies at home wearing a court-ordered ankle bracelet. It's part of a new type of satellite monitoring program that keeps an eye on defendants and their movements before trial. For this young man, the bracelet is a constant reminder he is being watched and to stay out of trouble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It does keep me from going to some places that I would normally go to, you know, getting into trouble or hanging out with other people who I shouldn't be hanging out with.
POTTER: The Seminole County Sheriff's Department says this program is the first of its kind nationwide. What makes it unique is that defendants' daily movements are compared with computerized crime reports to help determine if any of them may have broken the law before they go to trial. If so, they go back to jail.
Here, a crime scene is in purple, the defendant is in red.
CYNTHIA JOINER, SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT, CRIME ANALYST: The red dots represent an offender that was in the area at that particular moment when the offense occurred.
POTTER (on camera): OK, but that doesn't convict him?
JOINER: Correct. At this, in this particular instance, what we do is then hand this over to the investigator investigating the case and he or she would then just follow up on the information and determine whether or not it's valid information.
POTTER (voice-over): County Judge John Sloop believes the bracelet is an effective tool for preventing repeat crime.
JUDGE JOHN SLOOP, SEMINOLE COUNTY, FLORIDA: I think it's a good idea. This is kind of like where an orthodontist will put braces on crooked teeth, where it asserts a gentle pressure over time and eventually they straighten out.
POTTER: In some cases, the bracelets are offered in lieu of bail to defendants who otherwise couldn't afford to get out of jail before trial.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just makes sense. It just, it gives the individual the ability to earn a living. It gives the individual the ability to be with his family and support the family. And we want that.
POTTER: Because it frees more prisoners, the monitoring program has even won measured support from the ACLU.
HOWARD SIMON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FLORIDA ACLU: And what we're talking about here is a program that might help reduce the terrible levels of incarceration. That is a major problem we have in this country.
POTTER: For this young man the price of freedom is that he is always monitored.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: In Greece, grand theft auto can land you in jail. Now, we're talking about the videogame -- as well as the crime. The Greek government has banned electronic game playing in public, in an attempt to crack down on gambling. Isabelle Kumar (ph) reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISABELLE KUMAR (ph), CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the stuff of many a teenage boys nightmares: The use of all computer games made a criminal offense. But that's what's happened in Greece. A far-reaching law banning gambling has also made playing any electronic game in a public place illegal. And now that the legislation is being enforced, it appears it's Internet cafe owners, and not players, who are feeling the full brunt of the law.
CHRISTO GEORDANINIS, INTERNET CAFE OWNER: I am an Internet cafe owner, which had 28 computers seized by the Greek police just because somebody was playing chess on the Internet, on the Yahoo site. Some other played "Age of Empires" -- Microsoft's "Age of Empires."
KUMAR (ph): The law came into existence after illegal gambling was discovered in video arcades and bars earlier this year. Owners were accused of converting gaming machines for gambling purposes.
The Greek government appears impervious to the current outcry, saying it has no intention of changing the law.
GEORGE KANELLOPOULOS, GEN. SECRETARY, FINANCE MINISTRY (through translator): If we make exceptions, then there will no longer be a law. If we start making exceptions for one machine, one game, one business, then we will have to start making exceptions for others.
KUMAR (ph): But in an interesting twist, the judge dismissed the case against Geordaninis, ruling the law was unconstitutional. Geordaninis was lucky. Internet cafe owners could face fines of up to $75,000 and 12 months in jail if anyone is caught playing electronic games on their premises, but many cafe owners are undeterred by these heavy penalties.
GEORGE KOLIOS, INTERNET CAFE OWNER: I'm not worried about it, because, well, first of all, it's ridiculous, and then I think it's unconstitutional. I don't think that something like this can function in this country, because we are not Islamic world. We are not China. We're are a very free country, so I suppose that the people will realize what has happened and they will take it back.
KUMAR (ph): And many game lovers and Internet cafe owners are prepared to take a gamble on this one, and for the time being are not going to accept it's game over.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, a Web site with eye candy and brain food for space fans.
Also ahead, find out how a family of dummies could help make your next car safer.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Scientists have found black holes in some unexpected places up in space, and the discovery sheds new light on how galaxies form. The Hubble space telescope spotted black holes in the center of star swarms called globular clusters. The newly-discovered black holes are medium sized, around 4,000 times as big as our Sun. The black holes found up until now have been much bigger than that, or much smaller. Globular star clusters contain the oldest stars in the universe. The discovery that they also include black holes gives scientists new clues to how the clusters formed.
We've all seen how the Hubble telescope has produced spectacular pictures of celestial scenery. If you are a space picture freak and you just can't get enough, we've got a Web site where you should point your browser. Miles O'Brien takes a look in this week's "Nothin' but Net."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's an art gallery of astronomy, featuring explosive supernovas, deep black holes, flaring comets and breathtaking Earth views. Every day, since the Web was in its infancy, two enthusiastic astronomers have posted a new image to "Astronomy Picture of the Day."
ROBERT NEMIROFF, MICHIGAN TECH UNIVERSITY: I think that a lot of these would look great in a gallery. They are very different. There's lot of different colors involved, there is a lot of different contrasts, a lot of different textures, and they have the added bonus of being scientifically interesting. It's scientifically true.
O'BRIEN: Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell (ph) choose the images based on their educational value, newsworthiness, or just plain beauty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, there's a wow factor here. I usually know within a second or two of seeing a picture whether it's a sure thing for the "Astronomy Picture of the Day," because I just say, "wow, what is going on there?"
O'BRIEN: Every image is archived on the site. Underneath each picture is a brief explanation so that the site is not just eye candy, but educational as well, including images that give us a new perspective.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Recently, people put together a bunch of pictures from the Moon in this great panorama. We can look all the way around in a circle and see what the astronauts saw. The face on Mars, which -- the best explanation is it's just a rock formation, but there's a lot of conspiracy people out there who think it's more. And the picture of the Earth at night. And I think it's one of our most popular images.
O'BRIEN: Some images come from telescopes around the world; others from the Hubble telescope peering deep into space. Others from amateur photographers and artists' renditions of black holes too distant for detail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you can just look at it and feel that you're there.
O'BRIEN: Many people take the images from the site and post them as wallpaper on their computers, or create a slide show screen saver. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our biggest demographic is the intelligent professional who works at some company and has a computer on their desk, has a Web browser, and they check us out. We've got e-mail that we were many people's morning cup of coffee.
O'BRIEN: Whether you're a space junkie, or just enjoy looking up at the sky, "Astronomy Picture of the Day" is worth the visit.
I'm Miles O'Brien, and that's "Nothin' but Net."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: For a link to "Astronomy Picture of the Day," and information on other stories in our program, check out our Web site, cnn.com/next.
How would you like to have a job where you get bashed around all day long for no money? I hope that doesn't sound like your job, but it does describe the working conditions for the latest generation of crash test dummies. Julie Vallese has their story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JULIE VALLESE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If what happened to them, happened to you, you would have whiplash, broken bones or might not even survive. But for a crash test dummy, it's all in a day's work.
MARVIN HATCHETT, ENGINEERING TECHNICIAN: These dummies are the surrogates for humans. These dummies sit in and they actually experience the same forces that you or I would receive.
VALLESE: The basic dummy costs about $35,000, but add all the instruments and retrofitting, and a fully outfitted dummy costs around $200,000.
