is brought to you by PeakNutritionLabs.com A team of international researchers working on the development nutritional suppliments for improving health and longevity.

PeakNutritionLabs.com And by Swiss International Airlines.

Flying to over 70 worldwide locations.

Truly Swiss made.

Swiss International Airlines.

And by the BMW European Delivery Program, a way to experience the roads that BMW was made to drive.

BMW European Delivery Program.

♪ Oh yes, wait a minute Mr. Postman.

♪ ♪ Hey, Hey, Hey ♪ Mr. Postman ♪ Hey Mr. Postman look at me ♪ Whoa yeah.

♪ Please, please, Mr. Postman.

♪ Whoa yeah.

♪ There must be some word today.

♪ ♪ From my boyfriend so far away.

♪ ♪ Please Mr. Postman, look and see ♪ ♪ Is there a letter, a letter for me?

♪ ♪ I've been standing here waiting Mr. Postman.

♪ ♪ So, so patiently.

♪ For just a card or just a letter ♪ ♪ Say he needs me turn it onto me ♪ ♪ Please Mr. Postman.

The challenge of sending a direct communication between two specific places over a great distance has been around for thousands of years.

They've used drums.

Even Alp horns were tried.

(horn music) A major problem with all of these systems was the impact of weather and visibility and also the fact that somebody else might be reading your secret message.

A major improvement in communication took place with the introduction of electromagnetic technology.

The telegraph, the telephone, telex machines and radio.

Don't make a move.

This is a stickup.

What?

You heard me Mr... Mr.

Put down that gun.

Shut up.

Shut up.

Now, come on.

Your money or your life.

Look, bud I said your money or your life.

I'm thinking it over!

But the biggest breakthroughs in communication came from the Internet, the computer and the mobile phone.

In 1804, a French weaver by the name of Jacquard began to use cards with punch holes in them to tell his weaving machines what to do.

He invented programing.

The holes in the card told the loom how to weave various patterns.

Different cards produced cloth with different patterns.

The card had automated a complex system.

Once the cards were punched, the design was set and the machine carried out the design automatically.

20 years later, Charles Babbage developed the first computer.

He was an English mathematician and inventor.

In the 1830's, he began designing his analytical engine, but it never got made.

What did get me was his difference engine, which made a great difference in the way lists of numbers were developed.

At the time, tables often contained errors, which created a life and death situation for sailors at sea.

This difference engine assured their accuracy.

When one of the wheels turned from 9 to 0, it caused the next wheel to advance one step.

It handled a number of calculations to solve a complex problem.

It had a place where data was held and it could stamp its results on a soft metal plate.

The plate could be used to print the information.

It was clearly an early computer.

Augusta Ada King, the Countess of Lovelace, was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron.

Her mother Anne Millbank encouraged Ada's mathematical and scientific interests.

Lady Lovelace began hanging out with Babbage and his pals.

She was fascinated by the analytical engine and became an expert at ordering the instructions on the punch cards.

You could make a case that she was the first computer programmer.

During the next 70 years, various forms of computers were developed to deal with specific problems.

The computer's built during the second World War were built to meet specific objectives.

The work in England was primarily focused on codebreaking.

The activity in the United States was about computing projectile trajectories and calculations for the atomic bomb.

These early computers had a central processing unit that was connected to distant terminals.

It was possible to exchange data between remote computers, but point to point communication between two specific computers was limited.

In addition, the technology was considered unsafe for sensitive information.

After the war, efforts focused on the idea of a general purpose computing device.

In 1980, Microsoft introduced MS-DOS, and a year later, IBM offered the first personal computer for home and office use.

Three years later, Apple began selling the Macintosh.

During the 1950s, computer scientists began thinking about time sharing between computers and the possibility of doing this over long distances.

In 1969, the US Department of Defense awarded a contract for the development of a computer network.

I live a few miles away from a research center known as CERN.

In 1990, a computer scientist working at CERN by the name of Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web.

The result has been near instant communication by electronic mail, two way interactive video calls, blogs, social networks and online shopping.

