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Technology Helps Army's Intelligence Gathering; Goggles Allow Users Make Movies Portable; Modern Pilots Experience Piece of Aviation History
Aired October 13, 2002 - 16:00 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, the war on terrorism relies on quick and accurate intelligence gathering. Get a behind-the-scenes- look on how Army intelligence combines traditional methods with 21st century technology.
Also, goggles that turn your portable movies and TV shows from postage stamps to panoramic.
And modern pilots experience a piece of aviation history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It really didn't sink in until the day after the flight that I had just flown a 100-year-old airplane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: All that and more on NEXT.
JAMES HATTORI, HOST: Ahoy, everybody, and welcome to NEXT@CNN. I'm James Hattori, this week from the deck of the USS Hornet, a retired aircraft carrier now a museum berthed in Alameda, California.
Navy ships, of course, have been tools of war going back centuries, but today it's not just brawn but brains that can determine a victor. We all know too well intelligence gathering is critical, whether it's the war against terrorism, a possible U.S. attack on Iraq, or the campaign in Afghanistan. Modern spying combines the traditional and the high tech, using computers to keep track of it all.
Recently, CNN's Mike Boettcher was given a rare look at U.S. Army intelligence at work.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan, like needles in haystacks. But Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division launches to find a dozen needles in Afghanistan's towering haystacks. Intelligence says they are here, and the war against terrorism more than any other in U.S. history is a war of intelligence, the speed with which it is gathered, the speed with which it is and projected, both crucial. Last summer, Colonel Mike Flynn directed Army intelligence in Afghanistan.
COL. MIKE FLYNN, MILITARY INTELLIGENCE BRIGADE: This is a free- thinking, adaptive enemy which has to cause our intelligence systems and our intelligence training and the people that are involved in that to be able to adapt to that type of environment.
BOETTCHER: CNN was allowed a rare look at where the intelligence revolution begins, the Army intelligence center and school at Fort Wachuka, Arizona, and an even rarer glimpse of how the changes are being implemented in the real world of Afghanistan.
(on camera): One hundred and twenty years ago, during the Indian wars, right here in Arizona, the U.S. Army encountered its first enemy that used unconventional tactics. An officer wrote at the time that if the U.S. Army was going to win, it had to adopt three rules -- adapt, adapt, adapt.
Right now for these soldiers in Fort Wachuka, during this war on terrorism, those three rules still apply.
(voice-over): At Fort Wachuka, experience from every conflict since Vietnam is incorporated into this intelligence gathering exercise, a span of 30 years where the United States' enemies employed unconventional tactics. Here, in an imaginary war in Arizona's desert, students are challenged to gather information from the front lines of a fictional conflict. It is part Bosnia, mixed with Kosovo, and a touch of Afghanistan -- a confusing and ambiguous scenario for students to sort through.
C.W.O. WILLIAM LUX, CHIEF OF FIELD TRAINING: Not everybody is good, not everybody is bad. There are elements of the local national forces that we are supporting who are members of a terrorist organization, and they have to seek them out and stop them. There are U.S. personnel who have crossed to the dark side, and they have to locate them and pull them out.
BOETTCHER: Interrogation and interview techniques practiced for six weeks are tried out on instructors and professional role players. For seven days and nights, the course's final exam. In this training scenario, an intelligence agent befriends the spurned wife of an enemy leader, in an effort to gain information.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Compromising your guys (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is kind of like you are compromising stability.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know I got a kid, too.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you really?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, he's going to be so devastated.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is your kid's name? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chad? You just have one kid?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
BOETTCHER: At a nearby airstrip, the grid of human intelligence gives way to the wizardry of pilotless observation aircraft. Students are taught to use speedy computer systems that collate intelligence from the drones, humans, satellites and antennas, and get the information the information to the soldier on the front line, who in real life is digitally connected to all of it, even in a tent in Afghanistan, as Bravo company was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have got all kinds of ordnance going in along this ridgeline here.
BOETTCHER: Here, everything taught in Arizona is used at task force headquarters in Afghanistan.
Inside, CNN was allowed to peak behind an always closed curtain into a top secret facility known as the scif, special compartmented intelligence facility, the brain of the beast is what soldiers call it.
Predators, pilotless spy planes, were being monitored, satellite images transmitted, radio intercepts plotted and translated, and human intelligence analyzed. All of it almost immediately available to Bravo company as it approached the suspected location of al Qaeda on the Afghan/Pakistan border.
But even with the best intelligence, the enemy always has a vote, even a low-tech adversary, and this time al Qaeda voted with its feet, slipping away. Needles in a haystack that only soldiers with the best of intelligence will eventually find.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: NASA is back in construction mode this week, the International Space Station Alpha getting a major upgrade during the current shuttle mission. The shuttle arrived at the station on Wednesday, bringing a 45-foot-long girder. The 14-ton structure contains a new cooling system. It will form part of an expanded framework for the station that will hold solar panels and railroad tracks for a giant robotic crane. Astronauts from the shuttle crew will take three spacewalks to install the girder.
When Atlantis began the mission on Monday, space fans got a new treat -- a camera mounted on the external tank gave a shuttle's eye view of the Florida's coast as the orbiter streaked away from the Kennedy Space Center. Before the launch, our Miles O'Brien talked to the astronauts about how it feels to fly into space.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PAT MELROY, SHUTTLE PILOT: You wake up in the morning, and today is game day, and the clock just seems to tick so slowly towards the time that you get dressed. You get dressed, you walk out. As you drive out to the pad, people are melting away around you. They just all peel off, you know, until it's just you and your crew left going out there, and you kind of think, this is kind of weird, everybody else is running away as fast as they can, and we're headed out there.
And you get out there, and you get strapped in, but then they close the hatch and it's just you again, just you and your crew. And you realize that -- there's nobody there to help you anymore. But it's kind of scary. And then you close your visor at two minutes, and all you can hear is the sound of your own breathing. You just don't really know what to expect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Liftoff of the space shuttle Atlantis building the station and our future in space.
COMMANDER JEFF ASHBY: It's a very hard kick in the back as we ascend past the tower, which disappears almost immediately. You can feel the acceleration and the power of the engines in your chest.
DAVE WOLF, MISSION SPECIALIST: It is like being on a football punted into orbit, and it's just clawing its way, it's howling. A lot of vibration, a lot of noise, and you are moving fast.
MELROY: It doesn't look real. It can't possibly be happening this fast.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Actually, it can be happening that fast. The shuttle accelerates from zero to 17,000 miles an hour in eight minutes.
Astronomers have found a new celestial body orbiting our sun a billion miles beyond Pluto. Here is an artist's conception. It's not considered a planet, because it's not big enough, just 800 miles in diameter, about .1 the size of Earth, but it's the biggest object found orbiting the sun since Pluto was discovered in 1930. It's called Quaoar, named after the creation force of the Native Americans who originally lived in what's now Los Angeles. Astronomers at Cal Tech found it using the telescope at the Palamar Observatory. Quaoar orbits the sun every 288 years.
It's been nearly 100 years since the Wright brothers made the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina -- a far cry from this Navy F-8 crusader. But that wasn't their first aviation milestone. Richard Atkins reports from our affiliate WRIL on an earlier Wright brothers plane and how it's still inspiring pilots.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD ATKINS, WRIL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On these dunes, 100 years ago, Orville and Wilbur Wright stood at the dawn of modern aviation. NICK ENGLER, REPLICA GLIDER BUILDER: They were just two guys who wanted to do in in the worst way and would let nothing get in the way of that dream.
ATKINS: That dream was to fly, and that dream is being retraced. Historians are using an exact copy of the Wright brothers 1902 glider to once again fly along the dunes.
ENGLER: The Wright brothers were ordinary people, who with the help and the support of their friends and their family, managed to teach the world how to fly.