HATCHETT: The dummy makes up of solarometers (ph), potentiometers (ph), which measure actually how much the ribs actually displace. The accelerometers (ph) measure the amount of g's which the dummy experienced.
VALLESE: The Hybrid 3 family is the latest generation of crash test dummies. Complete with a mom, dad, 3-year-old and a 6-year-old.
(on camera): The institute added these dummies to the family, representing the 6-month and 12-month-old after seeing a rise in injuries and death to children from air bags.
(voice-over): And although these dummies are extremely durable, they're not made to be.
HATCHETT: After the crash tests, we disassemble the dummy. We look at the data, first of all, to see which region of the dummy experienced high forces.
VALLESE: A crash test dummy can be put through about five tests before needing treatment. They are totally calibrated and can be back on the job in about a week. Hatchett says they are hard-working and, best of all, considering what they go through, they never complain.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, a kid's dream come true: Firing up the Playstation at homework time.
And later, a car powered by hydrogen and operated by electronics, instead of hydraulics. General Motors says one could be in your garage within a decade.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: In northeast China, researchers have found a fossil of a dinosaur that resembles a buck-toothed rabbit. This is an artist's rendering based on the fossil. The dinosaur is related to the T-rex and other predators known as therapods, but researchers say the teeth suggest it was plant-eater, not a carnivore. They say the fossil shows therapods are more diverse than they first thought. The discovery was published in the journal "Nature."
Also in "Nature," a possible explanation for the out-of-body experiences reported by some people who have almost died. These near- death experiences have been fodder for countless movies, like "Ghost." Now, researchers say the phenomenon appears related to the misfiring of a section of the brain called the angular gyrus, which is thought to regulate how we perceive our own bodies. Swiss neurologists stimulated the part of the brain containing the angular gyrus in an epilepsy patient, and she reported seeing herself lying in bed, from above, near the ceiling. Still, researchers say their study doesn't entirely explain the out-of-body phenomenon, so the mystery continues.
Here's a mystery for you: Why would parents tell their children to turn on their Playstation videogame system so they can do their homework? The answer, from Ann Kellan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to go to a new game.
ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This parent-teacher meeting is a little different than most. At this gathering, parents are signing up to borrow Sony PlayStations for the year so their kids can use them to do homework. That's right, a Sony PlayStation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then I'm going to hit X.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many of you play regular video games?
KELLAN: Something many kids know all too well. Adel can spend all day on his PlayStation. Now he's using it to solve math problems.
JAMAL AHMED, ADEL'S DAD: I didn't believe it at first, until I saw him doing it today. KELLAN: Summerand Middle School (ph) in Georgia is one of a number of schools throughout the U.S. using the PlayStation program, funded with federal money or schools can buy the games on their own.
DETRA POSEY, MATH TEACHER: I can sit here all day and just give them direct teaching and give them definitions, give them examples, but when you give them something that's hands-on, that tends to stay in their minds. They retain it longer.
The median is greater than seven? OK, we're going to wait for another one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most people like violence in the video games.
KELLAN: You won't find violence or explosions in these games and they aren't made by Sony. A separate company, Lightspan, out of San Diego, makes the educational PlayStation CDs. Computer versions are also available.
Behind the scenes at Lightspan, artists, animators and story tellers work with educators to design games for kindergarten through eighth graders.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a very nice soft lizard here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But would you put clothes on him?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They look too young. Maybe it's the big head.
KELLAN: What makes these games different than most? They all tie into a state's educational curriculum.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's five plus 12?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seventeen. The answer is 17.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLAN: So, how do you hold the kids' interest without the explosions and carnage of many regular games?
LIZ HERRICK, LIGHTSPAN: If kids have that emotional connection, they are much more likely to remember what they've learned.
KELLAN: They develop a storyline and decide the type of game.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are problem-solving games, navigational types of games, fast twitch controller types of games.
KELLAN: Every game has a goal, like find a hidden treasure of solve a mystery.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think a lot of times in the classroom, we forget the importance of a goal. You walk in, and you ask the kids, what are you learning right now? And they don't know. But when they're playing a game, they always know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I really like it because of the characters.
KELLAN: And the key to an interesting game, enticing characters.
CHRISTIAN VAGNATI, LIGHTSPAN: Because they like the characters, and then they would learn more.
KELLAN: Christian Vagnati is one of the 3-D animators.
VAGNATI: That is basically all the faces that we need to do the speech, meaning enunciating all the phoneme for any given words. And that's what creates all the expression in the face, you know, like surprise will raise both of the eyebrows out, and so on and so forth. It's really a lot, a lot of work. But the results are just astonishing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And suddenly, a giant (UNINTELLIGIBLE) started coming after them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They make it funny and challenging at the same time. It's almost like you're with them, you're actually on an adventure with them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, what was the prime number?
KELLAN: Teachers introduce new concepts with the games, then kids take CDs home and practice on their PlayStations. Even a kid sister can learn.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She really (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
JOY DAVIS, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL, MIDDLE SCHOOL: We know that little-bitty children learn through play. Big children learn through play, too.
KELLAN: Sometimes it works.
(on camera): Do you think you're better at math and adding and subtracting now?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Yeah.
KELLAN (voice-over): Sometimes it doesn't.
In this case, Blanca (ph) didn't know all the rules, and got stuck trying to find numbers that equal 10.
(on camera): Does it get confusing at times to find the games?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Sometimes.
KELLAN (voice-over): She was fine when she got help from a member of our crew.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Oh, now I get it.
KELLAN (on camera): Even though these PlayStations go home with the kids, parents can't go out and buy these Lightspan games. The schools have to sign up, leaving the control in the hands of the teachers.
(voice-over): It's their job to assess kids' progress and make sure they're learning what they play. Already, this school is seeing an improvement in students' test scores.
ANDREA ROBINSON-SMITH, MATH TEACHER: I used the Lightspan program last year, and our scores went up remarkably from the beginning to the end.
KELLAN: Even though kids say these games are not as entertaining as typical videogames...
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) over and over and over again, and that gets irritating. So you just turn the volume down and keep playing the game.
KELLAN: ... they keep on playing. And say it's better than the old-fashioned way to do homework.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's 12 plus 14?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-six.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: On that note, we have got to make way for a commercial break and we'll take a check of the late-breaking headlines from the CNN newsroom as well. Don't go away. We'll be back later.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, this cockroach is not running on a treadmill for its health. We'll tell you how bugs are serving as inspiration for bots.
Plus, the latest ways to commute -- driving on a skateboard.
And lots more when NEXT@CNN returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN, this week from Stanford University.
Most people think of cockroaches as household pests, but for a group of American scientists, roaches are a source of inspiration. Not romantic, but robotic inspiration. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): UC Berkeley biologist Bob Full doesn't especially care for cockroaches.
BOB FULL, UC BERKELEY: They're disgusting.
HATTORI: But he's fascinating by the way they move.
FULL: They're very effective at maneuvering. They can seem to go anywhere, and nothing seems to stop them.
HATTORI: Using time lapsed computer studies, Full has determined the six-legged creatures move using three at legs at a time -- two on one side, one on the other.
MARK CUTKOSKY, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: And actually, as they're running like this, bounce along like pogo sticks. And they propel themselves mostly by thrusting, especially with the rear legs.
HATTORI: It's a simple structure, allowing cockroaches to maneuver effortlessly, even over obstacles -- a simplicity that inspired sprawlica (ph). This air-driven robot and its successors, the sprawlex (ph), are the work of Mark Cutkosky's lab at Stanford University.