The Internet now carries more than 97% of global telecommunication information and misinformation.

A mobile phone is a telephone that can make and receive calls using a radio link while the user is moving within a designated service area.

They were an essential part of the communications network during World War Two.

After the war, they were introduced for use in cars.

Give me Adams 26635.

During the late 1960s, one of the guys I worked with gave me a mobile phone and asked that I take it with me as I traveled around town.

The thing was huge and it a weighed a ton and was very uncomfortable to move with.

And for some reason though I can't explain it, I just kept forgetting to take it with me.

The first call using a prototype for a somewhat modern handheld mobile phone, was made in 1973 by Martin Cooper, who worked at Motorola.

He called Joel Angley, his rival at AT&T.

Cooper's phone weighed two and a half pounds, had a maximum talk time of 30 minutes, and took 10 hours to recharge.

These days, the state of the art is known as the smartphone.

It handles emails, gaming, digital photography, Internet access, music and satellite navigations and about a hundred other features, some of which are extremely valuable and some of which are extremely annoying.

Today, the top smartphone developers worldwide are Samsung, Apple and Huawei.

The company with the largest number of mobile phone users is China Mobile.

They have over 900 million subscribers.

Worldside, there are more than 7 billion mobile phone users.

When you have a mobile phone connected to the Internet with access to the most advanced computer technology, you have a piece of equipment that can change the world.

And that is exactly what is happening now.

Let me give you a few examples.

Years ago, I filmed a story about a group of ski instructors who taught handicapped children to ski.

Trained instructors in modified equipment, allow people to meet the challenges of sports that had previously been inaccessible.

Claude-Alain Hofer worked for the Swiss Association for Paraplegics, taking groups on trips throughout Europe.

Claude-Alain: On the wintertime, we have uni-ski.

That's for the paraplegic people or humped at people.

We have the dual ski.

Dual ski is the same with two ski, and this one we use for quadriplegic.

And then we have the foto-ski, and this one is for strong handicapped people.

And so when people are just sitting and I drive on the back.

Young Boy: When I came to Villar I heard there was a concept here And so I ask if I can do like everybody else.

And when I start, I liked it.

And then so I continue.

It feels like a good feeling.

Burt: I'm just beginning to lear to ski.

Mostly I'm scared.

Don't be scared.

Don't be scared.

I'll try not to be okay.

I'll use you as an example.

Recently I came across a team that was developing a system that would allow a blind skier to race down the slopes by herself.

It's pretty amazing.

The skiers name is Noemi Ristau.

She's a member of the German Paralympic team.

Normally, she skis with her instructor, Paula Brenzel.

Paula gives her commands through an amplification system and guides her through her body movements.

They came up with the idea of placing a cell phone on top of Noemi's helmet.

It records images of what is in front and around her as she skis down the slope and then sends those images to a control room at the bottom of the slope.

Go!

(Forein language) Her guide was able to see the images and send back vocal instructions about what to do.

The most challenging aspect of the project was the speed necessary for the transmission of the images and the instructions.

Even a 1 second delay would mean that the instructions would arrive too late.

They ended up using mobile edge computing and placing the server in their base station.

The information was now moving at a speed of ten milliseconds.

To place that in context, a blink takes 200 milliseconds.

Noemi's information is traveling at ten milliseconds.

That's the speed of the human nervous system.

Just another example of what modern communication technology can do.

♪ I can see clearly now ♪ the rain has gone.

Every day, 11,000 babies are born with a vision problem.

The World Health Organization estimates that there are almost 20 million children with some form of visual impairment.

A million and a half of them are totally blind.

And most of these cases are preventable or curable.

The timing of the diagnosis and treatment is the key to the child's future.

These days, less than one third of these children are receiving early treatment.

Clear vision helps the child figure out how life works, how to interact with others.

It's often important to our understanding of how someone else feels.

I have firsthand knowledge of the problem.

One of my sons was born with a lazy eye.

It's an eye that kind of wanders in and out.

