this week, we're in edinburgh for all the fun of the festivals and to find out how you put on a high—tech tattoo in an ancient city. it's too narrow. it's on a hill. there's no straight lines anywhere. it's really quite a tricky space to work with. - shiona's scouring the globe for new ways to make data look great. and at the fringe, the machines are waking up. you are not alone. you cannot be alone. nick tries on the very latest wearable tech... all: engage the cube! ..and meets the most advanced robots ever. is that a shopping bag?! every august, the city of edinburgh welcomes an explosion of creative energy from around the world, as scotland's capital becomes festival central. the festival fringe bills itself as the single greatest celebration of arts and culture on the planet. everything becomes a stage here, not just traditional comedy clubs and theatres, but street corners and university buildings, lecture theatres too, where artists perform dance and comedy and cabaret and circus. everything for every taste. on top of the fringe, there's loads of other events, too. there's a film festival and the international cultural festival. but perhaps the most colourful is the royal edinburgh military tattoo. it is a true spectacle, and alasdair keane has been to the show. it's loud, its bright, and there's a lot of tartan. this is the royal edinburgh military tattoo. they've been holding it here on the castle esplanade since 1950. and this year's tattoo involves 800 performers, including bands from across the globe. the theme is stories. tonight's show is underway, but i'm not here just to enjoy myself. earlier, i went behind the scenes. there are nearly 700 crew and technical experts working backstage. and another stat for you — 35 miles of cabling. up here is the control room where the technicians make the magic happen. hi. i'm alasdair. if you were to design a space to do a show like this, - it would look nothing like this. it's too narrow. it's on a hill. there's no straight lines anywhere. it's really quite a tricky space to work with. - from our point of view, - it's very difficult for us to put a loudspeaker system somewhere that isn't in someone's view. _ we do a lot of olympic opening ceremonies, that sort of thing. | we deliberately design the show so that there's a technical area, | a zone where there's no creative activity, and it's out— of the view of the audience, where we can place loads i of technology that doesn't get in anyone's way. - we don't have that option here. of course, instruments like the pipes and others are really loud, but there's still lots of microphones and amplification and things. you're right, pipes are loud, but this is a big space - and we're outdoors. so the sound of the pipes, - even when there's 100 of them, can need reinforcement. that's not difficult to do. it becomes difficult when that sound source is moving - with respect to the audience. and to amplify that, _ the amplification has to be done in a way that matches the time domain or the sound arrival- from the acoustic source. the reinforced source has to follow. from our point of view, _ we need to know within about a ten millisecond error where each- microphone is going to be, and we need to be able to track that. now, there is a trackingl system that we're using, so whenever we put a microphone on somebody, we also put - a tag on that person, - and then we can track them in three dimensions. we're not using that live - during the show so, instead, we use it as a programming tool. this is the software . that we use to do that. each one of these dots i represents a microphone. anyone with a microphone has a tracker. _ so this is where the musicians are split into two lines. - they started at this point, . they moved to this point over the duration of this cue, and this cue fires at - this timecode value. traditionally, there wouldn't be a loudspeaker system. - when massed pipes and drums are playing — - there's 280 of them — it's pretty loud. - but then there's other parts where there's 60 musiciansj and it's not loud enough. so ourjob is to make sure that it should sound a little bit - quieter than 280 musicians, but you should still be able i to really enjoy the sound of something like that, i | and to amplify that to the point where it sounds like it's coming from a speaker means we've gone too far~ _ drumming and chanting of course, the show is also a big logistical challenge. we can't do much with physical sets because we have nowhere to store them — it's a very tight space — so we basically craft the look and feel of the show through sound and light. the show is described visually and sonically through the equipment we're using. obviously, what's critical is that we're telling a story. it's not just about technology, but how you use it, and this is where our designers are really good at what they do. it's not just gratuitous use of effect. it's using technology for the right reasons. one of the most evident pieces of tech is how they transform the walls of the castle. under here is two of the projectors, if we look up here. _ most of the performances are backed up by dazzling