(on camera): Are cockroaches and most kinds of animals good models for building robots?
CUTKOSKY: If you want to build small things that run very fast, yes.
HATTORI (voice-over): Potential future uses include planetary rovers for NASA, or finding land mines for the military.
CUTKOSKY: It's going to need more censors, it's going to need more controls, it's going to need something approaching a primitive brain.
HATTORI: Bob Full got the idea of making insect-like robots while consulting for the animated movie "A Bug's Life." He realized that the cockroaches' self-stabilizing leg structure was much simpler than traditional robotic designs.
FULL: Kind of like a spring suspension system in your car. Rather than the stiff metal element with a motor where you're calculating every instant each movement, that's not how animals move, and why should we make robots like that?
HATTORI: The researchers led collaborators at McGill and the University of Michigan to produce Rex (ph), a robot which maneuvers independently without a brain.
FULL: So it can go up to nearly three meters per second now as it scrambles over rough terrain, and it can do that without any sensing of the environment. It can't see anything, it can't feel anything, but yet it's able to negotiate these incredible obstacles.
HATTORI: Insects aren't the only source of inspiration. Full is also studying how geckos climb smooth surfaces. He says it's all in the hairs on its toes -- two million of them, each with hundreds of tiny split ends. A molecular force called Vandervals (ph) makes the hair stick to almost anything. He foresees robots with gecko-like feet.
FULL: And if it can grab on to anything, then it should be able to go up walls and on ceilings, and achieve this goal of being able to go anywhere.
HATTORI: Lizards and insects -- even Full admits they're unlikely parents for a new generation of mechanical offspring.
FULL: The next time you look at a study and you think it's unusual or odd that someone's doing this, think twice.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: From the future of robots to the future of automobiles. The car you buy 10 years from now may have a lot in common with a concept car called the hy-wire. It runs on hydrogen, has no pedals, and nothing under the hood. In fact, there is no hood. GM rolled it out for journalists ahead of the Paris auto show, and CNN's Chris Burns took a test drive with one of the car's masterminds.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): OK, here we go. It's rolling now. This is on the test track in Opperland (ph), Germany.
Explain a little bit the mechanics. What is actually happening right now under us?
CHRIS BORRONI-BIRD, GM PROJECT DIRECTOR: OK. Inside the skateboard chassis, we have the propulsion system, which is made up of a hydrogen fuel tank, a fuel cell stack, which converts the hydrogen fuel into electricity, and then an electric motor, which converts the electricity into wheel motion, and that's driving you down the road.
BURNS: It's not much different from the lunar -- those lunar vehicles, right? That's really where it started, isn't it?
BORRONI-BIRD: That's what we're sitting on. We're sitting on a fuel cell power train, and we've coupled it with fly-by-wire technology, which is also aerospace technology. Most of the aircraft today have fly-by-wire.
BURNS (voice-over): Fly-by-wire technology uses electronics to operate the vehicle, instead of cables and hydraulics.
(on camera): Chris, how does this actually work? Now, there are no pedals here. Everything is here. That's how you operate the car. Explain a little bit how that works. BORRONI-BIRD: Well, this was developed with SKF (ph), and it's basically -- we call it the X-drive (ph), and to accelerate would be a rotating motion.
(CROSSTALK)
BORRONI-BIRD: If you're familiar with riding a motorbike, you can accelerate by twisting this. You can either -- you can twist with your left or your right hand, or both. So it's basically -- there is redundancy built into the system. You brake by squeezing, which is an intuitive thing to do.
BURNS: This car has a -- is built with a skateboard. The chassis is called a skateboard.
BORRONI-BIRD: Yes.
BURNS: And every -- all the mechanics -- that's the beauty of this. All the mechanics are in here.
BORRONI-BIRD: Out of the way. Man maximum, machine minimum, taken to its extreme.
BURNS: The engine, the drive, the brakes, the steering, everything is down here.
BORRONI-BIRD: Everything required to propel the vehicle and control the way it behaves is inside the chassis.
BURNS: And say you get tired of the way this thing looks, although I mean, it looks pretty good, but you get tired of the way this looks, you can change it any time you want.
BORRONI-BIRD: That's right. The by-wire technology, basically, simplistically, we have a simple electrical connection connecting the body to the chassis, instead of all these mechanical links that are in today's vehicles connecting the body to the chassis. So now if you're fed up with the body, you can take the body off with very little effort.
BURNS: Now, Chris, this kind of car is not going to come out until 2010. That's your target date. Why should anybody care about this right now?
BORRONI-BIRD: Well, this is the future. And eight years is not a long time in automobiles, in timeframe. We feel that by showing the world what we're doing now, we get feedback from the world as to whether this is really a great idea or not. So we're listening to people's reactions to this, and it's helping to steer the way we develop the vehicle, so it's important to get people's...
BURNS: And to attract investors, I'm sure. Let's get real.
BORRONI-BIRD: It's important to show people where we think the future lies.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Next on NEXT, the latest in preventing underage smoking and drinking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now go home before I call your momma.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Including a vending machine that talks to you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Now a look at some of the latest technology aimed at trying to keep kids from smoking and drinking. First, a tobacco company is testing a cigarette vending machine that requires buyers to swipe an I.D. verifying their age. But as Eric Horng reports, anti- smoking activists say that's not enough.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIC HORNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The coin-operated cigarette vending machine faded into obscurity after drawing fire for giving kids easy access to smokes. The concept was nearly defunct.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello. I'll be your vending machine today.
HORNG: Until now. Brown & Williamson Tobacco calls it interactive vending, and hopes it will boost ailing vending sales. Plans are in place to put the machines in taverns, night clubs and restaurant bars. They require buyers to swipe a matching I.D. and credit card. If either shows the customer is underage, a virtual reality sales clerk appears on a video screen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry, but I can't sell you smokes if you're under 18. Now go home before I call your momma.
STEPHEN KOTTAK, BROWN & WILLIAMSON: These vending machines show that this is a responsible way to market to adult consumers who choose to smoke, and at the same time ensure youth cannot get access to tobacco products.
HORNG: But the same critics that blasted the old vending machines say the new ones still won't prevent abuse by minors.
CHARLIE SMITH, AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY: When you don't have a face-to-face sale, there's a chance someone is going to get a credit card and a driver's license and going to be able to use it. We don't allow vending sales for beer, guns, prescription drugs, because we want the face-to-face sale.
KOTTAK: Consumers may not be I.D'ed 100 percent of the time in other locations. With this machine, it is.
HORNG: Brown & Williamson is currently testing the machines in Los Angeles and Cleveland, but plans to distribute them across the country early next year.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Other companies are pushing I.D. scanners to verify age. These scanners read encoded information on the back of drivers licenses so store merchants and bar bouncers can tell if the information on the front has been tampered with. Daniel Sieberg has more in this week's "Technofile."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ever wonder what that little magnetic stripe or bar code on the back of your driver's license is for? Well, until now, not much. The stripe can contain encoded tamper-proof information about the driver, such as age. And now companies are starting to use this technology to make age verification more of a sure thing.
(on camera): There are several different I.D. scanners on the market, but we've got a couple here today to demonstrate how they work. The first is from a company called Intellicheck (ph). It's going to read the back of this actual driver's license, the bar code here. As I place it in the machine, it's reading the information that's encoded in the license and then displaying it on this laptop. You don't need the laptop when you're using the machine, but we're using it to make it easier to see.