ATKINS: Most people know about the Wright brothers' first engine-powered airplane, but this glider, the 1902 glider is their most significant contribution to flying.
ENGLER: On October the 8th, 1902, they went out and they flew for the first time with three axis control -- roll (ph), ditch (ph), and yaw (ph).
ED PERSHEY, HISTORIAN: And it was then that they realized they really had invented flying, that they knew they could really fly through the air and control what they were doing.
ATKINS: Control, but only after a lot of practice.
ENGLER: The Wright brothers were teaching themselves to fly, which meant that they were crashing with a fairly regular frequency.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my first glider, actually.
ATKINS: These military pilots are learning just like the Wrights.
CAPT. JIM ALEXANDER, U.S. AIR FORCE: You know, I fly a 150,000- pound MC130p combat shadow for Air Force Special Ops Command, and fly this 100-pound, non-powered, antique glider -- it's just night and day.
LT. COMDR. KLAS OHMAN, U.S. NAVY: It really didn't sink in until the day after the flight that I had just flown a 100-year-old airplane. And that was quite exciting.
PERSHEY: Just 40 years after the Wrights were gliding on these dunes, people were flying across the United States or flying across the ocean.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just going to pick you up and let you play with the elevator a little bit.
ATKINS: From the sands of Kitty Hawk, man's ability to fly took off, eventually taking us to the moon and back.
ENGLER: It's the story that we tell other children when they outgrow "The Little Engine That Could." This is the story that we tell kids to convince them that dreams are worthwhile, but you have got to do a lot of work to achieve those dreams.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Up next, how satellites could help control West Nile virus.
And later in the show, do kids want a know-it-all doll?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want my toys to be more intelligent than me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Whether on a Navy ship or a bass boat, satellite technology can help skippers find their way, or track a storm. Now NASA is using satellites to track a killer, the West Nile virus. The space agency hopes it can help determine how the diseases spreads and how to stop it. Here is CNN's Daniel Sieberg.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The arsenal against West Nile virus-carrying mosquitoes includes spraying, eliminating standing water these insects use to breed, and stepped-up detective work by public health scientists to try to figure out how and where the disease spreads. NASA is adding a new dimension to fighting the disease from space. The technology has helped track the seasonal migration of the virus since it first appeared in the U.S. in the summer of 1999 and traveled West across 33 states.
ROBERT VENEZIA, NASA: Variations in temperature, vegetation and moisture really dictate where mosquitoes and birds that are infected with West Nile virus are likely to thrive. This gives public health officials a target for early detection of possible outbreaks.
SIEBERG: The images are created by instruments on board polar orbiting satellites. The red shows warm surface temperatures, the blue cooler regions. Bright greens on this map show dense vegetation, a good indicator of moisture and precipitation, and a unique look at the habitat for mosquitoes and infected birds.
West Nile virus causes flu-like symptoms and can be fatal to people with compromised immune systems. It's a high priority for the public health community.
VENEZIA: When they combine our satellite data with their case data, and information on bird migration routes, they're able to develop what we're's calling risk maps, gives them a better idea on where to spray, where not to spray, where to issue an alert or an advisory. SIEBERG: NASA is using the same technology to study the seasonal spread of other diseases, like malaria, lyme disease, even asthma. They also monitor public health threats like air and water pollution. The idea, NASA says, is to keep better track of where diseases spread from year to year to make better predictions about where they're going.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: If you've ever wondered what King Tut looks like, the science museum in London, England has an answer for you. Scientists used digital technology to come up with the reconstruction of the boy pharaoh's face. They started with an X-ray of his skull and filled out the picture with data scanned from the faces of volunteers of the same age and ethnic makeup. King Tutankhamen ruled ancient Egypt in the 14th century B.C. He was about 9 when he took the throne, and died nine years later. His intact tomb was discovered in 1922, and is his main claim to fame.
ANNOUNCER: Just ahead, want a free ride on the Internet? You might be able to find one just by going for a ride through your neighborhood. We'll take you war driving when NEXT@CNN returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Reality TV is coming to a courtroom near you. No, I don't mean those cheesy shows where a couple goes on a date in front of a TV crew, or celebrities try to outgross each other. This is reality recreated by a computer for the sake of a judge and jury.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI (voice-over): When a U.S. Marine jet clipped an aerial tram cable above an Italian ski resort, killing 20 people in 1998, it was hard to imagine how it could have happened, but when the incident came before a military court, there was no need to imagine.
(on camera): Jurors were able to put themselves in the pilot's seat?
ARTHUR GINSBURG, VISUAL FORENSICS: Well, with the simulation that was shown there, yes.
HATTORI (voice-over): Arthur Ginsburg's company, Visual Forensics, prepared a computer simulation, which helped exonerate the cockpit crew. It shows the pilot's view of the tram towers, which should have been marked on their map, but were not.
GINSBURG: You can't expect someone to really see something they don't expect to be there.
HATTORI (on camera): In these TV-friendly times, people are accustomed to getting information through video, so it's no surprise judges and juries are comfortable with computer simulations, called forensic animation, in court.
GINSBURG: They are increasingly common, because they are so powerful.
HATTORI (voice-over): And the animations are especially useful to explain complex issues, in cases like this one, which alleged a mechanical defect in the drive shaft of a utility cart.
GINSBURG: How the vehicle then rolled and the person was ejected and eventually killed.
HATTORI: Ginsburg has produced computer simulations for 10 years. He and his staff take great pains to make sure their recreations are true to the facts.
CARL BAHOR, VISUAL FORENSICS: We'll take photographs of that scene, of the vehicles, and we'll compare the simulation to those photographs.
HATTORI: Other information comes from police reports or experts who survey crime and accident scenes.
BAHOR: We'll gather as much data as we can about the scene and we'll enter it all into the computer, and we will then recreate what happened at that accident.
GINSBURG: Computer simulations, if they're properly done, have a scientific foundation.
HATTORI: And like any other evidence, it's subject to challenge by the attorneys. The recreations are so realistic they include things like shadows and sunlight, placed at angles corresponding to the exact time and location of the incident.
GINSBURG: This provides the best evidence and the best view that the juror might have of what this person was experiencing in an accident or an incident.
HATTORI: One thing you won't see -- faces or graphic crash scenes.
GINSBURG: We don't go through the crash sequence and watching cars crumble, et cetera. Same thing with pedestrian accidents. We don't show the pedestrian being hit. What we want to do is make sure we present the facts and don't provide any emotional bias.
HATTORI: Ginsburg says the recreations typically cost $10,000 to $20,000, but they could end up saving time and money. He says it's common for lawsuits to be settled before trial once both sides get a chance to see what actually happened.
GINSBURG: What we want to understand in the accident is where the causation lies, and if it's very evident early on, then it should not even go to trial.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Wireless computer networks have been heralded as one of the next big things. Whether at the office or at home, connecting without wires by radio waves is convenient, but are these networks private? A cautionary tale from Hong Kong, where, as Kristie Lu Stout reports, 70 percent of the city's networks are vulnerable.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On board the Hong Kong tram, road warriors can commute in comfort, with just enough room to bring up a laptop and begin the hunt for wireless networks.
PETER MARKS: Just on one trip home, I discovered 112 networks, and about half of them have no security enabled at all.
STOUT: It's called war driving, cruising neighborhoods and city streets in search of wireless access points..
(on camera): Just pick up a notebook with a wireless LAN card and scanning software, and you're off. You, too, can war drive the city in search of free broadband and unprotected networks.
(voice-over): There are free programs which can pick up the name and signal strength of nearby networks, and with a few keystrokes, a war driver can jump onto any open system.
(on camera): For those access points where the encryption has been turned off, is that just an open invitation for intruders?
