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Come through, Chris. Yeah, cheers, mate.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage Chris McCausland!
CHEERING
I suppose people will know me as a stand-up comedian.
And, of course, Strictly Come Dancing,
you know, where I...
I was all right, weren't I?
CHEERING
What people mightn't know about me is, before getting into comedy,
going back well over 20 years,
my background's in computers,
and I've got a degree in software engineering.
And I am a geek!
Since losing my sight, technology has been a game-changer
in opening up the world to me,
helping me to navigate the everyday.
Can you tell me which T-shirt this is, please?
But there is amazing technology out there
that I am yet to experience.
So, I'm heading to America, land of the tech giant,
to get my hands on some of the latest technology
that will be changing things for everyone.
From trying out a self-driving car...
Oh, this is bananas.
..to finding out how AI can bring me a whole new level of independence.
What album's this one?
This is David Bowie's album.
The possibilities of the future are exciting.
This was considered, I thought, impossible technology.
Wow. I mean, so this is the future, really, isn't it?
But can I really put my full trust in tech?
Proceeding on San Francisco bicycle route 86.
Oh, we're on a bicycle route.
And am I ready to put more dependence on technology?
The problem with these is,
the last thing you need is a blind man who can walk faster.
We are about to find out.
I could do with a coffee, I tell you that.
Let's grab a coffee.
I have a degenerative eye condition.
I wasn't born blind - I used to be able to see -
but over the first 25 years of my life,
my sight deteriorated.
People say, "When did you go blind"? and it's difficult to say,
because you stop being able to do different things at different times.
I'm 48 now, so I've, you know...
It's hard to put a date on it,
but I've been blind since about 25.
For a while, I had a guide dog,
and I also used to use a white stick,
but I wasn't very good at that.
I always have to trust somebody to navigate me around,
if I'm walking somewhere.
Up, through the door.
I always have to trust that somebody is giving me the correct information
if I ask them to read me something.
What have we got? What do you fancy?
Got sandwiches, rolls, shepherd's pie.
What sort of thing do you fancy? Oh...
See, I love an omelette and I love a shepherd's pie,
but I'm not sure I want to be eating one on camera.
It just becomes part of life, doesn't it?
And I suppose really, what I'm doing is I'm shifting
some of that dependence and trust over to technology.
Going back 20, 30 years,
somebody like myself would've had to use specialist technology
specifically designed to provide accessibility.
And then, the iPhone came out,
with a feature of the operating system
that reads the things out to you.
Speech on. Just press record.
See, I mean, this is the newest iPhone.
It's still on there today. It's still called Voiceover.
So, you would touch an icon to activate it. Yeah.
Yeah? I would swipe through them.
Month Cal, Google Maps, Seeing AI, Aira Explorer.
These are all the apps I've got, but, er... ChatGPT Voice.
ChatGPT... ..ChatGPT, Perplexity...
These are all AI apps.
..Instagram, four new items... Instagram.
I very rarely go on there. ..Utilities folder...
You know, if I want... It speaks very fast.
It does, so I've sped that up.
When you buy it, you know,
this is the speed it comes at in the box, yeah?
Seeing AI, Aira Explorer, X, Instagram,
four new items... Yeah? Yeah.
"Instagram, four new items..."
And you very quickly get used to that,
and it starts to drive you mad.
So... ..action, voices, speech volume...
..so you speed it up. 50, 60, 60, 70%.
Yeah? Yeah. Some people have it very fast.
PHONE SPEAKING RAPIDLY Yeah?
Let's dial it down a bit.
A phone with a glass screen and no buttons.
It seems so fundamentally exclusionary to someone who's blind,
but it is - it became the most accessible tool I've ever used.
It allows you to do your texts, your emails, read the news,
access the train times, buy your train tickets,
buy things online.
Everything that everybody else can do conveniently through
the phone is accessible to me.
A lot of the things that people identify with blindness -
like having a white stick -
technology has replaced a lot of them, for me,
in that I don't have to go to the shop to get a pint of milk
and a loaf of bread, because I can have one brought
to the house in 30 minutes.
Apple made those first steps,
but Google soon released its own version called TalkBack.
Now it's not just smartphones that have accessibility features
built in, but loads of consumer tech,
like TVs, and even games consoles.