The other machine that we've got here is from a company called Logics (ph), or I.D. Logics (ph). It reads the magnetic stripe that's on the back of some licenses. As I scan it through the machine here, it's displaying the information on the screen, which is also more portable.
(voice-over): The portability of the Logics (ph) scanner makes it a logical choice for bars and clubs, while Intellicheck (ph) envisions its scanner being used in convenience stores and other places that sells cigarettes and liquor. These machines tell at a glance whether someone is old enough to buy alcohol or tobacco. The scanners can also reveal security information. Authorities can encode licenses with a warning about the license holder. For instance, if the person is dangerous or has a criminal history.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, may I see your driver's license, please?
SIEBERG: While most states make use of encoding for simple I.D. checks, not all states encode additional information onto drivers licenses, at least not yet. Eight states have no information. Georgia's stripe is unreadable. Only in Texas and North Carolina do police use the encoding for law enforcement.
Age verification firms say this disparity is the problem. Until a uniform encoding policy is adopted nationwide, the full potential of their I.D. scanners will remain unfulfilled.
I'm Daniel Sieberg, and that's "Technofile."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Still to come, electric bikes. A new and popular commuting option in Beijing's traffic and pollution-choked streets. So why does China want to ban them?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Look in the dictionary under "traffic jam," and you just may see a picture of Beijing, China. That's how bad it is. A lot of commuters, though, are getting through the back-ups on electric bicycles. They're faster than regular bikes, and cleaner than cars. But as Lisa Rose Weaver reports, in a few years, they'll be banned.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A new kind of vehicle has taken its place in the bike lane alongside conventional bicycles. This is the electric bike. Just the answer for gliding through Beijing traffic, famous for its gridlock. Estimated time of arrival on one of these, earlier than you thought.
In a city where motorcycles are limited, electric bikes would seem the perfect solution. Except for one problem: City government is about to put on the brakes.
In three years, the some 100,000 electric bikes on the road will be banned. Dealers have already seen a serious downturn in sales. A result of city regulations long on detail but short on explanation. The industry Web page is rife with opinion about the ban, mostly opposed to it. Consumers speculate the limit is designed to promote more use of public transportation, but merchants say there ought to be a choice.
NI JIE, ELECTRIC BIKE DEALER (through translator): Private and public transportation should be able to coexist, and each individual has a right to choose his or her own method of transportation.
WEAVER: The ban has mobilized industry people from all over China to figure out how to convince Beijing's traffic regulators to keep electric bikes on the road. Lobbyists met quietly in a nondescript hotel planning their pressure tactics carefully.
(on camera): Bike dealers say pollution really is not an issue with electric bikes, and what's more, the batteries used to power them won't harm the environment. That's because users can bring old batteries right back here to the dealership in exchange for new ones. In turn, the dealership takes the old batteries back to the factory where they're professionally disposed of.
(voice-over): At a cost of about $500, electric bikes appeal to commuters who can't spend much money. Buy a car? Not an option for Wang Jing (ph), who says he couldn't even afford the gas. Others are hurrying to buy their electric bikes now while they can still get a license, convinced that even a three-year limit on legally riding them is worth it, if it makes getting around a little easier.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: If you think commuting by electric bicycle is unusual, wait until you see what's coming up next. Andrew Brown has a story that's on the up and up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Some of us commute by train, some by car, but how about commuting by escalator? There's an escalator in Hong Kong that runs for almost one half a mile, between an upscale residential neighborhood and the downtown business district. Andrew Brown has this uplifting story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the longest outdoor escalator ever built. It was designed for the benefit of commuters who can glide 800 meters to their destination, free of charge, without getting wet or risking their own safety. This escalator isn't cutting edge, but it integrates hundreds of existing technologies which function together virtually error-free. Which makes life easier for experts like Jeffrey, Raymond, Sze Lau and Tang, because they'll be blamed if the escalator goes wrong or people are inconvenienced.
When you drop your change, there's a metal plate called a comb to stop it jamming the system.
JEFFREY TSE, HONG KONG GOVT. ENGINEER: The comb can prevent the foreign objects from entering into the escalator.
BROWN: To stop the escalator from swallowing too much government money, it was built as a single stairway, although commuters can still travel in two directions.
RAYMOND LAU, HONG KONG GOVT. ENGINEER: The ride down in the morning. And in the evening, they ride upward.
BROWN: Even when it's raining, the escalator has a weather-proof canopy.
LAU SZE LUEN, HONG KONG GOVT. ENGINEER: It keeps us dry, because it rains a lot in Hong Kong, especially during summer days.
BROWN: To travel the entire length of this people mover takes 20 minutes. Passengers board 20 separate escalators, all linked by walkways and (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Most of the system has a handrail, which is supposed to move in sync with the stairway, although it often doesn't.
(on camera): If you're riding one escalator, expect the hand rail to move forward about an inch. That's two and a half centimeters. But if you're riding 20 escalators and you never let go of this thing...
(voice-over): Well, in theory, your arm will be pulled forward at least one foot, more than 30 centimeters. For the engineer solving this problem is no problem -- it's a matter of adjusting the belt that pulls the handrail.
TANG SHUI LEUNG, HONG KONG GOVT. ENGINEER: We (UNINTELLIGIBLE) synchronize the speed -- the speed of the steps.
BROWN: Keeping an operation this size going takes both brains and bucks. The power bill alone is $10,000 a month. For that price, Hong Kong is able to move 36,000 commuters down a hill, and back up to a maximum elevation of 130 meters. Proof that you can raise people with money.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Time for us to step off the escalator. We've reached our floor. Before we go, here's a look at what's coming up next week.
When animals and humans clash, it can cost billions of dollars and cost lives. From snakes to snakeheads, from beetles to bears, a special edition of NEXT -- "Critters in Conflict."
We'll also have stories for you tech fans. For instance, a new palm size gadget that can play MP3s, full motion video and games. That's coming up on NEXT.
Until then, let us know how we're doing. You can send us an e- mail. Our address is next@cnn.com.
Thanks so much for joining us this week. And thanks to our friends here at Stanford University. For all of us on the sci-tech beat, I'm James Hattori. We'll see you next time.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Playing Videogames in Public; Researchers Study Roaches to Create Robots>
Aired September 21, 2002 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Today on NEXT@CNN, from terrorists to teen hackers. Threats to cyberspace touch everything from your home computer to utility grids, and military systems. Now, the U.S. government has proposed solutions. Find out what authorities want you to do.
Imagine a country where playing video games in public is illegal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am not worried about it because, well, first of all, it's ridiculous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is no strict authoritarian nation. We'll tell you where it can be a crime to click.
And, if you think roaches are good for nothing, this researcher might have an argument for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They can seem to go anywhere, and nothing seems to stop them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: He uses roaches as inspiration for robots.
All that, and more, on NEXT.
JAMES HATTORI, HOST: Hi, everybody and welcome to NEXT@CNN. I'm James Hattori, this week from Stanford University at the northern end of California's Silicone Valley, where the federal government recently unveiled its first-ever strategy to secure cyberspace. To the disappoint of some, the proposal does not contain a new set of government mandates. Instead, it's relying on people like you to be the frontline of defense.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): Cyber threats range from al Qaeda terrorists to teenage hackers, according to the White House pointman on Internet security. RICHARD CLARKE, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL STRATEGY TO SECURE CYBERSPACE: We also know that there are nation states that are forming offensive military units that would use cyberspace against us in a future war.