MARKS: Pretty much. Unless it's been set up with some sort of a log-in screen, perhaps (UNINTELLIGIBLE) or something. And basically you can log into that, and your laptop is on their corporate network.
STOUT (voice-over): A chance to sift through the e-mail and private files of those companies using wireless LANs.
The technology allows workers to keep a network link without being tethered to a cable. Wireless LANs are popping up in coffee shots, airports, and offices around the world, often installed with inadequate security.
In a recent war driving exercise, Hong Kong's Professional Information Security Association, sniffed out 144 access points in the city, of which 77 percent had encryption turned off.
WO SANG YOUNG: This (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is quite close to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in the U.S. or (UNINTELLIGIBLE). So it isn't really a surprise to us. (UNINTELLIGIBLE). What surprised us is that there are really many people who are using the wireless network already.
STOUT: And unaware that the latest networking trend has opened hundreds of wireless holes in the sky.
MARKS: It doesn't worry me if I was just somebody who's just driving along, but if I was a businessman putting in a wireless network, then yeah, I think what it says is that even though you don't think it goes outside your own building, they do, in fact, leek out through windows and just across the street. STOUT: IT experts suggest installing a virtual private network. It's a better secured wireless LAN. Not every solution is fail-safe, but making it seem strong could be enough to shake off those war drivers on the prowl.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up in our next half-hour, velcro mittens help babies get a grip, and help researchers grasp some new ideas about human development.
And bridging the gap. Hong Kong engineers borrow an idea from the Chesapeake Bay. Those stories and much more are coming up in just a few minutes. First, we'll take a break and get the latest news from the CNN newsroom. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Welcome back to NEXT, from the nearly 900-foot long deck of the USS Hornet now a museum berthed here in Alameda, California. Speaking of humongous, one of the most massive, expensive and controversial engineering projects in history is taking shape in China. The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtzee River will be nearly a mile wide and more than 500 feet tall. Construction began in 1994, and continues in spite of objections from some environmental and human rights group. Kurt Aschen (ph) has an update.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KURT ASCHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By June of next year, this will all be gone, the old city of Tsugvai (ph) in China's Hubai province will be under water, a casualty of the Three Gorges Dam project. Tsugvai (ph) is one of more than 100 towns that will disappear forever once the dam is completed in 2009. The city's 40,000 residents have a constant reminder of what's to come. A pile of rubble is all that's left of homes belonging to those who have already relocated. The homes of those who remain will soon follow.
But some welcome the change
WANG XIRUI, FARMER (through translator): I farmed before to feed my family. However, we could not grow enough food because there was not enough land and there were too many people. After I moved to this new place, I went out to work and made more money. So our life is better than before.
ASCHEN: Residents of the new, relocated city of Tsugvai (ph) will also be treated to some familiar sites. Experts are working feverishly to dismantle a handful of ancient Tsong and Minh dynasty temples, and carefully reassemble them in new homes. It's part of the $120 million government fund announced last year, to save more than 1,000 historical sites and monuments under threat. But experts worry the plan won't succeed.
XU GUANGJI, ARCHAEOLOGIST (through translator): The main difficulty for us is time is too tight. We have to work as much as we can. Money is not a problem after the government approved the plan.
ASCHEN: More than a million people will lose their homes and farmland once the dam is completed. Critics say the government's compensation and relocation plans are insufficient.
But Beijing says the dam will become a vital source of energy for China, as welt as tame the Yangtzee River, long known for massive flooding. The vision comes at a cost for those who are affected.
XIANG MING (through translator): Everyone was crying when we left old Tsugvai (ph) for the new, but what else could we do? We have to lose our home to help the nation.
ASCHEN: A nation where development is more rapid than ever before.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Hong Kong is no stranger to rapid development, and now it's debating whether to build a mega bridge to the nearby island of Makao. The project would boost business in both cities, and make travel to mainland China much easier. CNN's Andrew Brown reports on what it will take to make that engineering dream come true.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The mighty Ching- Ma (ph) bridge was built to serve Hong Kong's International Airport, but engineers are now pondering an even more ambitious goal, linking this spectacular infrastructure with a much longer bridge that would span a 29-kilometer river estuary and connect Hong Kong with Makao, the former Portugese enclave famous for casinos and racy bars.
This plan is the brainchild of Sir Gordon Wu, a Princeton- educated engineer, who wants passionately to join up cities in southern China, and says a bridge to accomplish that is long overdue.
SIR GORDON WU, CHAIRMAN, HOPEWELL HOLDINGS: We have been late. We should have done it 20 years ago.
BROWN: The local business community in Makao and other investors have already pledged to help fund the bridge, which Wu says will cost $2 billion U.S. Makao is about to undergo a major facelift, with two of the big names in Vegas, the Venetian and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) resorts set to develop new casinos and hotels there.
The Hong Kong government will say only the project is needed, but is vague about commitment. Government engineers believe in theory, another suspension bridge could be constructed in the middle of the estuary.
EDMUND TSUI, HONG KONG HIGHWAYS DEPT.: You can do it, anchor it in the sea, but it will be more difficult.
BROWN: And even though Hong Kong officials are proud of this structure, which towers a dizzying 200 meters, more than 600 feet, above the South China Sea, Gordon Wu says it's potentially dangerous.
WU: All the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in China will not be driving on the bridge on a windy day, I'll tell you, because suspension bridges sway. So although on paper it looks safe, but no.
BROWN: Instead, Wu is proposing a low conventional bridge, which sits close to the water, and a tunnel that will run under the seabed, allowing ships to navigate the estuary.
WU: It's an exact replica of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel, which was built in Virginia and Maryland shores in 1964.
BROWN: Wu says his crossing can easily be hooked up to Hong Kong's Checklap Cog (ph), the biggest airport in the world in terms of international air freight, and it would link to the rest of Hong Kong via the Ching-Ma (ph) bridge, which is very versatile. It carries cars, trains. And...
(on camera): ... if you're feeling a little more adventurous, you could always walk along the main cable of this bridge. A journey from one tower to the opposite tower is about 1.5 kilometers, a mile or so. Have a feeling this isn't the quickest way to Makao and back, though.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, a way to get really up close and personal with your video game, TV show, or a movie.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: When Brazil held elections last weekend, the news wasn't just who won, but how they won. The entire country used a new electronic voting system. Harris Whitbeck reports on how it works, and why it worries some people.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The system is simple. The voter punches its candidate's number into a simplified computer terminal. A picture of the candidate appears on a small screen, and if it matches his or her preference, the voter confirms the choice by pressing another button. The results are either transmitted to a regional vote counting center by high-speed telephone lines or are recorded on a diskette in areas where there are no phones.
Officials say the system gives more people the opportunity to vote, even in the most remote areas of the country, because the urns are battery-powered. And that it makes for a rapid and foolproof counting of votes.
(on camera): Election officials say the new technology not only makes this system more efficient, it also makes it more democratic. In a country where nearly half the population is functionally illiterate, the easy-to-use balloting system makes voting less intimidating for the masses.
(voice-over): But electronic voting does have some critics. Some say it increases the chances of more invalid votes being cast, precisely because people aren't used to the technology.
He says the system still needs improvements to prevent less educated voters from misusing the electronic returns.
It is a system that has revolutionized voting in Latin America's largest democracy, and it might very well do that in other countries. The United States is only one of several nations taking a close look at the Brazilian voting technology.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Want a wide screen TV but just don't have the space or the money? In this week's "Technofile," Daniel Sieberg shows us one solution that's right before our eyes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG (voice-over): Your mom probably warned you not to sit too close to the television, but how about putting the TV show right in front of your eyes? The eye trek looks like a pair of virtual reality goggles, and it plugs into your portable DVD player, TV or VCR. It simulates a 62-inch screen as seen from a distance of 6.5 feet. Images are clear and rich in color, but the open sides can be distracting. Headphones attached to the frame provide a three- dimensional sound experience. The eye trek also has a remote that lets you control image and sound settings and set your own security password.