Usually it develops between birth and age seven.

It could be treated with an exercise program or eyeglasses or a patch.

But if you don't treat it, it can easily develop into permanent vision damage.

The trick is to catch it as early as possible.

At present, the technique that is used with children to spot a vision problem has a doctor sitting in front of the child while the child concentrates on different objects.

The doctor looks at the child's gaze reaction and estimates how the child's vision is working.

This is a complex procedure that requires an expert ophthalmologist, and even then the results can be unreliable.

To deal with the problem, DIVE medical was formed.

It's an organization in Spain.

They're using artificial intelligence to develop a program that can be used to spot vision problems in young children.

It's very expensive, and they plan to test it all over the world.

The system has a color touchscreen that displays things that a young patient would follow with their eyes.

It uses eye tracking to follow the movement of the child's eyes.

That information is used to develop an early diagnosis and a plan for following up with the patient.

Great progress, but the system still needs an ophthalmologist or an optometrist to interpret the information that the DIVE exam provides.

Even in wealthy countries, there are not enough specialists to make early eye care a reality.

And the situation is even worse in financially stressed areas in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

At one point, DIVE realized that they could train artificial intelligence algorithms to provide a comprehensive screening solution that could be used by anyone.

And using Bluetooth technology, they were able to connect the DIVE system to the phones.

The system displays a series of images on a computer screen and at the same time tracks the child's focus with an eye tracker.

And information is sent to the smartphone.

The smartphone runs a program that can spot a vision problem.

This new medical device produces an automatic, fast and accurate result, even for babies who are not very involved in the process.

Like most A.I.

systems, the more you use it, the smarter it gets.

Right now, medical institutions in Spain, Vietnam, Russia, Mexico and China are starting up the DIVE technology, gathering information to train the AI algorithm.

It's interesting, they took vision, which is one of the oldest forms of communication, and paired it up with a smartphone, which is one of the newest.

Nice job.

NASA: In behalf of the SDS 134 crew and the Expedition 27 crew.

Space Station Assembly is complete.

Burt: Each day the International Space Station orbits the Earth 15 times at a speed of 17,000 miles per hour.

From its height of 240 miles above the earth, they can get a pretty good look at what's going on down here.

And one of the things it's beginning to look at are the changing habitats and habits of animals around the world.

It's tracking and reporting information about the location and movement of wildlife and the health of our planet's ecosystem.

The station is also able to track animals across most of the planet.

Eventually, people will be able to log on to the Internet of Animals with their smartphones and see what's happening with their favorite animals in real time.

In fact, we already have one.

It's called the eBird.

It's an online database of bird observations that provide real time information about bird distribution and their activities.

Studying animal behavior is important to the protection of specific species, but it can also be helpful for protecting us.

For centuries, as we've known that animals sense danger before we do and they can warn us.

A recent study of cows, domestic goats and sheep in Italy clearly indicated that the animals were able to sense earthquakes and volcanic eruptions before they happened.

At which point, the herd moves to a safer place.

In 79 A.D., Mount Vesuvius erupted and destroyed the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.

They should have spent more time attending to their sheep.

Ewes are smarter than you think.

Another organization involved in protecting animals in the wild is the Rainforest Connection.

It's a nonprofit organization that uses reconditioned mobile phones to hear what's going on in the forest and to spot illegal logging.

The head of the organization is Topher White.

Topher: In the summer of 2011 as a tourist, I visited the rainforest to Borneo for the very first time.

And as you might imagine, it was the overwhelming sounds of the forest that struck me the most.

There's this constant cacophony of noise.

Some things actually do stick out.

For example this here is a big bird.

A hornbill.

A rhinoceros hornbill.

This buzzing is cicada.

This is a family of gibbons.

It's actually singing to each other over a great distance.

And so if we take the sound of the forest.

And we actually turn down the gibbons and the insects and the rest.

In the background, the entire time in the recording that you heard was the sound of a chainsaw at great distance.

