If it feels like the weather is getting weirder, well, thats because it is. In many parts of the world, meteorological records seem to be tumbling virtually year after year. And as it gets more erratic and extreme, the need for accurate forecasts becomes vital. This is the bbcs Weather Centre at new broadcasting house. This is where they take their best guess at what the next few days are going to look like. We kind of take it for granted, these days, but as you would expect, theres an awful lot of numbercrunching that goes on, which is what ben is doing right now. Hi, ben. Hi, spencer. You might recognise ben, hes on the telly ben is taking raw data from the met office on this screen and turning it into something more akin to what we see on the tv. It all goes to make up that familiar weather map that we know and love. And in the uk, each likm square gets its own individual forecast from the met office. Other services can provide an even more granular forecast. But swing around to africa, and its a very different story. Here, were working at much lower resolution. Squares here are only 25km across. One of the reasons is because data is particularly thin on the ground here. Now, over the coming month or so, were going to be looking at how technology is changing this continent. And to start ourjourney, dan simmons has travelled to tanzania to meet a chap who used to work here, but whos now on a mission to improve the forecast for africa. Sub saharan east africa is lush. The soils are rich. Its the end of a very wet rainy season. Too wet for some farmers, who saw their crops rot. Angus and asha farm in lushoto. They tell me Climate Change has made it difficult to predict the seasons. Theyve gone from droughts to flood in recent years, and lost harvests in both. Next door, peters been planting jeska, a type of runner bean, which can take as little as six weeks to grow. In september to october, the rainfall are very harsh. It rush the topsoil to go down there. But last season, he lost his entire crop to sudden, heavy, early rains. The farmers here know what theyre doing, theyjust dont quite know any more what the weathers up to. Former bbc weather presenter and keen gardener, peter gibbs, wants to do something about that, and hes found a pretty neat way to explain it to me. I think you will like this, though. All right. The big reveal. Oh, wow oh my word look at this is that grand or what . That is huge that goes on forever, doesnt it . Itjust. Yeah. This gives you some idea of the scale of africa. The drop here is about 1,000 metres from where we are. No, no, no, that is close enough thats not. From the west usambara mountains, where were standing, down to the masai plain. Were looking at hundreds of square kilometres. Lots of weather going on. You can see some clouds building over the mountains in the distance. Most of its farmed as well. Exactly. There are a lot of People Farming there, but no weather station you can see. So how do you do a good forecast for here without the information . Thats incredible. You know, back in the uk, you would have, at least, half a dozen, perhaps 15 weather stations in that same sort of area. So you can see the problem. So the satellites cant do it . Because we have satellites, dont we . The satellites can do some of it. The satellites can pick up some of the clouds we can see, but they can only estimate the rain each shower cloud can produce. You need those measurements of the ground. Plus the other parameters, like temperature, humidity, and pressure. You know, its like any commuter programme, garbage in, garbage out. Peters advising a start up, kukua, that wants to pepper africa with these fully automated, Self Reporting low cost weather stations. They can be monitored from anywhere, looking up to africas extensive mobile cell network. Kukua placed their first station last year, and will have more than 100 operating by christmas. So what do we get on our fully automatic weather station . Well, weve got a bucket up here, which measures the rainfall. There is a little seesaw device in there which goes backwards and forwards for every drip that comes through. That tells us how quickly the rain is falling, as well as how much rain is falling. An anemometer a bit of giving us the wind speed and direction by the vane there at the very, very top. This is the solar panel which powers the whole thing and is cleverly used to tell us how much sunshine were getting. Just behind it in this hive kind of affair is the temperature gauge. It also measures humidity and it is stuck in there so it cannot be affected by direct sunlight or more heat coming from the ground, which is dissipated by this housing. All of that data need to be collected by a panel round at the back, which is sent to this communications unit. It has a sim card that works in every african country. What some of us would do for one of those. And then it uses this transmitter to send it all back to base. That goes back to europe, and then from the guys in europe, they will produce a model, which will give people back here a more accurate weather forecast. Its already making a difference. Farmers like peter get daily text alerts, giving them a steer as to what to expect. This farmer told us his texts have helped him decide when to add fertilizer and pesticides. We can actually make a massive difference to the farmers themselves. Up to 80 yield increases. That would be the difference between eating to stay alive and sending your kids to school. And its not just the personal impact. Health agencies can use improved forecasts to better predict outbreaks of malaria or cholera. And insurers want to know if they need to pay out on