Power it up with its AC adapter or four AA batteries that will last up to three hours.
(on camera): Now, if you spend more time in front of the tube playing video games instead, another version of the eye trek works with Sony's Playstation 2. However, it's not recommended for those under the age of 16 whose eyes are still developing, excluding a great number of gamers.
(voice-over): It may also exclude a great number of buyers. With a price tag of $900 for the FMD-250 version, the Olympus eye trek may not become an eye-catching device.
I'm Daniel Sieberg, and that's "Technofile."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: For more on eye trek and other stories from our program, check out our Web site, cnn.com/next.
ANNOUNCER: Next up, think you've seen every use there is for velcro? Well, researchers have come up with a new one that might just make babies a little smarter.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Researchers in North Carolina are experimenting with sticky fingers. And no, it's got nothing to do with kleptomaniacs or eating barbecue. They're testing what happens when babies can pick up an object before they're really old enough to do it. Ann Kellan explains.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANN KELLAN, CNN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Something very interesting happens when velcro gets in the hands of three-month- olds. They get a little bit smarter about the world around them. Duke University's Amy Needham developed this unusual study; even caught the attention of "Tonight's Show's" Jay Leno.
JAY LENO, HOST, TONIGHT SHOW: And psychologists at Duke University say -- listen to this, any new moms out here -- psychologists say putting velcro mittens on babies helps them develop mentally quicker, because they can pick up objects and examine them more easily because of the velcro. And this is a plus, if you set them down on shag carpeting, they've can't crawl away.
KELLAN (on camera): So is velcro a big part of your life?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have no idea.
KELLAN (voice-over): Velcro, on shoes, bags, key chains, toys. Take a leap at an amusement park's velcro wall. What was life like without it? An easy catch with a velcro mitt. Works for big kids, why not infants.
Before their tiny fingers and thumbs can hold onto a block, it sticks to the velcro mitt, making infants more fascinated with objects sooner than they normally would be. Maybe it's because infants have more control over the object.
JARED NEWMAN, RESEARCHER: You really see a difference between without the gloves, and then when they do have the gloves on. It really gets them into, you know, manipulating the objects a little more.
KELLAN: Usually at this stage of life, infants focus on faces, not objects. But once the blocks stick to their mitts...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They look at objects more.
KEITH DARDEN: I don't know what it is about the flinging, but she really likes that. She's just -- the flinging thing.
KELLAN: It only takes a week or two for these results. Leanne and Johnny, for example, wore velcro mitts 15 minutes a day for a week. Before Needham and her team videotaped them, gloves on, then gloves off, playing with an object in a bouncy seat. They count how many times the infants look and touch the objects, compared to infants who have never worn the velcro mitt.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here's a baby who didn't have experience with the mittens at home.
KELLAN: She is less interested in objects, more focused on faces.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is looking sometimes at the experimenters.
KELLAN: Is being more object-oriented a good thing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, it's not looking at objects to the exclusion of people, it's just that he's looking at objects, too.
KELLAN (on camera): Now that you know that you could probably increase their ability to manipulate objects starting, what, a month or two earlier, what benefits? Why do we care about that?
PROF. ANY NEEDHAM, DUKE UNIVERSITY: Well, it's hard to say exactly what the benefits are. You know, some might argue that learning more about objects earlier would just sort of give them a head start in learning about the physical world around them.
KELLAN (voice-over): And velcro mitts might help those who have trouble grasping.
NEEDHAM: Maybe that older babies, and even young children maybe, who have motor deficits, who still don't have the ability yet to reach out and grabs an object may benefit from these mittens.
KELLAN: Does that mean all infants should don velcro mittens?
NEEDHAM: I don't think of this as a fantastic parenting tool, necessarily. I think it could be a fun toy, if it's something that your baby is interested in it. But I don't think your baby is just not complete without the experience with these mittens.
KELLAN (on camera): This is starting them young on velcro, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Plus, you know, to babysit them, you put a little bit of velcro there and stick them to the wall.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: More news now about babies. Twin Siberian tiger cubs at the Berlin Zoo have made their public debut. The unusual thing about these cubs, according to their caretaker, they are being raised by both their mother and father. Usually male Siberian tigers would rather be alone, but the father in this family is very tolerant, it seems, even when the cubs playfully climb on him. It's estimated there are only a few hundred Siberian tigers left in the wild.
ANNOUNCER: Up next, she can read, tell time, do math. Is this a doll or a computer?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HATTORI: Finally this week, what's the old saying about the bigger the boys, the bigger the toys -- perhaps appropriate for these vintage Navy jets, but little kids have always interacted with their dolls and teddy bears. But the current crop of toys brings a lot more to the table, like artificial intelligence. Kristie Lu Stout has the story of a doll that may be too smart for its own good.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STOUT (voice-over): This is not your ordinary doll. She can talk, she can hear, but above all, she can actually see.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cindy, can you read this?
"CINDY": B, U, B, B, L, E, bubble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you read this one?
STOUT: Meet Cindy Smart, the latest creation from Hong Kong's Manley toys. Cindy will retail in the U.S. for $99, the price for a doll loaded with a micro processor, microphone and digital camera.
BOB DEL PRINCIPE, MANLEY TOY OUTLET: So what she does is she will take the images into the camera, and then her computer will try to figure out what the image is. She has kind of a database of all kinds of things, like the alphabet and numbers and words and pictures, and she matches those two up, just like you would.
STOUT (on camera): Cindy Smart can read, tell time, even run through her multiplication tables, proof that some pretty cool technology can be found in the play room.
(voice-over): More toy manufacturers are tinkering with artificial intelligence, computer graphics and speech synthesis, creating cutting edge toys for today's tech-savvy kids. According to NPD FunWorld, Americans spent more than $11 billion on electronic toys and games last year, but an embedded chip is still no guarantee for success.
FRANK YU, HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY: If a toy just as a novelty or as a gadget factor, or it's just something that no one has ever seen, it will be the talk of the playground for maybe a day or two days, but to be a perennial classic, it has to have something substantial about it.
STOUT: Manley manly believes its creation has that X factor, since Cindy is also a learning tool.
PRINCIPE: Cindy, do you know the answer?
"CINDY": Seventy-three divided by six equals 12, remainder 16.
PRINCIPE: Remainder 16.
"CINDY": I've got it.
STOUT (on camera): That's pretty precise. Now, do kids use her to do their own homework?
PRINCIPE: I think so.
STOUT (voice-over): A dream doll that does as she's told, a trait some may find just a little bit spooky.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want my toys really watching over here, or telling my parents what I'm doing. And so to a degree, if I was a child, I want toys, but I don't want my toys to be more intelligent than me.
STOUT: Cindy is amazingly precocious and may one day be able to read stories, even recognize faces. But that, says her creator, is nothing to be scared of.
PRINCIPE: She hasn't got a bad microchip in her body. Everything is very positive. She always helps you. If she doesn't know the question, she asks in a very friendly way, "can you help me?"
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: OK, I know what you're thinking, forget the dolls, will those computer chips fit inside your kids?
Well, playtime for us is over. Here's a look at next week's program. Thing sparrows are sweet little creatures? Well, think again. We'll show you what happens when male sparrows vie for attention of females.
Plus, we'll look at the world of wireless from a mobile computing industry's annual convention in Las Vegas. That plus a lot more coming up on NEXT.
Until then, let us hear from you. 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 at the USS Hornet Foundation. They restored this grand old vessel.
For all of us on the sci-tech beat, I'm James Hattori. We'll see you next time.