HATTORI: Not only are information networks at risk, but also computer-controlled utility power grids, air traffic control, even military operational systems.
So, after 10 months of work, the White House unveiled its proposed strategy to make the Internet more attack-proof. Seventy recommendations and goals for homes and businesses, government agencies and schools, suggesting standards, promoting education and crisis management.
For individual users, basic recommendations, like avoiding simple passwords, changing them every six months, updating anti-virus software and downloading patches to fix security flaws. The strategy relies on voluntary efforts, because the government doesn't have the expertise to deal with rapidly changing technology.
CLARKE: Informing people that there's a threat, talking to people about how they might want to identify vulnerabilities in their own systems, that's an appropriate role for government.
HATTORI: But will the message get through?
DECLAN MCCULLAGH, NEWS.COM: If federal agencies take this seriously, if Congress changes the laws based on the president's suggestions, then this could have an impact, but that's a lot of ifs.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Over the next 60 days, the white house will seek public comment on its cyber-security strategy before forwarding it to President Bush for his approval.
Now, a different type of cyber-security. In Florida, technology is giving some pretrial defendants a "get out of jail free" card, but it's not exactly free. As Mark Potter explains, there's a price: the defendant's movements are monitored via satellites and computers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Seminole County, Florida, north of Orlando, a college student arrested for alleged drug possession studies at home wearing a court-ordered ankle bracelet. It's part of a new type of satellite monitoring program that keeps an eye on defendants and their movements before trial. For this young man, the bracelet is a constant reminder he is being watched and to stay out of trouble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It does keep me from going to some places that I would normally go to, you know, getting into trouble or hanging out with other people who I shouldn't be hanging out with.
POTTER: The Seminole County Sheriff's Department says this program is the first of its kind nationwide. What makes it unique is that defendants' daily movements are compared with computerized crime reports to help determine if any of them may have broken the law before they go to trial. If so, they go back to jail.
Here, a crime scene is in purple, the defendant is in red.
CYNTHIA JOINER, SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT, CRIME ANALYST: The red dots represent an offender that was in the area at that particular moment when the offense occurred.
POTTER (on camera): OK, but that doesn't convict him?
JOINER: Correct. At this, in this particular instance, what we do is then hand this over to the investigator investigating the case and he or she would then just follow up on the information and determine whether or not it's valid information.
POTTER (voice-over): County Judge John Sloop believes the bracelet is an effective tool for preventing repeat crime.
JUDGE JOHN SLOOP, SEMINOLE COUNTY, FLORIDA: I think it's a good idea. This is kind of like where an orthodontist will put braces on crooked teeth, where it asserts a gentle pressure over time and eventually they straighten out.
POTTER: In some cases, the bracelets are offered in lieu of bail to defendants who otherwise couldn't afford to get out of jail before trial.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just makes sense. It just, it gives the individual the ability to earn a living. It gives the individual the ability to be with his family and support the family. And we want that.
POTTER: Because it frees more prisoners, the monitoring program has even won measured support from the ACLU.
HOWARD SIMON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FLORIDA ACLU: And what we're talking about here is a program that might help reduce the terrible levels of incarceration. That is a major problem we have in this country.
POTTER: For this young man the price of freedom is that he is always monitored.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: In Greece, grand theft auto can land you in jail. Now, we're talking about the videogame -- as well as the crime. The Greek government has banned electronic game playing in public, in an attempt to crack down on gambling. Isabelle Kumar (ph) reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISABELLE KUMAR (ph), CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the stuff of many a teenage boys nightmares: The use of all computer games made a criminal offense. But that's what's happened in Greece. A far-reaching law banning gambling has also made playing any electronic game in a public place illegal. And now that the legislation is being enforced, it appears it's Internet cafe owners, and not players, who are feeling the full brunt of the law.
CHRISTO GEORDANINIS, INTERNET CAFE OWNER: I am an Internet cafe owner, which had 28 computers seized by the Greek police just because somebody was playing chess on the Internet, on the Yahoo site. Some other played "Age of Empires" -- Microsoft's "Age of Empires."
KUMAR (ph): The law came into existence after illegal gambling was discovered in video arcades and bars earlier this year. Owners were accused of converting gaming machines for gambling purposes.
The Greek government appears impervious to the current outcry, saying it has no intention of changing the law.
GEORGE KANELLOPOULOS, GEN. SECRETARY, FINANCE MINISTRY (through translator): If we make exceptions, then there will no longer be a law. If we start making exceptions for one machine, one game, one business, then we will have to start making exceptions for others.
KUMAR (ph): But in an interesting twist, the judge dismissed the case against Geordaninis, ruling the law was unconstitutional. Geordaninis was lucky. Internet cafe owners could face fines of up to $75,000 and 12 months in jail if anyone is caught playing electronic games on their premises, but many cafe owners are undeterred by these heavy penalties.
GEORGE KOLIOS, INTERNET CAFE OWNER: I'm not worried about it, because, well, first of all, it's ridiculous, and then I think it's unconstitutional. I don't think that something like this can function in this country, because we are not Islamic world. We are not China. We're are a very free country, so I suppose that the people will realize what has happened and they will take it back.
KUMAR (ph): And many game lovers and Internet cafe owners are prepared to take a gamble on this one, and for the time being are not going to accept it's game over.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, a Web site with eye candy and brain food for space fans.
Also ahead, find out how a family of dummies could help make your next car safer.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Scientists have found black holes in some unexpected places up in space, and the discovery sheds new light on how galaxies form. The Hubble space telescope spotted black holes in the center of star swarms called globular clusters. The newly-discovered black holes are medium sized, around 4,000 times as big as our Sun. The black holes found up until now have been much bigger than that, or much smaller. Globular star clusters contain the oldest stars in the universe. The discovery that they also include black holes gives scientists new clues to how the clusters formed.
We've all seen how the Hubble telescope has produced spectacular pictures of celestial scenery. If you are a space picture freak and you just can't get enough, we've got a Web site where you should point your browser. Miles O'Brien takes a look in this week's "Nothin' but Net."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's an art gallery of astronomy, featuring explosive supernovas, deep black holes, flaring comets and breathtaking Earth views. Every day, since the Web was in its infancy, two enthusiastic astronomers have posted a new image to "Astronomy Picture of the Day."
ROBERT NEMIROFF, MICHIGAN TECH UNIVERSITY: I think that a lot of these would look great in a gallery. They are very different. There's lot of different colors involved, there is a lot of different contrasts, a lot of different textures, and they have the added bonus of being scientifically interesting. It's scientifically true.
O'BRIEN: Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell (ph) choose the images based on their educational value, newsworthiness, or just plain beauty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, there's a wow factor here. I usually know within a second or two of seeing a picture whether it's a sure thing for the "Astronomy Picture of the Day," because I just say, "wow, what is going on there?"
O'BRIEN: Every image is archived on the site. Underneath each picture is a brief explanation so that the site is not just eye candy, but educational as well, including images that give us a new perspective.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Recently, people put together a bunch of pictures from the Moon in this great panorama. We can look all the way around in a circle and see what the astronauts saw. The face on Mars, which -- the best explanation is it's just a rock formation, but there's a lot of conspiracy people out there who think it's more. And the picture of the Earth at night. And I think it's one of our most popular images.
O'BRIEN: Some images come from telescopes around the world; others from the Hubble telescope peering deep into space. Others from amateur photographers and artists' renditions of black holes too distant for detail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you can just look at it and feel that you're there.