It's a leveller, and that's the biggest game-changer.
The fact that I do everything now the same as everybody else is
what is exciting about it,
because before things like the smartphone,
"just like everybody else" was not possible.
Mainstream technology is for everybody, in a lot of cases,
and that's what's exciting.
It feels like we are invited into the club, you know,
the doors have been opened.
The smartphone really started something for me,
and now, technology is only getting better and better,
offering greater levels of access and autonomy.
Since then we've seen a boom in technology,
from development of new software and apps,
to the rise of gadgets like smartwatches.
Artificial intelligence is now driving another push
in technological advancement -
which for some is frightening,
but for me is very exciting.
You all right, mate? You good? OK, yeah.
There are technological innovations happening all over the world,
but we are heading to America,
home to many of the world's biggest tech companies,
and some of the most exciting gadgets on the planet.
We are going to San Francisco.
We're going to go check out the latest in, erm,
what is on the horizon,
in terms of AI and self-driving cars.
They've actually got them!
I'm excited about the trip.
I'll be more excited when I'm at the other end of this flight.
I don't like the turbulence. I can't relax.
I can't sleep, because I can't see how normal the stewards look
in the cabin, you know, how much they're not bothered by it.
In my head, everybody's panicking.
The bay area of San Francisco is an area that's long been associated
with cutting-edge technology,
from the humble computer mouse
to the very latest in artificial intelligence.
Primitive forms of AI have been around since the 1950s,
but in the last few years, it's exploded.
KNOCK ON DOOR DOOR OPENS
Hey, mate. Hello, how are you doing?
Yeah, come in.
Like millions of users around the world,
AI assistance has become part of my daily life.
What's the weather like?
It looks pretty nice out there.
Erm, the sky seems clear, and it looks bright and sunny.
Seems like a lovely day. Not raining?
No, no rain in sight, from what I can tell.
It looks like a beautiful, dry day out there.
It's certainly becoming a thing I'm using more and more,
you know, each day.
The amazing thing is, this is as bad as it's going to be.
It's already incredible.
So, for a lot of things that I would, you know,
I would ask my wife or my daughter, "What does this look like?
"Can you describe it to me?"
Whereas now, I can use AI,
and I can get a lot of that information.
So, for example, if you can't see -
you know, unless you can feel that something is a specific item
of clothing, often you have to ask people,
or you have to mark them in some way, you know?
I've spent a lifetime cutting labels on things so that I know the one
with the cut-off label at an angle is the blue one.
With AI, just have it open and just show,
"Is this the blue one?" "No, it's green."
Can you tell me which T-shirt this is, please?
Just describe it for me.
Absolutely.
This T-shirt is a grey one with a graphic of a cassette tape on it,
er, and it says "Deftones" on the tape.
Good band, good band.
It's pretty nostalgic and fun. Love it.
HE LAUGHS
It's remarkable how much it's like talking to a real person.
And my wife never compliments my T-shirts.
AI assistance like this is built on large language models,
a form of AI that is trained on a vast amount of data,
from written articles to online images...
The first one looks like it's shampoo.
..in order to recognise the information we need,
and help it build realistic sentences in response
to questions that we ask.
Can you tell me what this is here, please?
Sure. That looks like a packet of decaffeinated coffee.
Which one are we wearing?
Can you look at my shirt here
and just tell me which colour it is that I've got?
And is it clean, and does it need ironing?
Sure, so the shirt you're holding up
looks like a dark navy colour.
It looks pretty clean, and there are just a few wrinkles,
so if you want it super-smooth, you might want to iron it quickly.
But overall, it looks great.
Clean, but wrinkly.
Whether browsing your social media feed
or asking your smart-speaker for a recipe,
most people will have used AI,
even if they don't know it.
I'm a convert to the assistance that artificial intelligence offers.
There are many that have concerns, though.
Trust, energy use, and overdependence are common arguments
aimed at the rapid growth of AI.
There have already been issues of AI learning from biased
or prejudiced data,
and there are fears that, with AI starting to create content,
the accuracy of information will begin to decline.
Like it or loathe it, though,
AI is now an integral part of technology.
There is now a real race to develop improvements
in artificial intelligence -
but it's the advances within hardware,
the physical products we use to access AI,
where it gets really exciting.