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Allow Users Make Movies Portable; Modern Pilots Experience Piece of Aviation History>
Aired October 13, 2002 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Today on NEXT@CNN, the war on terrorism relies on quick and accurate intelligence gathering. Get a behind-the-scenes- look on how Army intelligence combines traditional methods with 21st century technology.
Also, goggles that turn your portable movies and TV shows from postage stamps to panoramic.
And modern pilots experience a piece of aviation history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It really didn't sink in until the day after the flight that I had just flown a 100-year-old airplane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: All that and more on NEXT.
JAMES HATTORI, HOST: Ahoy, everybody, and welcome to NEXT@CNN. I'm James Hattori, this week from the deck of the USS Hornet, a retired aircraft carrier now a museum berthed in Alameda, California.
Navy ships, of course, have been tools of war going back centuries, but today it's not just brawn but brains that can determine a victor. We all know too well intelligence gathering is critical, whether it's the war against terrorism, a possible U.S. attack on Iraq, or the campaign in Afghanistan. Modern spying combines the traditional and the high tech, using computers to keep track of it all.
Recently, CNN's Mike Boettcher was given a rare look at U.S. Army intelligence at work.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan, like needles in haystacks. But Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division launches to find a dozen needles in Afghanistan's towering haystacks. Intelligence says they are here, and the war against terrorism more than any other in U.S. history is a war of intelligence, the speed with which it is gathered, the speed with which it is and projected, both crucial. Last summer, Colonel Mike Flynn directed Army intelligence in Afghanistan.
COL. MIKE FLYNN, MILITARY INTELLIGENCE BRIGADE: This is a free- thinking, adaptive enemy which has to cause our intelligence systems and our intelligence training and the people that are involved in that to be able to adapt to that type of environment.
BOETTCHER: CNN was allowed a rare look at where the intelligence revolution begins, the Army intelligence center and school at Fort Wachuka, Arizona, and an even rarer glimpse of how the changes are being implemented in the real world of Afghanistan.
(on camera): One hundred and twenty years ago, during the Indian wars, right here in Arizona, the U.S. Army encountered its first enemy that used unconventional tactics. An officer wrote at the time that if the U.S. Army was going to win, it had to adopt three rules -- adapt, adapt, adapt.
Right now for these soldiers in Fort Wachuka, during this war on terrorism, those three rules still apply.
(voice-over): At Fort Wachuka, experience from every conflict since Vietnam is incorporated into this intelligence gathering exercise, a span of 30 years where the United States' enemies employed unconventional tactics. Here, in an imaginary war in Arizona's desert, students are challenged to gather information from the front lines of a fictional conflict. It is part Bosnia, mixed with Kosovo, and a touch of Afghanistan -- a confusing and ambiguous scenario for students to sort through.
C.W.O. WILLIAM LUX, CHIEF OF FIELD TRAINING: Not everybody is good, not everybody is bad. There are elements of the local national forces that we are supporting who are members of a terrorist organization, and they have to seek them out and stop them. There are U.S. personnel who have crossed to the dark side, and they have to locate them and pull them out.
BOETTCHER: Interrogation and interview techniques practiced for six weeks are tried out on instructors and professional role players. For seven days and nights, the course's final exam. In this training scenario, an intelligence agent befriends the spurned wife of an enemy leader, in an effort to gain information.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Compromising your guys (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is kind of like you are compromising stability.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know I got a kid, too.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you really?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, he's going to be so devastated.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is your kid's name? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chad? You just have one kid?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
BOETTCHER: At a nearby airstrip, the grid of human intelligence gives way to the wizardry of pilotless observation aircraft. Students are taught to use speedy computer systems that collate intelligence from the drones, humans, satellites and antennas, and get the information the information to the soldier on the front line, who in real life is digitally connected to all of it, even in a tent in Afghanistan, as Bravo company was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have got all kinds of ordnance going in along this ridgeline here.
BOETTCHER: Here, everything taught in Arizona is used at task force headquarters in Afghanistan.
Inside, CNN was allowed to peak behind an always closed curtain into a top secret facility known as the scif, special compartmented intelligence facility, the brain of the beast is what soldiers call it.
Predators, pilotless spy planes, were being monitored, satellite images transmitted, radio intercepts plotted and translated, and human intelligence analyzed. All of it almost immediately available to Bravo company as it approached the suspected location of al Qaeda on the Afghan/Pakistan border.
But even with the best intelligence, the enemy always has a vote, even a low-tech adversary, and this time al Qaeda voted with its feet, slipping away. Needles in a haystack that only soldiers with the best of intelligence will eventually find.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: NASA is back in construction mode this week, the International Space Station Alpha getting a major upgrade during the current shuttle mission. The shuttle arrived at the station on Wednesday, bringing a 45-foot-long girder. The 14-ton structure contains a new cooling system. It will form part of an expanded framework for the station that will hold solar panels and railroad tracks for a giant robotic crane. Astronauts from the shuttle crew will take three spacewalks to install the girder.
When Atlantis began the mission on Monday, space fans got a new treat -- a camera mounted on the external tank gave a shuttle's eye view of the Florida's coast as the orbiter streaked away from the Kennedy Space Center. Before the launch, our Miles O'Brien talked to the astronauts about how it feels to fly into space.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PAT MELROY, SHUTTLE PILOT: You wake up in the morning, and today is game day, and the clock just seems to tick so slowly towards the time that you get dressed. You get dressed, you walk out. As you drive out to the pad, people are melting away around you. They just all peel off, you know, until it's just you and your crew left going out there, and you kind of think, this is kind of weird, everybody else is running away as fast as they can, and we're headed out there.
And you get out there, and you get strapped in, but then they close the hatch and it's just you again, just you and your crew. And you realize that -- there's nobody there to help you anymore. But it's kind of scary. And then you close your visor at two minutes, and all you can hear is the sound of your own breathing. You just don't really know what to expect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Liftoff of the space shuttle Atlantis building the station and our future in space.
COMMANDER JEFF ASHBY: It's a very hard kick in the back as we ascend past the tower, which disappears almost immediately. You can feel the acceleration and the power of the engines in your chest.
DAVE WOLF, MISSION SPECIALIST: It is like being on a football punted into orbit, and it's just clawing its way, it's howling. A lot of vibration, a lot of noise, and you are moving fast.
MELROY: It doesn't look real. It can't possibly be happening this fast.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Actually, it can be happening that fast. The shuttle accelerates from zero to 17,000 miles an hour in eight minutes.
Astronomers have found a new celestial body orbiting our sun a billion miles beyond Pluto. Here is an artist's conception. It's not considered a planet, because it's not big enough, just 800 miles in diameter, about .1 the size of Earth, but it's the biggest object found orbiting the sun since Pluto was discovered in 1930. It's called Quaoar, named after the creation force of the Native Americans who originally lived in what's now Los Angeles. Astronomers at Cal Tech found it using the telescope at the Palamar Observatory. Quaoar orbits the sun every 288 years.
It's been nearly 100 years since the Wright brothers made the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina -- a far cry from this Navy F-8 crusader. But that wasn't their first aviation milestone. Richard Atkins reports from our affiliate WRIL on an earlier Wright brothers plane and how it's still inspiring pilots.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD ATKINS, WRIL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On these dunes, 100 years ago, Orville and Wilbur Wright stood at the dawn of modern aviation. NICK ENGLER, REPLICA GLIDER BUILDER: They were just two guys who wanted to do in in the worst way and would let nothing get in the way of that dream.
ATKINS: That dream was to fly, and that dream is being retraced. Historians are using an exact copy of the Wright brothers 1902 glider to once again fly along the dunes.
ENGLER: The Wright brothers were ordinary people, who with the help and the support of their friends and their family, managed to teach the world how to fly.