O'BRIEN: Many people take the images from the site and post them as wallpaper on their computers, or create a slide show screen saver. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our biggest demographic is the intelligent professional who works at some company and has a computer on their desk, has a Web browser, and they check us out. We've got e-mail that we were many people's morning cup of coffee.
O'BRIEN: Whether you're a space junkie, or just enjoy looking up at the sky, "Astronomy Picture of the Day" is worth the visit.
I'm Miles O'Brien, and that's "Nothin' but Net."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: For a link to "Astronomy Picture of the Day," and information on other stories in our program, check out our Web site, cnn.com/next.
How would you like to have a job where you get bashed around all day long for no money? I hope that doesn't sound like your job, but it does describe the working conditions for the latest generation of crash test dummies. Julie Vallese has their story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JULIE VALLESE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If what happened to them, happened to you, you would have whiplash, broken bones or might not even survive. But for a crash test dummy, it's all in a day's work.
MARVIN HATCHETT, ENGINEERING TECHNICIAN: These dummies are the surrogates for humans. These dummies sit in and they actually experience the same forces that you or I would receive.
VALLESE: The basic dummy costs about $35,000, but add all the instruments and retrofitting, and a fully outfitted dummy costs around $200,000.
HATCHETT: The dummy makes up of solarometers (ph), potentiometers (ph), which measure actually how much the ribs actually displace. The accelerometers (ph) measure the amount of g's which the dummy experienced.
VALLESE: The Hybrid 3 family is the latest generation of crash test dummies. Complete with a mom, dad, 3-year-old and a 6-year-old.
(on camera): The institute added these dummies to the family, representing the 6-month and 12-month-old after seeing a rise in injuries and death to children from air bags.
(voice-over): And although these dummies are extremely durable, they're not made to be.
HATCHETT: After the crash tests, we disassemble the dummy. We look at the data, first of all, to see which region of the dummy experienced high forces.
VALLESE: A crash test dummy can be put through about five tests before needing treatment. They are totally calibrated and can be back on the job in about a week. Hatchett says they are hard-working and, best of all, considering what they go through, they never complain.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, a kid's dream come true: Firing up the Playstation at homework time.
And later, a car powered by hydrogen and operated by electronics, instead of hydraulics. General Motors says one could be in your garage within a decade.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: In northeast China, researchers have found a fossil of a dinosaur that resembles a buck-toothed rabbit. This is an artist's rendering based on the fossil. The dinosaur is related to the T-rex and other predators known as therapods, but researchers say the teeth suggest it was plant-eater, not a carnivore. They say the fossil shows therapods are more diverse than they first thought. The discovery was published in the journal "Nature."
Also in "Nature," a possible explanation for the out-of-body experiences reported by some people who have almost died. These near- death experiences have been fodder for countless movies, like "Ghost." Now, researchers say the phenomenon appears related to the misfiring of a section of the brain called the angular gyrus, which is thought to regulate how we perceive our own bodies. Swiss neurologists stimulated the part of the brain containing the angular gyrus in an epilepsy patient, and she reported seeing herself lying in bed, from above, near the ceiling. Still, researchers say their study doesn't entirely explain the out-of-body phenomenon, so the mystery continues.
Here's a mystery for you: Why would parents tell their children to turn on their Playstation videogame system so they can do their homework? The answer, from Ann Kellan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to go to a new game.
ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This parent-teacher meeting is a little different than most. At this gathering, parents are signing up to borrow Sony PlayStations for the year so their kids can use them to do homework. That's right, a Sony PlayStation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then I'm going to hit X.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many of you play regular video games?
KELLAN: Something many kids know all too well. Adel can spend all day on his PlayStation. Now he's using it to solve math problems.
JAMAL AHMED, ADEL'S DAD: I didn't believe it at first, until I saw him doing it today. KELLAN: Summerand Middle School (ph) in Georgia is one of a number of schools throughout the U.S. using the PlayStation program, funded with federal money or schools can buy the games on their own.
DETRA POSEY, MATH TEACHER: I can sit here all day and just give them direct teaching and give them definitions, give them examples, but when you give them something that's hands-on, that tends to stay in their minds. They retain it longer.
The median is greater than seven? OK, we're going to wait for another one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most people like violence in the video games.
KELLAN: You won't find violence or explosions in these games and they aren't made by Sony. A separate company, Lightspan, out of San Diego, makes the educational PlayStation CDs. Computer versions are also available.
Behind the scenes at Lightspan, artists, animators and story tellers work with educators to design games for kindergarten through eighth graders.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a very nice soft lizard here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But would you put clothes on him?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They look too young. Maybe it's the big head.
KELLAN: What makes these games different than most? They all tie into a state's educational curriculum.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's five plus 12?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seventeen. The answer is 17.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLAN: So, how do you hold the kids' interest without the explosions and carnage of many regular games?
LIZ HERRICK, LIGHTSPAN: If kids have that emotional connection, they are much more likely to remember what they've learned.
KELLAN: They develop a storyline and decide the type of game.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are problem-solving games, navigational types of games, fast twitch controller types of games.
KELLAN: Every game has a goal, like find a hidden treasure of solve a mystery.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think a lot of times in the classroom, we forget the importance of a goal. You walk in, and you ask the kids, what are you learning right now? And they don't know. But when they're playing a game, they always know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I really like it because of the characters.
KELLAN: And the key to an interesting game, enticing characters.
CHRISTIAN VAGNATI, LIGHTSPAN: Because they like the characters, and then they would learn more.
KELLAN: Christian Vagnati is one of the 3-D animators.
VAGNATI: That is basically all the faces that we need to do the speech, meaning enunciating all the phoneme for any given words. And that's what creates all the expression in the face, you know, like surprise will raise both of the eyebrows out, and so on and so forth. It's really a lot, a lot of work. But the results are just astonishing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And suddenly, a giant (UNINTELLIGIBLE) started coming after them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They make it funny and challenging at the same time. It's almost like you're with them, you're actually on an adventure with them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, what was the prime number?
KELLAN: Teachers introduce new concepts with the games, then kids take CDs home and practice on their PlayStations. Even a kid sister can learn.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She really (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
JOY DAVIS, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL, MIDDLE SCHOOL: We know that little-bitty children learn through play. Big children learn through play, too.
KELLAN: Sometimes it works.
(on camera): Do you think you're better at math and adding and subtracting now?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Yeah.
KELLAN (voice-over): Sometimes it doesn't.
In this case, Blanca (ph) didn't know all the rules, and got stuck trying to find numbers that equal 10.
(on camera): Does it get confusing at times to find the games?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Sometimes.
KELLAN (voice-over): She was fine when she got help from a member of our crew.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Oh, now I get it.
KELLAN (on camera): Even though these PlayStations go home with the kids, parents can't go out and buy these Lightspan games. The schools have to sign up, leaving the control in the hands of the teachers.
(voice-over): It's their job to assess kids' progress and make sure they're learning what they play. Already, this school is seeing an improvement in students' test scores.
ANDREA ROBINSON-SMITH, MATH TEACHER: I used the Lightspan program last year, and our scores went up remarkably from the beginning to the end.
KELLAN: Even though kids say these games are not as entertaining as typical videogames...
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) over and over and over again, and that gets irritating. So you just turn the volume down and keep playing the game.