policies. This information gap is holding the continent back. The cocoa belt in west africa is shifting. Multinationals want to know which way and by how much. And it will be selling on the big data that kokua collect that will help pay for what is looking like a pretty big job. Well, across the whole of africa at the moment, there are around 500, just 500, reliable reporting weather stations. To get good coverage, you need to get up to Something Like 20,000. From my point of view, after my years in meteorololgy, i think its fantastic, that i feel i can make use of that experience to actually make a difference to peoples lives. That was dan simmons with peter gibbs in tanzania. We will have more reports from the african continent later this month on click. Microsoft boasts its new xbox one x is the most powerful games console in the world theyve stopped short of calling it the most powerful console in the galaxy, i suspect theyre saving that accolade for the machine that comes after this one. But theres good reason for all this talk of power and that is down to what lurks under the hood of this console. It has an eight core processor running at 2. 3 gigahertz, a six teraflop gpu, i2gb of memory and a 4k blu ray player thrown in as well. This means that the machine can throw out 4k 60 frames per second graphics in hdr. Stunning. What those numbers and specs mean is that this box is capable of producing much sharper, richer and more detailed graphics than the old xbox one s, which had a maximum resolution of 1080p, which is eye offending high definition, as its probably now known. What it does mean is that there is an incredible level of detail in the graphics. Look at this porsche that im driving in forza. Ive managed to bump and graze it of a couple of times, and you can see every single dent and ding that ive put in the car, every single bit of chipped paintwork. It really is very detailed. The one x can play games made for the older xbox, but some titles will be enhanced, like rise of the tomb raider, which boasts upgraded 4k graphics and a higherframe rate, which makes everything look smoother. These enhancements wont be standardised, though. Microsoft says it is up to developers to choose how they will use the brunt the one x provides. This new digital virtuosity is great if you own a 4k tv. But if you are using a hd screen, the one x can give you a graphics bus, as well, making games look better than they would on the old machine. But how do they achieve this . Witchcraft . Or more precisely, super sampling, a technique that allows all the detail and information in a 4k image to be scaled down to fit into a 1080p screen which, i suppose, is a form of silicon sorcery. Apart from prettier visuals, the new machine should enjoy faster to load times and, unlike its 4k rival, the ps 4 pro, the one x has a 4k blu ray play fitted as well. So it does more stuff, but the x box one is more expensive than the ps4 pro as well. Microsoft is keen to see this in the worlds most powerful console, but it is also the most expensive, at £a49. And i think that might be the biggest hurdle that the xbox one x has to overcome, its price. And as the games the machine plays are essentially the same as those on its less powerful, older sibling, the one s, this console is probably only going to appeal to those with spare cash burning a hole in their pocket, or those with a 4k tv on which to watch the prettier pictures the console produces. That casts gloom over everything, doesnt it, lads . What a drag he is hello and welcome to the week in tech. Its been a bad week for tesla, as they reveal that they are months behind schedule of production on a new model three. Whatsapp introduced a delete messages for everyone function to allow users to retract comments after they have said that. And bitcoin went beserk, reached a record high with one bitcoin worth over £5,000, up 8000 in the past year. Google, facebook and twitter face a grilling this week from us congress about possible russian influence in last years president ial election. The tech firms had to explain why they failed to prevent political ads being published on their platforms bought with russian money. Senators are now considering extending regulations found in television, radio and newspapers to social media sites too. Now, are you sitting comfortably . Well, fords new robot certainly is. This contraption tests car seats by moving like a passenger getting in and out of a vehicle. It sits 25,000 times to create the same wear and tear as ten years of use from your derriere. Poor chair and sony is teaching an old dog new tricks by bringing back the aibo. The resurrected robopup comes complete with Artificial Intelligence so it can learn what makes its owners happy. Although with a price of well over £1000, and a Monthly Subscription plan of £20, smiles may be short lived. The original canine was canned ten years ago to save the japanese giant cash. Music playing. Whether you love them or loathe them, it looks like emojis are here to stay. In fact, well probably be seeing even more of them soon. So Lara Lewington has been investigating the future of emojis. In case you missed it, the new iphones have been released this week but, whist it may be seen hard to comprehend how a phone could be worth over 1000, the iphone x brings with it a quirky feature that possibly says a lot about the future of how we communicate. Makes clucking noises. Animojis allow users to animate the facial expressions of a chosen emoji. It uses their phone Selfie Camera and facial Recognition Technology to tracks over 50 muscle movements to create the appropriate expressions and they are clearly not the only