ATKINS: Most people know about the Wright brothers' first engine-powered airplane, but this glider, the 1902 glider is their most significant contribution to flying.
ENGLER: On October the 8th, 1902, they went out and they flew for the first time with three axis control -- roll (ph), ditch (ph), and yaw (ph).
ED PERSHEY, HISTORIAN: And it was then that they realized they really had invented flying, that they knew they could really fly through the air and control what they were doing.
ATKINS: Control, but only after a lot of practice.
ENGLER: The Wright brothers were teaching themselves to fly, which meant that they were crashing with a fairly regular frequency.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my first glider, actually.
ATKINS: These military pilots are learning just like the Wrights.
CAPT. JIM ALEXANDER, U.S. AIR FORCE: You know, I fly a 150,000- pound MC130p combat shadow for Air Force Special Ops Command, and fly this 100-pound, non-powered, antique glider -- it's just night and day.
LT. COMDR. KLAS OHMAN, U.S. NAVY: It really didn't sink in until the day after the flight that I had just flown a 100-year-old airplane. And that was quite exciting.
PERSHEY: Just 40 years after the Wrights were gliding on these dunes, people were flying across the United States or flying across the ocean.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just going to pick you up and let you play with the elevator a little bit.
ATKINS: From the sands of Kitty Hawk, man's ability to fly took off, eventually taking us to the moon and back.
ENGLER: It's the story that we tell other children when they outgrow "The Little Engine That Could." This is the story that we tell kids to convince them that dreams are worthwhile, but you have got to do a lot of work to achieve those dreams.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Up next, how satellites could help control West Nile virus.
And later in the show, do kids want a know-it-all doll?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want my toys to be more intelligent than me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Whether on a Navy ship or a bass boat, satellite technology can help skippers find their way, or track a storm. Now NASA is using satellites to track a killer, the West Nile virus. The space agency hopes it can help determine how the diseases spreads and how to stop it. Here is CNN's Daniel Sieberg.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The arsenal against West Nile virus-carrying mosquitoes includes spraying, eliminating standing water these insects use to breed, and stepped-up detective work by public health scientists to try to figure out how and where the disease spreads. NASA is adding a new dimension to fighting the disease from space. The technology has helped track the seasonal migration of the virus since it first appeared in the U.S. in the summer of 1999 and traveled West across 33 states.
ROBERT VENEZIA, NASA: Variations in temperature, vegetation and moisture really dictate where mosquitoes and birds that are infected with West Nile virus are likely to thrive. This gives public health officials a target for early detection of possible outbreaks.
SIEBERG: The images are created by instruments on board polar orbiting satellites. The red shows warm surface temperatures, the blue cooler regions. Bright greens on this map show dense vegetation, a good indicator of moisture and precipitation, and a unique look at the habitat for mosquitoes and infected birds.
West Nile virus causes flu-like symptoms and can be fatal to people with compromised immune systems. It's a high priority for the public health community.
VENEZIA: When they combine our satellite data with their case data, and information on bird migration routes, they're able to develop what we're's calling risk maps, gives them a better idea on where to spray, where not to spray, where to issue an alert or an advisory. SIEBERG: NASA is using the same technology to study the seasonal spread of other diseases, like malaria, lyme disease, even asthma. They also monitor public health threats like air and water pollution. The idea, NASA says, is to keep better track of where diseases spread from year to year to make better predictions about where they're going.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: If you've ever wondered what King Tut looks like, the science museum in London, England has an answer for you. Scientists used digital technology to come up with the reconstruction of the boy pharaoh's face. They started with an X-ray of his skull and filled out the picture with data scanned from the faces of volunteers of the same age and ethnic makeup. King Tutankhamen ruled ancient Egypt in the 14th century B.C. He was about 9 when he took the throne, and died nine years later. His intact tomb was discovered in 1922, and is his main claim to fame.
ANNOUNCER: Just ahead, want a free ride on the Internet? You might be able to find one just by going for a ride through your neighborhood. We'll take you war driving when NEXT@CNN returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Reality TV is coming to a courtroom near you. No, I don't mean those cheesy shows where a couple goes on a date in front of a TV crew, or celebrities try to outgross each other. This is reality recreated by a computer for the sake of a judge and jury.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI (voice-over): When a U.S. Marine jet clipped an aerial tram cable above an Italian ski resort, killing 20 people in 1998, it was hard to imagine how it could have happened, but when the incident came before a military court, there was no need to imagine.
(on camera): Jurors were able to put themselves in the pilot's seat?
ARTHUR GINSBURG, VISUAL FORENSICS: Well, with the simulation that was shown there, yes.
HATTORI (voice-over): Arthur Ginsburg's company, Visual Forensics, prepared a computer simulation, which helped exonerate the cockpit crew. It shows the pilot's view of the tram towers, which should have been marked on their map, but were not.
GINSBURG: You can't expect someone to really see something they don't expect to be there.
HATTORI (on camera): In these TV-friendly times, people are accustomed to getting information through video, so it's no surprise judges and juries are comfortable with computer simulations, called forensic animation, in court.
GINSBURG: They are increasingly common, because they are so powerful.
HATTORI (voice-over): And the animations are especially useful to explain complex issues, in cases like this one, which alleged a mechanical defect in the drive shaft of a utility cart.
GINSBURG: How the vehicle then rolled and the person was ejected and eventually killed.
HATTORI: Ginsburg has produced computer simulations for 10 years. He and his staff take great pains to make sure their recreations are true to the facts.
CARL BAHOR, VISUAL FORENSICS: We'll take photographs of that scene, of the vehicles, and we'll compare the simulation to those photographs.
HATTORI: Other information comes from police reports or experts who survey crime and accident scenes.
BAHOR: We'll gather as much data as we can about the scene and we'll enter it all into the computer, and we will then recreate what happened at that accident.
GINSBURG: Computer simulations, if they're properly done, have a scientific foundation.
HATTORI: And like any other evidence, it's subject to challenge by the attorneys. The recreations are so realistic they include things like shadows and sunlight, placed at angles corresponding to the exact time and location of the incident.
GINSBURG: This provides the best evidence and the best view that the juror might have of what this person was experiencing in an accident or an incident.
HATTORI: One thing you won't see -- faces or graphic crash scenes.
GINSBURG: We don't go through the crash sequence and watching cars crumble, et cetera. Same thing with pedestrian accidents. We don't show the pedestrian being hit. What we want to do is make sure we present the facts and don't provide any emotional bias.
HATTORI: Ginsburg says the recreations typically cost $10,000 to $20,000, but they could end up saving time and money. He says it's common for lawsuits to be settled before trial once both sides get a chance to see what actually happened.
GINSBURG: What we want to understand in the accident is where the causation lies, and if it's very evident early on, then it should not even go to trial.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Wireless computer networks have been heralded as one of the next big things. Whether at the office or at home, connecting without wires by radio waves is convenient, but are these networks private? A cautionary tale from Hong Kong, where, as Kristie Lu Stout reports, 70 percent of the city's networks are vulnerable.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On board the Hong Kong tram, road warriors can commute in comfort, with just enough room to bring up a laptop and begin the hunt for wireless networks.
PETER MARKS: Just on one trip home, I discovered 112 networks, and about half of them have no security enabled at all.
STOUT: It's called war driving, cruising neighborhoods and city streets in search of wireless access points..
(on camera): Just pick up a notebook with a wireless LAN card and scanning software, and you're off. You, too, can war drive the city in search of free broadband and unprotected networks.
(voice-over): There are free programs which can pick up the name and signal strength of nearby networks, and with a few keystrokes, a war driver can jump onto any open system.
(on camera): For those access points where the encryption has been turned off, is that just an open invitation for intruders?