And this sort of got me thinking that, in fact it would be possible to use the sounds of the forest, pick up the sounds of chainsaws programmatically, because people can't hear them and send an alert.

But you have to have a device to go up in the trees.

Burt: Apparently, the reliability of the phones made them ideal.

They were able to function nonstop for up to two years under difficult conditions.

I got to say, it's it's it's a constant challenge to figure out how to protect something inside of a rainforest.

It's a really bad place for electronics.

Burt: These days they are working on a fully integrated system in various rainforests throughout the world.

They developed an operating platform that had equipment to collect, store and analyze data.

Upgraded old mobile phones were at the heart of the system.

They collect the sounds and upload them to the cloud in real time.

This advanced artificial intelligence algorithm is able to identify the location of the sounds of the chainsaw or truck.

Then they notify the local rangers.

Fighting illegal deforestation is key to the protection of the rainforest.

They're also learning more about the animals.

They're building an artificial intelligence system that analyzes the sounds made by spider monkeys.

It provides information about their habitats and their habits and what can be done to help protect them and other endangered species.

Amazing that a bunch of old mobile phones could be reconditioned to listen to what's going on in the rainforest and help protect it.

Nice job.

The average American spends 24 hours a week on the Internet.

In contrast, the United Nations says that in developing countries, over 90% of the population has no access to the Internet.

So bringing in the Internet and computer skills is absolutely essential.

Having access to the Internet gives people a way to increase economic growth.

It helps the local government find information they need to make better decisions.

And it's an amazing educational tool for children.

Surrounded by hills, Nandi is a remote region in Kenya with a high concentration of family run farms.

Many locals have never used the Internet.

Some have never even heard of it.

People in remote communities would benefit the most from Internet access and computer skills, but they're usually the hardest to reach.

Fortunately, there is an organization in Belgium addressing those problems.

The organization is called Close the Gap.

Working with a technical team, they've built a solar powered classroom designed to bring digital skills to underserved communities.

They converted a shipping container, installed 20 laptops, 20 headsets and built in a WiFi system.

It's a digital classroom that can be driven to where it's needed.

They call it a DigiTruck.

I had access to a number of kids who had been DigiTruck students and I was most impressed with the story of a young girl who had a hearing problem.

Close the Gap got started in 2019, and since then they've provided over 25,000 hours of digital training to more than 1500 people in six countries.

Well, that's the second program in our series on the history and future of communication.

Really, it's quite amazing to see how the mobile phone and the Internet are changing our lives.

They allowed a blind skier to compete in the Paralympics.

They gave parents a chance to test the vision of their children and find out if they have any problems with their sight.

We saw how mobile phones were being used to track sounds in the rainforest and spot illegal loggers and how a truck filled with computers is traveling around Africa teaching children how to use the Internet.

That's part two of the history and future of communication.

I'm Burt Wolf.

Ah but wait, there's more.

Whenever we edit one of our programs, we always end up with more good material than we can fit in interviews, stories, recipes.

So we decided to put them on our website.

BurtWolf.com.

Telephone for the Three Stooges!

- Hello?

- Hello?

(phone ringing) - Hello?

- Here's your Florida call Mr. Whitmore.

- All right.

Hello?

- Florida Medical Board, good morning.

- I'd like to talk to the man in charge of the records, please.

- Record Department, just a moment sugar.

Record Department, Colonel Hawkins talking.

- Colonel Hawkins, did you get a wire from me regarding Dr. Hackenbush?

- I'm sorry, sir, but there's a hurricane blowing down here and you will have to talk a little louder.

Woo.

It sure is the windiest day we ever did have.

Woo, it sure is windy.

- [Narrator] Travels and Traditions with Burt Wolf is brought to you by PeakNutritionLabs.com A team of international researchers working on the development nutritional suppliments for improving health and longevity.

PeakNutritionLabs.com And by Swiss International Airlines.

Flying to over 70 worldwide locations.

Truly Swiss made.

Swiss International Airlines.

And by the BMW European Delivery Program, a way to experience the roads that BMW was made to drive.

BMW European Delivery Program.