None more so than wearable tech -
and we've been given unique access
to one of the giants of the tech world to find out.
We are heading to Meta, the parent company of Facebook,
to have a little go of their new smart-glasses
and live video interpretation,
which sounds pretty groovy.
I think this is the start of what is going to be a massive game-changer,
you know, for anybody that can't see, really,
is using AI to describe your surroundings and what's going on,
and what you're interacting with in real time.
You know, it really is the start of mainstream technology
bridging that gap and becoming access technology,
you know, as well as something that everybody wants.
Unless you've been living under a rock,
you will know the name Meta.
The company that started in 2004 as "The Facebook"
was rebranded as Meta in 2021,
and now runs a whole host of social media platforms.
They are a company often criticised over privacy violations
and data management,
but their role in the development of technology is huge.
Meta is one of the biggest spenders on research and development
in the tech world, and in recent times,
they have moved into hardware.
Most exciting for me are their AI-powered smart-glasses.
So now, Chris, I want to take you into our Meta world. Yes.
THEY BOTH LAUGH I'm excited. Are you ready?
I'm looking forward to this, yes.
Your life will never be the same.
Maxine Williams has been with the company for 12 years,
and is now Meta's head of accessibility.
I want to show you these glasses.
I'm going to give you...a pair.
Right.
And here we go.
These are special limited edition,
only for the coolest people.
HE LAUGHS
Well, I'm afraid I'm lowering your standards here.
But it's incredible how much these have taken off, isn't it, you know?
Yeah.
I think what has really appealed to people is this form factor. Mm.
To be able to have your hands free and navigate the world.
You're right. I mean, the one thing that blind people never have
is two hands free. Right.
You know, you're holding on to the stick, the dog,
another person, you know? That's right.
It's the AI, that's what's exciting, inside these things.
Absolutely. I can't wait to have a go.
All right.
Evolving from a social media tool and AI assistant,
these glasses are now part of an accessibility push
into mainstream technology,
using microphones, speakers, a camera, and AI
to provide information about the visual world.
OK, so I'll hold this...
Usually the information the glasses give me would be
for my ears only, through discreet speakers in the frames -
but to help you understand what's happening, we've mic'd them up.
Alongside the ability to listen to music, take photos of friends,
or ask AI about the weather,
these glasses have two key visual AI features.
The first of these is describing photos,
just like with a phone, but much more practical.
Hey, Meta. What am I look at? GLASSES CHIME
The glasses take a photo, and the AI analyses it
against a vast amount of data to provide a description.
GLASSES CHIME
You are looking at a tree and a building.
The building is a large, modern structure with a sleek,
glass exterior.
It has a rectangular shape and appears to be several storeys tall.
The stills mode is available in the UK,
but what is not available at home, at the point of filming this,
is the second feature - live AI.
Start live AI.
Live AI session with video starting now.
What am I looking at now?
GLASSES CHIME
You are looking at a group of people,
some of whom are holding cameras.
They're filming me.
Do they look like they know what they're doing?
Yes. The people holding cameras appear to be professionals,
as they are using high-quality equipment and seem to be
focused on their work.
Well, there you go. He says you look professional.
Maybe this Meta AI doesn't know what it's on about after all!
In this mode, the camera and the microphones are constantly
taking in information, which means that the AI can provide
real-time descriptions in the moment
and answer any of my queries about the world around me.
It's pretty mind-blowing, really.
There's a body of water in the distance.
Any idea what that is?
It's a serene waterfront area with a grassy field, trees,
and a body of water in the distance, possibly a lake or a bay.
There we go.
I can hear a plane.
Yes, there's a plane flying overhead.
You can see that?
Yes. The plane is visible in the distance,
flying across the clear, blue sky.
When you have a disability,
you have to become dependent on other people -
and dependency can be exhausting.
Sometimes, y-you feel like a bit of a burden,
and you don't want to ask people too many questions.
You feel like you're using their time,
or you're relying on people too much -
whereas AI doesn't feel bothered,
and it's got as much time as it needs, hasn't it?
This is the first application of AI in a piece of hardware, really,
that is available for everyone to go and buy now that isn't a phone
or a computer, or a tablet.