company thinking in pictures. Emoticon, emojis, animojis, bitmojis, actionmojis, thingmojis ok i made that last one up but whats happened to good Old Fashioned words . Every day, six billion emojis are used. They have come a long way since these, which were created by a japanese phone company in 1999. Apple now offers 190 new static emojis to satisfy your every pictorial need, including broccoli and a brontosaurus. Meanwhile, apple and google seem to be struggling over what order burger ingredients should be loaded in. Um, surely the meat at the bottom and if youre having a spot burger on tinder, then now you could throw a virtual drink over someone. But whilst some gestures may be universally understood, not everybody interprets every picture in the same way. It is like a friendly kiss. Thats whistling. Thats whistling . Yeah. I think thats about confusion, actually. And that looks as if the emoji is pouting. Ok, i can see that now but can you just pout for me . Itsjust a little cheeky kiss. 0k. Slightly spaced out in a dream. A secret or dont say anything. Ive got nothing to say. Awkward. Look what ive just said. Keep an eye out, with those two eyes. Keep eyes out. So is facial recognition the future of the humble emojis . The team behind new ai powered social networking app, called polygram, certainly hope so. Lets see what the options are. Thats pretty weird. Wow. This app also uses Artificial Intelligence to map a users facial expressions via the Selfie Camera, allowing them to respond to posts with an animated emoji, replicating their actual facial reaction. Meanwhile, Snapchat Actionmojis launched a few months ago. For users who opt in, it will combine their gps location and their phones accelerometer, tracking how fast they are moving to guess what they are doing at that moment, and that will then be placed on what they call the snapmap. There is even a film, the emoji movie grossed over 211 million worldwide. And of course, there is also a world emoji day. But depending on context, what seems like a harmless picture could cause offence. Something instagram is trying to overcome. Nearly half of posted comments on the social network contain an emoji, so they have enlisted the help of some Machine Learning to identify context and block anything they may believe to be offensive. That is not to say they cant provide a bit of fun. Heres a bit of a quiz. What film title do you think this spells out . The lion king. Lion king. Too easy. Apple time. Peach time. Clock apple. In french its called orange mecanique. Clockwork orange. So maybe they will have the last word after all. Clockwork orange. That is amazing does this face look familiar . How about this one . These are some of the most iconic characters in a modern cinema. All of them created using groundbreaking performance capture technology and, although they do not look it, they are all the same face. Andy serkis is himself the worlds most iconic performance capture actor. His latest role has involved breathing an astonishing amount of humanity into caesar, in war for the planet of the apes, and it even led to calls for him to win the oscar for best actor. His production company, the imaginarium, is entering into video games, with the release of a new sony ps4 platform that extends the world of the planet of the apes. It is a decision based game that plays out more like a cross between a movie and a choose your own adventure book. And its here that i got to sit down with the man behind the mask. You kind of are the king of performance capture. Do you mind that . You have a movie coming out this week, you have directed, you have videogames as well, i mean, do you mind the fact that people still. . Why would i mind . I love it. It is the most extraordinary tool for the 21st century actor, to be able to embody or play anything across multi platforms. It is the end of typecasting. It is the most egalitarian form of acting. Any actor can become a creature, a character, a humanoid or not, inanimate and bring it ascensions, existance. The art of transformation is becoming, for me actors work in different but the process of completely embodying another character, drove me as an actor. And thats what i love doing and this Technology Allows you to do that to the nth degree. It is climbing deeply inside a character, being that character and it can be as extreme as gollum or king kong, or anything in between. Youre him, youre caesar. I fight only to protect apes. You can never quite tell what was tweaked in post production. So is the performance that i am looking at actually what they you gave you on the day or did theyjust give it . When youre watching a real human do it, theres less of that doubt. If you look at modern filmmaking now, the amount of times that you can take a blink out that someones done, you can add a tear if somebody is supposed to be crying and they did not manage to do it in the take. Augmentation of live action movies is the crossover between what you think you are seeing as being real and in this day and age, visual effects are in every single shot of every movie, apart from very low budget independent movies who cannot afford visual effects. In planet of the apes, when matt reeves is directing a scene between me and woody harrelson, he then takes our performance and my performance goes into the cut and he cuts it with woody and theres a back and forth between us. That is what he lives with. Thats what the movie is screened as originally, before you even see the apes. Really . They even Start Testing the movie with the actors faces. It has all got to live or die on the performance. You cant add the performance that is not created after the