KELLAN: ... they keep on playing. And say it's better than the old-fashioned way to do homework.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's 12 plus 14?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-six.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: On that note, we have got to make way for a commercial break and we'll take a check of the late-breaking headlines from the CNN newsroom as well. Don't go away. We'll be back later.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, this cockroach is not running on a treadmill for its health. We'll tell you how bugs are serving as inspiration for bots.
Plus, the latest ways to commute -- driving on a skateboard.
And lots more when NEXT@CNN returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN, this week from Stanford University.
Most people think of cockroaches as household pests, but for a group of American scientists, roaches are a source of inspiration. Not romantic, but robotic inspiration. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): UC Berkeley biologist Bob Full doesn't especially care for cockroaches.
BOB FULL, UC BERKELEY: They're disgusting.
HATTORI: But he's fascinating by the way they move.
FULL: They're very effective at maneuvering. They can seem to go anywhere, and nothing seems to stop them.
HATTORI: Using time lapsed computer studies, Full has determined the six-legged creatures move using three at legs at a time -- two on one side, one on the other.
MARK CUTKOSKY, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: And actually, as they're running like this, bounce along like pogo sticks. And they propel themselves mostly by thrusting, especially with the rear legs.
HATTORI: It's a simple structure, allowing cockroaches to maneuver effortlessly, even over obstacles -- a simplicity that inspired sprawlica (ph). This air-driven robot and its successors, the sprawlex (ph), are the work of Mark Cutkosky's lab at Stanford University.
(on camera): Are cockroaches and most kinds of animals good models for building robots?
CUTKOSKY: If you want to build small things that run very fast, yes.
HATTORI (voice-over): Potential future uses include planetary rovers for NASA, or finding land mines for the military.
CUTKOSKY: It's going to need more censors, it's going to need more controls, it's going to need something approaching a primitive brain.
HATTORI: Bob Full got the idea of making insect-like robots while consulting for the animated movie "A Bug's Life." He realized that the cockroaches' self-stabilizing leg structure was much simpler than traditional robotic designs.
FULL: Kind of like a spring suspension system in your car. Rather than the stiff metal element with a motor where you're calculating every instant each movement, that's not how animals move, and why should we make robots like that?
HATTORI: The researchers led collaborators at McGill and the University of Michigan to produce Rex (ph), a robot which maneuvers independently without a brain.
FULL: So it can go up to nearly three meters per second now as it scrambles over rough terrain, and it can do that without any sensing of the environment. It can't see anything, it can't feel anything, but yet it's able to negotiate these incredible obstacles.
HATTORI: Insects aren't the only source of inspiration. Full is also studying how geckos climb smooth surfaces. He says it's all in the hairs on its toes -- two million of them, each with hundreds of tiny split ends. A molecular force called Vandervals (ph) makes the hair stick to almost anything. He foresees robots with gecko-like feet.
FULL: And if it can grab on to anything, then it should be able to go up walls and on ceilings, and achieve this goal of being able to go anywhere.
HATTORI: Lizards and insects -- even Full admits they're unlikely parents for a new generation of mechanical offspring.
FULL: The next time you look at a study and you think it's unusual or odd that someone's doing this, think twice.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: From the future of robots to the future of automobiles. The car you buy 10 years from now may have a lot in common with a concept car called the hy-wire. It runs on hydrogen, has no pedals, and nothing under the hood. In fact, there is no hood. GM rolled it out for journalists ahead of the Paris auto show, and CNN's Chris Burns took a test drive with one of the car's masterminds.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): OK, here we go. It's rolling now. This is on the test track in Opperland (ph), Germany.
Explain a little bit the mechanics. What is actually happening right now under us?
CHRIS BORRONI-BIRD, GM PROJECT DIRECTOR: OK. Inside the skateboard chassis, we have the propulsion system, which is made up of a hydrogen fuel tank, a fuel cell stack, which converts the hydrogen fuel into electricity, and then an electric motor, which converts the electricity into wheel motion, and that's driving you down the road.
BURNS: It's not much different from the lunar -- those lunar vehicles, right? That's really where it started, isn't it?
BORRONI-BIRD: That's what we're sitting on. We're sitting on a fuel cell power train, and we've coupled it with fly-by-wire technology, which is also aerospace technology. Most of the aircraft today have fly-by-wire.
BURNS (voice-over): Fly-by-wire technology uses electronics to operate the vehicle, instead of cables and hydraulics.
(on camera): Chris, how does this actually work? Now, there are no pedals here. Everything is here. That's how you operate the car. Explain a little bit how that works. BORRONI-BIRD: Well, this was developed with SKF (ph), and it's basically -- we call it the X-drive (ph), and to accelerate would be a rotating motion.
(CROSSTALK)
BORRONI-BIRD: If you're familiar with riding a motorbike, you can accelerate by twisting this. You can either -- you can twist with your left or your right hand, or both. So it's basically -- there is redundancy built into the system. You brake by squeezing, which is an intuitive thing to do.
BURNS: This car has a -- is built with a skateboard. The chassis is called a skateboard.
BORRONI-BIRD: Yes.
BURNS: And every -- all the mechanics -- that's the beauty of this. All the mechanics are in here.
BORRONI-BIRD: Out of the way. Man maximum, machine minimum, taken to its extreme.
BURNS: The engine, the drive, the brakes, the steering, everything is down here.
BORRONI-BIRD: Everything required to propel the vehicle and control the way it behaves is inside the chassis.
BURNS: And say you get tired of the way this thing looks, although I mean, it looks pretty good, but you get tired of the way this looks, you can change it any time you want.
BORRONI-BIRD: That's right. The by-wire technology, basically, simplistically, we have a simple electrical connection connecting the body to the chassis, instead of all these mechanical links that are in today's vehicles connecting the body to the chassis. So now if you're fed up with the body, you can take the body off with very little effort.
BURNS: Now, Chris, this kind of car is not going to come out until 2010. That's your target date. Why should anybody care about this right now?
BORRONI-BIRD: Well, this is the future. And eight years is not a long time in automobiles, in timeframe. We feel that by showing the world what we're doing now, we get feedback from the world as to whether this is really a great idea or not. So we're listening to people's reactions to this, and it's helping to steer the way we develop the vehicle, so it's important to get people's...
BURNS: And to attract investors, I'm sure. Let's get real.
BORRONI-BIRD: It's important to show people where we think the future lies.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Next on NEXT, the latest in preventing underage smoking and drinking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now go home before I call your momma.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Including a vending machine that talks to you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Now a look at some of the latest technology aimed at trying to keep kids from smoking and drinking. First, a tobacco company is testing a cigarette vending machine that requires buyers to swipe an I.D. verifying their age. But as Eric Horng reports, anti- smoking activists say that's not enough.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIC HORNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The coin-operated cigarette vending machine faded into obscurity after drawing fire for giving kids easy access to smokes. The concept was nearly defunct.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello. I'll be your vending machine today.
HORNG: Until now. Brown & Williamson Tobacco calls it interactive vending, and hopes it will boost ailing vending sales. Plans are in place to put the machines in taverns, night clubs and restaurant bars. They require buyers to swipe a matching I.D. and credit card. If either shows the customer is underage, a virtual reality sales clerk appears on a video screen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry, but I can't sell you smokes if you're under 18. Now go home before I call your momma.
STEPHEN KOTTAK, BROWN & WILLIAMSON: These vending machines show that this is a responsible way to market to adult consumers who choose to smoke, and at the same time ensure youth cannot get access to tobacco products.
HORNG: But the same critics that blasted the old vending machines say the new ones still won't prevent abuse by minors.