Just by their very nature,
they have a usage to people like myself that goes beyond
what the general population would get out of them.
It's incredible, really, because I think, 15 years ago,
that wouldn't have been a consideration
from a company, you know?
Well, look, as exciting as this has been to get to try out the tech -
and I love trying out tech -
I couldn't give a hoot about flowers and bodies of water.
I want to go vinyl shopping and have a cheeseburger.
So, let's go and do that.
Perfect, let's go. HE LAUGHS
I can't believe I said "hoot". Who says "hoot"?
Music is a passion of mine, and has been since I was a kid.
Flicking through vinyls just isn't something I can do -
but with the hands-free form factor of these glasses
and the built-in AI, it could be.
I have no idea if this'll even work, but it's worth a try.
Now where's the rock section?
Hey, Meta, start live AI.
Live AI session with video starting now.
What album is this?
This is the album The Wall by Pink Floyd,
a classic rock album released in 1979.
What album is this?
This is the album The Wall by Pink Floyd,
a classic rock album released in 1979.
What about this one?
This is the album The Wall by Pink Floyd...
Oh, I don't think it is. ..a classic rock album.
It's got a little bit stuck on the thing.
Huh?
Ah.
Something's not working here.
My money's on me.
It seems I'm not quite getting the angles right.
And what's this one?
This is the album Paranoid by Black Sabbath.
Everyone owns that.
What's this one?
This is the album Master of Reality by Black Sabbath.
There we go.
All right, they aren't perfect,
but I'm still learning, and so is the AI.
But the independence they could offer is definitely worth
any teething problems.
So far, I've been asking direct questions -
but key to the glasses is their ability to understand context,
like with dinner menus, which could help me be less dependent
on those around me - like the crew -
who, for tonight, are going to be dependent on me and the glasses.
OK, guys. Listen, you've been reading everything to me,
so I'm going to order everybody's food.
This is not an offer to pay for any of you.
THEY LAUGH OK? You'll pay for yourselves.
LAUGHTER CONTINUES
All right, let's get going.
Hey, Meta, what's on the menu in front of me?
The categories on the
menu appear to be starters, salads, soup,
and Clam House specialities.
Er, what salads are there?
The salads listed on the menu are angry shrimp salad,
Clam House salad, mixed green salad.
OK, who wanted a salad?
I'll have a salad, please. I'd like a salad too.
Well, there's an arugula salad, a Clam House salad,
a mixed green salad, or a Caesar salad.
I'm going to go Caesar, please.
One Caesar salad.
Anybody else want a salad? No?
No, I'll go for a burger.
Meta, can you look at the menu and tell me if there are
any burgers on here?
GLASSES CHIME
OK, there's a Clam House burger with all the usual bits on it.
Erm, do you want that? I'll go for that, yeah.
With cheese? Yes, please.
So, one of them, two salads, Caesar salads.
You're having a burger. Yeah. I'm having a burger,
and, erm, there you go.
Mr Chris. Thank you very much.
Please enjoy. Thank you, thank you.
The potential for these glasses in terms of accessibility is clear -
but that is balanced around the accuracy of the information
the AI gives.
The experience I've had with them, though, makes me excited for
what AI might be able to offer me in the future.
One of the draws of coming to America is to try out something
I've been dreaming of for years -
a self-driving car.
San Francisco was one of the first cities in the world to roll out
autonomous vehicles for public rides,
and they are now available across the city.
That's right, there are cars on the street here with no-one
behind the wheel, which means you can be in a car totally alone -
something I've never been able to do.
This morning, I'm heading to a cafe
to meet my guide to the driverless revolution.
Today, you're going to come with me
to take a ride in a fully-autonomous vehicle.
You ready, babe? Let's go.
Jessie Wolinsky is a partially-sighted influencer
and an early adopter of autonomous cars,
who has collaborated with Waymo, a Google spin-off company
who operate public rides in San Francisco.
So, your eyesight, you can still see something, yeah?
You're not completely blind, but it's on its way out.
Yeah, yeah, it's degenerative.
So right now, I have like a very small amount of vision,
kind of like I'm looking through a toilet paper roll. Yeah.
Erm, and that amount of vision is fairly functional.
Technology is such an enabler for us, isn't it? Oh, yeah.