fact, it is the manifestation of the performance after the fact, which is obviously incredible visual effects artistry. Matt lives with the cut of the entire movie, with us in it its not planet of the apes, its planet of the actors in make up suits. Master looks after us now. Of all your performance captured roles, which stand out as something monumental happened here . I have a very soft spot for gollum. But caesar, ive tried to think if there is any other part that an actor has played where they are played from birth all the way through to death and actually not onlyjust growing older but the character evolving from one thing into another. Going from a pure chimpanzee to almost human. The technology that allows any actor to do that is all right by me. The legendary andy serkis. Just before we go, i wanted to remind you that we have a tonne of click content running on our Facebook Page throughout the week. Like this, where we showcased research from eth zurich, in switzerland, which built a curved concrete roof using new building techniques. Algorithmic calculations mean less concrete and fewer support structures are needed. The researchers say the manufacturing process uses a minimal amount of concrete and support structures, meaning less waste and reduced environmental impact. The whole prototype weighs 20 tons with just 800 kilograms of supporting cables and textile. I think with resources disappearing and us having only one planet, we need to design better and, as a structural designer, i care about exactly that and also showing that actually we can make quite a big difference, that we can make exciting buildings that are not wasteful but actually quite the opposite. That do things much better, much thinner, much more integrated, much more efficient. And you can see more short stories from the world of tech on our Facebook Page and on twitter. Thank you for watching and we will see you soon. Hello, again. Theres some Colder Weather on the way for this weekend. But overnight, its not going to be quite as cold, because this area of cloud is moving down from the north west, bringing with it a bit of rain and drizzle. As the cloud clears away from northern scotland, it will turn chilly later. Perhaps the lowest temperatures for a while, ahead of that cloud, more towards the south east. But here, those numbers will be a bit higher by the morning, as we start the day with cloudy skies and some light rain or drizzle, and temperatures six or seven. For much of southern england, wales, the midlands, perhaps up into yorkshire and lincolnshire, itll be a bit of a dull start on thursday. A lot of low cloud. A little rain or drizzle here and there, no great amounts at all. Already beginning to brighten up, though, in northern england, and some sunshine to greet the day in northern ireland, and particularly scotland, where there will be a chill in the air here. And weve got some sharp showers to run into northern scotland. Theyll continue pretty much all day, and it will be quite windy here, too. Much further south, some slow improvements through the day, as we see the brighter skies and sunshine filtering southwards, pushing away the dull and damp weather eventually into the english channel. It will take a while to get the sunshine out significantly across southern england in the afternoon. Further north, in the sunshine, temperatures about 10 12 degrees. Those showers continue, though, for northern scotland. Still quite windy here, as well. Clear skies in the evening will see the temperatures dipping. But then we get another spell of rain and cloud, and some stronger winds this time, pushing that wetter weather down quickly across the uk on thursday night into friday morning. The skies clear to the north, again the temperatures will dip away, and its cold enough in northern scotland for the showers to be wintry in the hills. Quickly, well see some sunshine developing further south, one or two showers, perhaps, but then later in the day well see the cloud increasing again. And weve got some rain on the way. Thats going to be particularly evident in northern ireland. Ahead of that, quite a cold day in scotland, seven or eight degrees. That rain thats coming in is coming from whats left of Tropical Storm rina, and that will move its way quickly to bring some rain mainly for england and wales. Some stronger winds through the english channel, but it doesnt last long. And by the time we get into the weekend, the wind direction is changing. Were going to draw down a northerly wind as the weekend goes on, and it will be turning colder, day and night. So this is saturday some spells of sunshine. Some showers, though, for northern ireland, running through the irish sea, into wales, wintry showers for northern scotland, some showers down the north sea coasts, and it will be feeling cold in the wind. Strongest winds again around coastal areas, both in the west, the north and the east, and thats where well see the showers. For many inland, yes, its going to be a cold day, but it should be dry and quite sunny. Welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. My name is mike embley. Our top stories. Chinas red carpet treatment President Trump sees the sights but will he get the support he needs over north korea . The British Government loses its second cabinet minister in a week priti patel quits over her unofficial meetings in israel. The mother of a teenager accuses kevin spacey of sexually assaulting her son last year. A Public Health emergency the thick grey smog choking the indian capital forces the closure of all delhis schools. And the louvre comes to the middle east the french president opens a new museum in abu dhabi