CHARLIE SMITH, AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY: When you don't have a face-to-face sale, there's a chance someone is going to get a credit card and a driver's license and going to be able to use it. We don't allow vending sales for beer, guns, prescription drugs, because we want the face-to-face sale.
KOTTAK: Consumers may not be I.D'ed 100 percent of the time in other locations. With this machine, it is.
HORNG: Brown & Williamson is currently testing the machines in Los Angeles and Cleveland, but plans to distribute them across the country early next year.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Other companies are pushing I.D. scanners to verify age. These scanners read encoded information on the back of drivers licenses so store merchants and bar bouncers can tell if the information on the front has been tampered with. Daniel Sieberg has more in this week's "Technofile."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ever wonder what that little magnetic stripe or bar code on the back of your driver's license is for? Well, until now, not much. The stripe can contain encoded tamper-proof information about the driver, such as age. And now companies are starting to use this technology to make age verification more of a sure thing.
(on camera): There are several different I.D. scanners on the market, but we've got a couple here today to demonstrate how they work. The first is from a company called Intellicheck (ph). It's going to read the back of this actual driver's license, the bar code here. As I place it in the machine, it's reading the information that's encoded in the license and then displaying it on this laptop. You don't need the laptop when you're using the machine, but we're using it to make it easier to see.
The other machine that we've got here is from a company called Logics (ph), or I.D. Logics (ph). It reads the magnetic stripe that's on the back of some licenses. As I scan it through the machine here, it's displaying the information on the screen, which is also more portable.
(voice-over): The portability of the Logics (ph) scanner makes it a logical choice for bars and clubs, while Intellicheck (ph) envisions its scanner being used in convenience stores and other places that sells cigarettes and liquor. These machines tell at a glance whether someone is old enough to buy alcohol or tobacco. The scanners can also reveal security information. Authorities can encode licenses with a warning about the license holder. For instance, if the person is dangerous or has a criminal history.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, may I see your driver's license, please?
SIEBERG: While most states make use of encoding for simple I.D. checks, not all states encode additional information onto drivers licenses, at least not yet. Eight states have no information. Georgia's stripe is unreadable. Only in Texas and North Carolina do police use the encoding for law enforcement.
Age verification firms say this disparity is the problem. Until a uniform encoding policy is adopted nationwide, the full potential of their I.D. scanners will remain unfulfilled.
I'm Daniel Sieberg, and that's "Technofile."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Still to come, electric bikes. A new and popular commuting option in Beijing's traffic and pollution-choked streets. So why does China want to ban them?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Look in the dictionary under "traffic jam," and you just may see a picture of Beijing, China. That's how bad it is. A lot of commuters, though, are getting through the back-ups on electric bicycles. They're faster than regular bikes, and cleaner than cars. But as Lisa Rose Weaver reports, in a few years, they'll be banned.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A new kind of vehicle has taken its place in the bike lane alongside conventional bicycles. This is the electric bike. Just the answer for gliding through Beijing traffic, famous for its gridlock. Estimated time of arrival on one of these, earlier than you thought.
In a city where motorcycles are limited, electric bikes would seem the perfect solution. Except for one problem: City government is about to put on the brakes.
In three years, the some 100,000 electric bikes on the road will be banned. Dealers have already seen a serious downturn in sales. A result of city regulations long on detail but short on explanation. The industry Web page is rife with opinion about the ban, mostly opposed to it. Consumers speculate the limit is designed to promote more use of public transportation, but merchants say there ought to be a choice.
NI JIE, ELECTRIC BIKE DEALER (through translator): Private and public transportation should be able to coexist, and each individual has a right to choose his or her own method of transportation.
WEAVER: The ban has mobilized industry people from all over China to figure out how to convince Beijing's traffic regulators to keep electric bikes on the road. Lobbyists met quietly in a nondescript hotel planning their pressure tactics carefully.
(on camera): Bike dealers say pollution really is not an issue with electric bikes, and what's more, the batteries used to power them won't harm the environment. That's because users can bring old batteries right back here to the dealership in exchange for new ones. In turn, the dealership takes the old batteries back to the factory where they're professionally disposed of.
(voice-over): At a cost of about $500, electric bikes appeal to commuters who can't spend much money. Buy a car? Not an option for Wang Jing (ph), who says he couldn't even afford the gas. Others are hurrying to buy their electric bikes now while they can still get a license, convinced that even a three-year limit on legally riding them is worth it, if it makes getting around a little easier.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: If you think commuting by electric bicycle is unusual, wait until you see what's coming up next. Andrew Brown has a story that's on the up and up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Some of us commute by train, some by car, but how about commuting by escalator? There's an escalator in Hong Kong that runs for almost one half a mile, between an upscale residential neighborhood and the downtown business district. Andrew Brown has this uplifting story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the longest outdoor escalator ever built. It was designed for the benefit of commuters who can glide 800 meters to their destination, free of charge, without getting wet or risking their own safety. This escalator isn't cutting edge, but it integrates hundreds of existing technologies which function together virtually error-free. Which makes life easier for experts like Jeffrey, Raymond, Sze Lau and Tang, because they'll be blamed if the escalator goes wrong or people are inconvenienced.
When you drop your change, there's a metal plate called a comb to stop it jamming the system.
JEFFREY TSE, HONG KONG GOVT. ENGINEER: The comb can prevent the foreign objects from entering into the escalator.
BROWN: To stop the escalator from swallowing too much government money, it was built as a single stairway, although commuters can still travel in two directions.
RAYMOND LAU, HONG KONG GOVT. ENGINEER: The ride down in the morning. And in the evening, they ride upward.
BROWN: Even when it's raining, the escalator has a weather-proof canopy.
LAU SZE LUEN, HONG KONG GOVT. ENGINEER: It keeps us dry, because it rains a lot in Hong Kong, especially during summer days.
BROWN: To travel the entire length of this people mover takes 20 minutes. Passengers board 20 separate escalators, all linked by walkways and (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Most of the system has a handrail, which is supposed to move in sync with the stairway, although it often doesn't.
(on camera): If you're riding one escalator, expect the hand rail to move forward about an inch. That's two and a half centimeters. But if you're riding 20 escalators and you never let go of this thing...
(voice-over): Well, in theory, your arm will be pulled forward at least one foot, more than 30 centimeters. For the engineer solving this problem is no problem -- it's a matter of adjusting the belt that pulls the handrail.
TANG SHUI LEUNG, HONG KONG GOVT. ENGINEER: We (UNINTELLIGIBLE) synchronize the speed -- the speed of the steps.
BROWN: Keeping an operation this size going takes both brains and bucks. The power bill alone is $10,000 a month. For that price, Hong Kong is able to move 36,000 commuters down a hill, and back up to a maximum elevation of 130 meters. Proof that you can raise people with money.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Time for us to step off the escalator. We've reached our floor. Before we go, here's a look at what's coming up next week.
When animals and humans clash, it can cost billions of dollars and cost lives. From snakes to snakeheads, from beetles to bears, a special edition of NEXT -- "Critters in Conflict."
We'll also have stories for you tech fans. For instance, a new palm size gadget that can play MP3s, full motion video and games. That's coming up on NEXT.
Until then, let us know how we're doing. You can send us an e- mail. Our address is next@cnn.com.
Thanks so much for joining us this week. And thanks to our friends here at Stanford University. For all of us on the sci-tech beat, I'm James Hattori. We'll see you next time.
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