No, I mean, I feel like there's so much technology that we rely on.
How many times are you taking
a self-driving car at the moment, then?
I've probably taken at least 200, 300 rides, maybe more. Yeah.
With yourself being able to see a little bit... Yeah, yeah.
..you can find the car, and you can, you know,
you know where you are when you get out of the car.
But for someone who's completely blind...
Luckily the app does tell you, "700 feet to the right,
"600 feet, 500 feet," so it starts, like, counting that down
and letting you know.
And also, of course we can use our screen readers,
and that can audio... Yeah.
..obviously give you that information.
But also, finding the car,
there is a melody that you can play on the app,
and it'll start playing this light tone,
and you'll be able to hear it.
And if you can't hear that cos it's too loud,
you can also honk the horn.
We do not have anything like this in London.
Just driverless cars, it feels futuristic to me.
It's the present here.
I mean, it is the future. It does feel very futuristic.
It kind of feels unreal.
Well, I'm going to find out today.
I've got my phone here. I've downloaded the app.
It's just like any other ride-hailing app, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah, just like any other ride-share app.
You just type in your destination, and then, you're good to go.
Up to 100, your car can arrive in eight minutes. OK.
All right, well, it says we can have one in eight minutes, Jessie,
so I'll order that now. All righty, let's do it.
Let's get out of here. And off we go.
These cars are on the street for everyone to experience,
but they have been designed with accessibility for blind and
partially-sighted people in mind -
if you're happy to trust an AI robot driver, that is.
All righty. It's coming up on our left.
And you can see that, yeah? Yeah, yeah.
I can see a little bit of the door. Right, shall I slide across?
Yes, you can slide across.
Press the "start ride" button in your app. Let's do it.
When it's driving, is the steering wheel turning
like the Invisible Man's in the front? Exactly, yeah.
The steering wheel is moving normally.
It looks kind of crazy because, like, for me, I can see
a little bit of the steering wheel, and so, yeah,
it turns all over the place.
So, I mean, listen, I know this is meant to drive like a normal car,
but it feels like it's going at a proper speed. Oh, yeah, yeah.
No, it totally drives like a normal car.
It feels normal. Yeah.
Again, they're speaking to you. Yeah.
And they'll tell you again, like, "Oh, we're turning onto this street,
or, "We're going through a school zone,
"and that's why we're slowing down."
So, that does make me feel very comfortable,
cos it just talks to me. Yeah. No, I like that.
I like to know what's happening.
See, there you go.
It...it's bizarre.
I mean, I wish I could see this steering wheel turning.
I think that I find the most, like, independence here, and... Yeah.
..I was never able to get a driver's licence or anything like that,
so... Yeah.
At night, when I hail the Waymos, I'm night-blind,
so I can't see anything.
I have to use the audio cues.
So, I'm very, very confident that I'm able to use it,
even as I lose more and more vision. Yeah.
Yeah, this is me.
I'm heading out.
You're on your own now, bud. THEY LAUGH
This is what I've been waiting for.
HE CHUCKLES
Well, this is bananas.
First time I've ever been in a car on my own...that's moving.
Proceeding on Junipero Serra Boulevard.
It's hard to separate the idea of just doing this as part of
your daily life, in a car with no driver,
from the novel fact that I'm in a car with no driver
for the first time.
So, I'm sure this becomes a little bit second nature, really,
and you just get used to it, but...
Yeah.
The novelty of it is, erm, is a lot.
I mean, I don't know what I expected.
Of course it feels like any regular journey, but...
..it's still insane.
CAR CHIMES
You're here. Please make sure it's clear before exiting.
Well, thank you, invisible robot driver.
I'll be off.
Well, there we go.
Here you go, Chris. How was that?
It's pretty magical, really, innit?
HE CHUCKLES
These cars are stacked with the latest technology -
and for a geek like me,
I'm curious to find out how it all works.
On the outskirts of the city, just under the freeway,
lies the largest of Waymo's depots,
where the cars return themselves when not zipping humans about
from A to B.
David Margines is one of the company's top product directors,
and he's going to help me understand what makes this car so special.
It's a, you know, fairly standard mid-size SUV,
quite a stylish vehicle. Yeah.
We've made some changes to the vehicle to enable, er,
its functionality.