MARKS: Pretty much. Unless it's been set up with some sort of a log-in screen, perhaps (UNINTELLIGIBLE) or something. And basically you can log into that, and your laptop is on their corporate network.
STOUT (voice-over): A chance to sift through the e-mail and private files of those companies using wireless LANs.
The technology allows workers to keep a network link without being tethered to a cable. Wireless LANs are popping up in coffee shots, airports, and offices around the world, often installed with inadequate security.
In a recent war driving exercise, Hong Kong's Professional Information Security Association, sniffed out 144 access points in the city, of which 77 percent had encryption turned off.
WO SANG YOUNG: This (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is quite close to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in the U.S. or (UNINTELLIGIBLE). So it isn't really a surprise to us. (UNINTELLIGIBLE). What surprised us is that there are really many people who are using the wireless network already.
STOUT: And unaware that the latest networking trend has opened hundreds of wireless holes in the sky.
MARKS: It doesn't worry me if I was just somebody who's just driving along, but if I was a businessman putting in a wireless network, then yeah, I think what it says is that even though you don't think it goes outside your own building, they do, in fact, leek out through windows and just across the street. STOUT: IT experts suggest installing a virtual private network. It's a better secured wireless LAN. Not every solution is fail-safe, but making it seem strong could be enough to shake off those war drivers on the prowl.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up in our next half-hour, velcro mittens help babies get a grip, and help researchers grasp some new ideas about human development.
And bridging the gap. Hong Kong engineers borrow an idea from the Chesapeake Bay. Those stories and much more are coming up in just a few minutes. First, we'll take a break and get the latest news from the CNN newsroom. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Welcome back to NEXT, from the nearly 900-foot long deck of the USS Hornet now a museum berthed here in Alameda, California. Speaking of humongous, one of the most massive, expensive and controversial engineering projects in history is taking shape in China. The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtzee River will be nearly a mile wide and more than 500 feet tall. Construction began in 1994, and continues in spite of objections from some environmental and human rights group. Kurt Aschen (ph) has an update.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KURT ASCHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By June of next year, this will all be gone, the old city of Tsugvai (ph) in China's Hubai province will be under water, a casualty of the Three Gorges Dam project. Tsugvai (ph) is one of more than 100 towns that will disappear forever once the dam is completed in 2009. The city's 40,000 residents have a constant reminder of what's to come. A pile of rubble is all that's left of homes belonging to those who have already relocated. The homes of those who remain will soon follow.
But some welcome the change
WANG XIRUI, FARMER (through translator): I farmed before to feed my family. However, we could not grow enough food because there was not enough land and there were too many people. After I moved to this new place, I went out to work and made more money. So our life is better than before.
ASCHEN: Residents of the new, relocated city of Tsugvai (ph) will also be treated to some familiar sites. Experts are working feverishly to dismantle a handful of ancient Tsong and Minh dynasty temples, and carefully reassemble them in new homes. It's part of the $120 million government fund announced last year, to save more than 1,000 historical sites and monuments under threat. But experts worry the plan won't succeed.
XU GUANGJI, ARCHAEOLOGIST (through translator): The main difficulty for us is time is too tight. We have to work as much as we can. Money is not a problem after the government approved the plan.
ASCHEN: More than a million people will lose their homes and farmland once the dam is completed. Critics say the government's compensation and relocation plans are insufficient.
But Beijing says the dam will become a vital source of energy for China, as welt as tame the Yangtzee River, long known for massive flooding. The vision comes at a cost for those who are affected.
XIANG MING (through translator): Everyone was crying when we left old Tsugvai (ph) for the new, but what else could we do? We have to lose our home to help the nation.
ASCHEN: A nation where development is more rapid than ever before.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Hong Kong is no stranger to rapid development, and now it's debating whether to build a mega bridge to the nearby island of Makao. The project would boost business in both cities, and make travel to mainland China much easier. CNN's Andrew Brown reports on what it will take to make that engineering dream come true.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The mighty Ching- Ma (ph) bridge was built to serve Hong Kong's International Airport, but engineers are now pondering an even more ambitious goal, linking this spectacular infrastructure with a much longer bridge that would span a 29-kilometer river estuary and connect Hong Kong with Makao, the former Portugese enclave famous for casinos and racy bars.
This plan is the brainchild of Sir Gordon Wu, a Princeton- educated engineer, who wants passionately to join up cities in southern China, and says a bridge to accomplish that is long overdue.
SIR GORDON WU, CHAIRMAN, HOPEWELL HOLDINGS: We have been late. We should have done it 20 years ago.
BROWN: The local business community in Makao and other investors have already pledged to help fund the bridge, which Wu says will cost $2 billion U.S. Makao is about to undergo a major facelift, with two of the big names in Vegas, the Venetian and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) resorts set to develop new casinos and hotels there.
The Hong Kong government will say only the project is needed, but is vague about commitment. Government engineers believe in theory, another suspension bridge could be constructed in the middle of the estuary.
EDMUND TSUI, HONG KONG HIGHWAYS DEPT.: You can do it, anchor it in the sea, but it will be more difficult.
BROWN: And even though Hong Kong officials are proud of this structure, which towers a dizzying 200 meters, more than 600 feet, above the South China Sea, Gordon Wu says it's potentially dangerous.
WU: All the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in China will not be driving on the bridge on a windy day, I'll tell you, because suspension bridges sway. So although on paper it looks safe, but no.
BROWN: Instead, Wu is proposing a low conventional bridge, which sits close to the water, and a tunnel that will run under the seabed, allowing ships to navigate the estuary.
WU: It's an exact replica of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel, which was built in Virginia and Maryland shores in 1964.
BROWN: Wu says his crossing can easily be hooked up to Hong Kong's Checklap Cog (ph), the biggest airport in the world in terms of international air freight, and it would link to the rest of Hong Kong via the Ching-Ma (ph) bridge, which is very versatile. It carries cars, trains. And...
(on camera): ... if you're feeling a little more adventurous, you could always walk along the main cable of this bridge. A journey from one tower to the opposite tower is about 1.5 kilometers, a mile or so. Have a feeling this isn't the quickest way to Makao and back, though.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, a way to get really up close and personal with your video game, TV show, or a movie.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: When Brazil held elections last weekend, the news wasn't just who won, but how they won. The entire country used a new electronic voting system. Harris Whitbeck reports on how it works, and why it worries some people.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The system is simple. The voter punches its candidate's number into a simplified computer terminal. A picture of the candidate appears on a small screen, and if it matches his or her preference, the voter confirms the choice by pressing another button. The results are either transmitted to a regional vote counting center by high-speed telephone lines or are recorded on a diskette in areas where there are no phones.
Officials say the system gives more people the opportunity to vote, even in the most remote areas of the country, because the urns are battery-powered. And that it makes for a rapid and foolproof counting of votes.
(on camera): Election officials say the new technology not only makes this system more efficient, it also makes it more democratic. In a country where nearly half the population is functionally illiterate, the easy-to-use balloting system makes voting less intimidating for the masses.
(voice-over): But electronic voting does have some critics. Some say it increases the chances of more invalid votes being cast, precisely because people aren't used to the technology.
He says the system still needs improvements to prevent less educated voters from misusing the electronic returns.
It is a system that has revolutionized voting in Latin America's largest democracy, and it might very well do that in other countries. The United States is only one of several nations taking a close look at the Brazilian voting technology.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Want a wide screen TV but just don't have the space or the money? In this week's "Technofile," Daniel Sieberg shows us one solution that's right before our eyes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG (voice-over): Your mom probably warned you not to sit too close to the television, but how about putting the TV show right in front of your eyes? The eye trek looks like a pair of virtual reality goggles, and it plugs into your portable DVD player, TV or VCR. It simulates a 62-inch screen as seen from a distance of 6.5 feet. Images are clear and rich in color, but the open sides can be distracting. Headphones attached to the frame provide a three- dimensional sound experience. The eye trek also has a remote that lets you control image and sound settings and set your own security password.