Across the entire vehicle, there are 29 cameras,
and those can do things like reading text on signs,
or understanding which lights on, say, a traffic signal are on -
red or yellow, or green.
Along the, top we have our main long-distance LiDAR.
It stands for Light Detection And Ranging,
and we have this LiDAR down here,
which can cover this whole area down near the wheel.
So, now I told you that you wouldn't be able to touch
the spinning thing right there. Yeah.
That must be really disappointing, since you can't see it.
So, I brought one... I want to touch everything, David.
Yeah, absolutely. HE LAUGHS
Well, we want to make sure that you can,
so I'm going to hand it to you. OK. Right?
So now, this part at the top in your left hand,
that's the part that's mounted to the car,
and then, you're able to spin this part. Ah!
Is it doing like a second a revolution, or...?
Oh, it does several times a second. Several times. Yeah.
Oh, so it's going fast? Oh, yeah, it's going quite fast.
It's literally getting updates constantly?
Yeah, cos we want a high refresh rate,
so that we can see things like motion. Yeah, yeah.
And that's kind of the active piece, right?
So, that's sending out laser beams, and then, it's measuring how long
it takes until it sees the reflection off of an object.
Then it uses the speed of light to figure out how far away, er,
that thing is.
And by doing that, it's able to build this 3D structure
of the environment around it.
Yeah, and that's where the AI comes in, to take those...
..the data it's reading back. That's exactly right.
The AI model is taking the LiDAR points and the pixels
from the camera, and the radar returns, and it's using all of those
together to predict the behaviour of all of the objects.
Then we can figure out how to safely go and traverse, you know,
the roads near all of this.
Not only carrying passengers, but travelling alongside
human-driven cars, the issue of how safe they are is a big one.
There have already been incidents of malfunctions and collisions
involving autonomous vehicles,
which concern many about their use.
For me, though, trusting a computer in a car is not massively different
from trusting a driver I don't know,
and I'm certainly excited by the freedom of being
in a car on my own.
It won't be long till we have autonomous vehicles on the streets
in Britain, after the UK Government changed rules to accelerate
their roll-out, with trials scheduled for spring 2026.
My time in San Francisco is over, and I'm off to the east coast -
specifically Boston.
I'm here because I've been invited to the world-renowned
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
to meet a tech inventor who is developing wearable robotics.
MIT has long been associated with developments in science
and technology that have been integrated into everyday life.
Computer passwords, electronic spreadsheets, GPS -
MIT played a part in all of them.
Here we are. Second floor.
This is the floor of my lab.
Hugh Herr is a biophysicist, who is a leading figure in
the development of bionic limb technology.
Here's my lab.
This is called the Biomechatronics Group.
Erm, it's a large volume... That's a cracking name, innit?
..really high ceilings. Yeah.
It's a mess, to be honest. Ha-ha!
And there's students working, and just robots and 3D printers,
and cameras all over the place.
So, the focus of this lab is we develop robots
that attach to humans.
So, we're obsessed with limbs. Yeah.
We're obsessed with arms and legs.
So, arms, we want to enhance people's abilities
to manipulate objects.
With legs, we want to enhance people's ability to run,
jump, walk, and so on. Yeah.
And we not only focus on persons with some type of limb condition,
but also persons with completely, quote-unquote, "normal" limbs.
And obviously, when you're talking about, you know, people with -
problem with limbs, you've lost your legs.
But I gained eight.
My closet has lots of artificial legs.
CHRIS LAUGHS
So, like, I've moved up in the world.
I was in a mountain climbing accident,
suffered frostbite to my lower legs.
Right. My biological limbs were amputated just below the knee.
Right. And I was fitted with artificial limbs,
and really not happy at the time with how low-tech they were.
Wooden blocks with some foam. Yeah.
Like, I'm not exaggerating. Yeah.
And I said to myself, "You've got to be kidding me.
"This is what exists in the age of space flight and the internet?
"Are you kidding me?" Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So really, at that time, I dedicated my life to advancing technologies.
Half the lab, we're trying to mitigate disability.
So, persons that have a limb amputation -
we do bionic reconstructions.
Or a person that suffered a spinal cord injury and has paralysis -
we build these smart, motorised exoskeletons,
or we stimulate the muscles to restore movement.
And then, the other half of the lab is augmentation,
extending human capability beyond innate physiological levels.
From the early development of his own prosthetic limbs
and his work with disability,
Hugh's lab has now moved into the mainstream,
with robotic systems that everyone can wear
to improve mobility - including me.
In front of you here is a mysterious black box with an exoskeleton.
We're actually the first group in the world to show that
we can augment human movement with a leg exoskeleton.
OK. So today you're, going to try this really cool hardware...
I'm going to try it? Yeah. OK.
..that'll put energy in your step. It's super-fun.
We describe these as an e-bike for legs.
Is it? OK, let's have a go. Cool. Absolutely.
I'm excited by this.
Yeah, I think you'll love it.
HE LAUGHS The future, right?
These exo-boots are designed to make walking and running
easier for everybody,
meaning there are use cases in daily activities and rehabilitation.
Just walk normally.
So, they're in a trans... transparent mode.
So, these are learning from the way I walk? Exactly.
Collecting data, developing a model for you.
And is it using AI for that? Some, yeah.
And how do I know when it's turned itself on?
You'll feel it. It feels like it's doing something different now.
Yeah, maybe.
Are you feeling energy?
You're walking faster.
Ha-ha-ha!
Oh, my goodness!
OK, now we're cooking on gas.
I can barely keep up with you.
THEY BOTH CHUCKLE
It feels like there's something under my foot, but it's...
It's the thing on the side... Yeah, which is...
..almost contracting and pulling my foot up.
Yeah, which is a motor and a transmission system
that's applying a torque, a lot of mechanical power
about your ankle joint. Yeah.
So, it's an equivalent mechanical action as your calf muscle,
so it's a robotic calf muscle.
And can we clear a space, and me just do a walk down there
and back on my own with these, yeah? Absolutely. Let's go this way.
We'll turn you around. Yeah, yeah.
Can you shout "stop" if there's a balcony or an open window?
OK.
OK, to your right. Go to your right. Good.
You're good.
Beautiful. Give us a shout!
Come to me. I'm coming, Hugh!
THEY LAUGH
That's great. I mean, what a bizarre sensation.
It's quite remarkable, the, erm, sensation.
You look like you're starting to dance. Huh?!
Are you starting to dance?
I spent four months dancing at the end of last year.
I, erm, I find myself just doing
little pirouettes at home these days.
But this is, erm, this is the future.
This is what you see... The future of human mobility.
It's exciting that this is where the future's going.
For me, I would love this to be matched up with something
that allowed me to navigate myself, as well, and solve a problem
that I have, which is getting around, independence.
I think there's always something to be said for matching technologies
together to solve problems that maybe people hadn't considered
when they developed them.
It's exciting, and this is just the start of it.
Pioneering tech that can help outside the body is one thing.
But there is a large field of work looking at using tech
inside the body.
There have already been trials of chips that can be implanted
to treat specific conditions - including sight loss,
where they have enabled people to regain a small amount of sight,
which is something that I wouldn't consider - yet.
There is a world where technology could restore eyesight, but I...
I think it's one of those things that it would have to be...
..it would have to be good enough to be life-changing.
It would have to be enough to provide true...independence,
make a real difference.
When you're in the last dregs of your eyesight, you know,
you're always trying to cope with something that
isn't good enough any more.
If you were to say, do you want enough sight back
that I had when I was 20?
Not really, no, because, you know, having to depend on
a small amount of eyesight...
..can be more problematic than it's worth.
Here at MIT, they have made a breakthrough that could change
health care for all of us.
Led by Professor Deblina Sarkar, a trans-disciplinary innovator,
they are bridging the gap between nanotechnology
and synthetic biology.
At the Nano-Cybernetic Biotrek lab - what a name -
Deblina and her team are using the very latest in nanotechnology
to do something only previously conceived of
in science fiction movies.
Here, they are developing minuscule devices that are smaller
than a human cell, and invisible to the naked eye.
The aim is to inject them into the body to treat various conditions
without the need for surgery.
It's the coolest name for a lab, first of all.
Oh, thank you so much.
Nano means small, and cybernetic means chips that work with
the human body - and biotrek, I'm guessing,
means they travel inside the body. Am I close?