Power it up with its AC adapter or four AA batteries that will last up to three hours.
(on camera): Now, if you spend more time in front of the tube playing video games instead, another version of the eye trek works with Sony's Playstation 2. However, it's not recommended for those under the age of 16 whose eyes are still developing, excluding a great number of gamers.
(voice-over): It may also exclude a great number of buyers. With a price tag of $900 for the FMD-250 version, the Olympus eye trek may not become an eye-catching device.
I'm Daniel Sieberg, and that's "Technofile."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: For more on eye trek and other stories from our program, check out our Web site, cnn.com/next.
ANNOUNCER: Next up, think you've seen every use there is for velcro? Well, researchers have come up with a new one that might just make babies a little smarter.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Researchers in North Carolina are experimenting with sticky fingers. And no, it's got nothing to do with kleptomaniacs or eating barbecue. They're testing what happens when babies can pick up an object before they're really old enough to do it. Ann Kellan explains.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANN KELLAN, CNN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Something very interesting happens when velcro gets in the hands of three-month- olds. They get a little bit smarter about the world around them. Duke University's Amy Needham developed this unusual study; even caught the attention of "Tonight's Show's" Jay Leno.
JAY LENO, HOST, TONIGHT SHOW: And psychologists at Duke University say -- listen to this, any new moms out here -- psychologists say putting velcro mittens on babies helps them develop mentally quicker, because they can pick up objects and examine them more easily because of the velcro. And this is a plus, if you set them down on shag carpeting, they've can't crawl away.
KELLAN (on camera): So is velcro a big part of your life?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have no idea.
KELLAN (voice-over): Velcro, on shoes, bags, key chains, toys. Take a leap at an amusement park's velcro wall. What was life like without it? An easy catch with a velcro mitt. Works for big kids, why not infants.
Before their tiny fingers and thumbs can hold onto a block, it sticks to the velcro mitt, making infants more fascinated with objects sooner than they normally would be. Maybe it's because infants have more control over the object.
JARED NEWMAN, RESEARCHER: You really see a difference between without the gloves, and then when they do have the gloves on. It really gets them into, you know, manipulating the objects a little more.
KELLAN: Usually at this stage of life, infants focus on faces, not objects. But once the blocks stick to their mitts...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They look at objects more.
KEITH DARDEN: I don't know what it is about the flinging, but she really likes that. She's just -- the flinging thing.
KELLAN: It only takes a week or two for these results. Leanne and Johnny, for example, wore velcro mitts 15 minutes a day for a week. Before Needham and her team videotaped them, gloves on, then gloves off, playing with an object in a bouncy seat. They count how many times the infants look and touch the objects, compared to infants who have never worn the velcro mitt.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here's a baby who didn't have experience with the mittens at home.
KELLAN: She is less interested in objects, more focused on faces.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is looking sometimes at the experimenters.
KELLAN: Is being more object-oriented a good thing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, it's not looking at objects to the exclusion of people, it's just that he's looking at objects, too.
KELLAN (on camera): Now that you know that you could probably increase their ability to manipulate objects starting, what, a month or two earlier, what benefits? Why do we care about that?
PROF. ANY NEEDHAM, DUKE UNIVERSITY: Well, it's hard to say exactly what the benefits are. You know, some might argue that learning more about objects earlier would just sort of give them a head start in learning about the physical world around them.
KELLAN (voice-over): And velcro mitts might help those who have trouble grasping.
NEEDHAM: Maybe that older babies, and even young children maybe, who have motor deficits, who still don't have the ability yet to reach out and grabs an object may benefit from these mittens.
KELLAN: Does that mean all infants should don velcro mittens?
NEEDHAM: I don't think of this as a fantastic parenting tool, necessarily. I think it could be a fun toy, if it's something that your baby is interested in it. But I don't think your baby is just not complete without the experience with these mittens.
KELLAN (on camera): This is starting them young on velcro, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Plus, you know, to babysit them, you put a little bit of velcro there and stick them to the wall.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: More news now about babies. Twin Siberian tiger cubs at the Berlin Zoo have made their public debut. The unusual thing about these cubs, according to their caretaker, they are being raised by both their mother and father. Usually male Siberian tigers would rather be alone, but the father in this family is very tolerant, it seems, even when the cubs playfully climb on him. It's estimated there are only a few hundred Siberian tigers left in the wild.
ANNOUNCER: Up next, she can read, tell time, do math. Is this a doll or a computer?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HATTORI: Finally this week, what's the old saying about the bigger the boys, the bigger the toys -- perhaps appropriate for these vintage Navy jets, but little kids have always interacted with their dolls and teddy bears. But the current crop of toys brings a lot more to the table, like artificial intelligence. Kristie Lu Stout has the story of a doll that may be too smart for its own good.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STOUT (voice-over): This is not your ordinary doll. She can talk, she can hear, but above all, she can actually see.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cindy, can you read this?
"CINDY": B, U, B, B, L, E, bubble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you read this one?
STOUT: Meet Cindy Smart, the latest creation from Hong Kong's Manley toys. Cindy will retail in the U.S. for $99, the price for a doll loaded with a micro processor, microphone and digital camera.
BOB DEL PRINCIPE, MANLEY TOY OUTLET: So what she does is she will take the images into the camera, and then her computer will try to figure out what the image is. She has kind of a database of all kinds of things, like the alphabet and numbers and words and pictures, and she matches those two up, just like you would.
STOUT (on camera): Cindy Smart can read, tell time, even run through her multiplication tables, proof that some pretty cool technology can be found in the play room.
(voice-over): More toy manufacturers are tinkering with artificial intelligence, computer graphics and speech synthesis, creating cutting edge toys for today's tech-savvy kids. According to NPD FunWorld, Americans spent more than $11 billion on electronic toys and games last year, but an embedded chip is still no guarantee for success.
FRANK YU, HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY: If a toy just as a novelty or as a gadget factor, or it's just something that no one has ever seen, it will be the talk of the playground for maybe a day or two days, but to be a perennial classic, it has to have something substantial about it.
STOUT: Manley manly believes its creation has that X factor, since Cindy is also a learning tool.
PRINCIPE: Cindy, do you know the answer?
"CINDY": Seventy-three divided by six equals 12, remainder 16.
PRINCIPE: Remainder 16.
"CINDY": I've got it.
STOUT (on camera): That's pretty precise. Now, do kids use her to do their own homework?
PRINCIPE: I think so.
STOUT (voice-over): A dream doll that does as she's told, a trait some may find just a little bit spooky.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want my toys really watching over here, or telling my parents what I'm doing. And so to a degree, if I was a child, I want toys, but I don't want my toys to be more intelligent than me.
STOUT: Cindy is amazingly precocious and may one day be able to read stories, even recognize faces. But that, says her creator, is nothing to be scared of.
PRINCIPE: She hasn't got a bad microchip in her body. Everything is very positive. She always helps you. If she doesn't know the question, she asks in a very friendly way, "can you help me?"
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: OK, I know what you're thinking, forget the dolls, will those computer chips fit inside your kids?
Well, playtime for us is over. Here's a look at next week's program. Thing sparrows are sweet little creatures? Well, think again. We'll show you what happens when male sparrows vie for attention of females.
Plus, we'll look at the world of wireless from a mobile computing industry's annual convention in Las Vegas. That plus a lot more coming up on NEXT.
Until then, let us hear from you. 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 at the USS Hornet Foundation. They restored this grand old vessel.
For all of us on the sci-tech beat, I'm James Hattori. We'll see you next time.
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