Er, you're very, very close, yeah. THEY BOTH LAUGH
So, you're probably one of the first person to, you know,
get the name, like, right.
I've been practising it outside for three hours. Oh!
So, yeah, nano means small - specifically it means nanometre.
Yeah. So, if we take a strand of hair and divide
the thickness 10,000 times...
A 10,000th of a hair?
It's very, very tiny, things which you cannot see with the naked eye.
Wow. I mean, so this is the future, really, isn't it? Yeah.
Actually, the goal of my lab is to fuse these nanoelectronics
with biology for health care. Yeah.
Specifically to reduce human suffering and treat diseases, er,
such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's.
The hope is that the devices Deblina is creating can be targeted
to specific parts of the body, travelling through the bloodstream
and implanting themselves where needed,
then tuning the body's electrical signals to restore the function
of damaged cells, and potentially slow the spread of disease.
So far, it's only been tested in animals,
but the possibilities of this tech are revolutionary.
Our first thing that we are doing
is treat diseases related to the brain.
Brain cancer, for example.
What we have shown in our animal work is that,
by precisely modulating bioelectricity...
You stop it growing. ..in the tumour environment,
you can actually completely halt the growth of tumour.
I want to scale this technology and get it to clinic
as soon as possible, but we are also doing it, like,
very responsibly, as well.
We really want to make sure that, you know,
when you go to clinical trials, you know, it's something...
Best chance of success. ..that can really work, right?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Now it's time, really, to scale it up... Yeah.
..do the implementation now, like, get the FDA approval,
so that we can start the clinical trials, we believe,
in the next three years.
Three years? Yeah.
This is a documentary in itself, isn't it?
While her early work has related to cancers,
another area that Deblina is researching is using
these nano-devices to treat sight loss.
I've got an eye condition, a disease -
so the retinal cells die off slowly over time.
So, these nanochips that you're creating,
would they almost be something
that would replace photocells in the eye, or...?
If you're talking about my condition...
Yeah, absolutely.
Because these devices can harness this light that falls on the eye,
they can convert it into electrical signals,
which can be sent to the brain.
So, though those specific cells are destroyed,
we can actually send information a person would otherwise see
to the brain.
So, it totally bypasses those degraded cells.
It is possible that a person can still get the vision back,
even when those cells have been destroyed.
Each of these devices or chips
would almost individually replace photoreceptor cells?
Yes. So, a lot of them would be sent in...
Yes. ..to attach to a retina.
Yeah. The resolution we can get is, in fact, even better than what
a person with eyesight can, you know, resolve.
So, you're saying not only do you reckon,
at some point in the future you could restore my vision,
but you could make my sight better than everybody else's?
Exactly! You can augment humans beyond what biology provides.
And we can do other things -
like we can add night-vision, for example.
BOTH LAUGH
It does sound like crazy science fiction, though.
It's like... Yeah. ..to say we've got devices 10,000th the size of -
the width of a human hair, you can put it in the body,
it knows where it's going,
it knows what it's doing when it gets there... Yeah.
..and it can fix problems, make you see,
make you think better, cure diseases.
Deblina and her team are yet to undertake human trials,
but if they can show the same encouraging results
they did in their animal work, then this could be game-changing -
not just for me, but for all of us.
And that is something I did not expect to find when I set out.
I've always been of the opinion that,
if you're going to restore sight, you need to do it biologically,
because you're restricted by technology, you know?
You don't want something that's going to be obsolete.
Erm, but I'd never really considered that technology could be used
on a cellular level.
Erm, so it-it's...
It's something I'd never considered in that regard before.
I came into this thinking it was the far future -
and it's not as far as we thought, is it?
It's kind of just around the corner.
We've looked at everything that's there at the minute,
and what we are on the cusp of.
And the thing about all of this technology,
it's an enabler, isn't it?
It gives you independence and autonomy.
For me, it makes the differences of disability so much smaller.
And if you can achieve things and do things on your own -
and when I say on your own,
the extension of AI and computers counts as on your own -
then that's a good thing, isn't it?
Are you excited about the possibilities of the future?
I mean, yeah. Let's do another documentary,
and we'll come here and, erm,
we'll let her inject me, high-resolution night-vision,
and then, I'll kick your arse at Laser Quest.
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