displays using state—of—the—art projectors. a medieval castle, though, is not a flat canvas to work on. talk me through some of the challenges. no. it's really, really quite complex. so we've got 23 projectors hitting the castle. - they also have back—ups in the case of anything failing, which, _ of course it wouldn't do, butjust in case! - what's interesting about those is, they're all on this _ same plane up here. there's some on the floor below us. some are set to portrait, . some are set to landscape, the reason being, we really have |to hit the castle from all anglesl to be able to fill in, otherwise, you'd get lots of shadows. - those laser projectors display a 6k canvas. that's 6,000 pixels of horizontal resolution, but it all starts with the design, and technology is helping with that, too. as part of our creative concept. of stories being the theme of this year, we created a paper theatre. the exciting aspect of where we are, really, with technology _ within the creative side - of what we do, we are now able to run a full 3d pipeline| on something that size. so this is all made in 3d. plus, as i was saying earlier, - there's that sort of sense of taking the castle and creating a sense of depth which isn't there. - over the three—week run, there will be 200,000 audience members. that's over 9,000 every night. so the tech must deliver without fail. technically, it's a big challenge. there aren't that many projects like this, you know? _ there are very few, - particularly in this setting. drumming people are paying good money to be here and they expect a quality show and we want them to get the same experience every night, a top—notch experience. pipe band plays what a show. that was incredible. they've been putting this event on for decades, but it's clear to see how technology is keeping it relevant for a new audience, both here in scotland and right around the world. plenty of the shows here at the fringe are simply shows where the audience can sit back and enjoy the action. but there are a fair few that are more interactive than that, and some go even further and invite the audience to take control of the performance itself. nick kwek loves being in control, so he sent him to find out more. that's right, spen. this year, i'm properly getting involved. wait a minute. don't think i'll be doing that. yep. and i'll leave this one to the professionals. instead, i'm off to see something much more. on my level. he's benedictine. 15. laughter robo bingo, the interactive brainchild of two it consultants turned live stage performers. it's a smartphone—powered comedy act, which involves a lot of moving parts — literally — and quite the set—up. set up the main projector first. the first thing i've got to do is connect to the wi—fi, which they have to install each night and is what powers the whole thing. my best friend glen — 10. we used to build invoicing. systems for small to medium enterprises in the midlands, and that was boring. - so we stopped and we took our skill set to this show. - and what a show it is. it's a tech—tastic pop—up bingo hall—cum—virtual arts class turned giant multiplayer crazy frog rock concert game show. got it? me neither. and it is an excuse for us to show off our robotics that we have - made in our living room. yeah, it's a series of useless inventions that we've created from various pieces that we found around the house. i think this is an old bit of shelfing, a football that was kicked into our garden and a bag—for—life that we cut up and stuck on. other bits have been built by the 3d printer and then broken as he's been crashed into the floor by the audience and glued together backstage before every show. the hand may have snapped a little... i almost everything in the show is their own creation, including the artificial intelligence behind one hilarious round, where your artistic skill is pushed to its limit. that is the peter sutton patent pending circle i accuracy algorithm that, - on the whole, does an 0kjob of detecting whether an audience member has drawn a circle, - and it gives it a percentage rank. and it gets it wrong a lot of the time. no, it doesn't. bingo! oh, and they're controlling everything that happens from their guitar—keyboard contraptions and spectacular smart shirts live on stage. # on a little dishy... these are just the most advanced powerpoint clickers available - on the market that we had to custom made. - so we've got next scene - in the show, previous scene, kick drum, snare drum. synthesiser, synthesiser. ship foghorn. small ship foghorn. medium ship foghorn. goodbye. i think after all that, i'm going to have to have a lie down! just as well, as i'm attending a sleep study. he yawns thank you for participating in our study. chicago—based troupe 0ctober brian are performing a quirky comedy show debuting their new sleep—to—sketch technology. this group will be the first to experience the newest model — the cube. 0ne volunteer. and tonight, by sheer chance, i'm the chosen one. all: engage the cube. engaged. now, obviously, this doesn't work, and i'm not really falling asleep, but the show must go on. perhaps the cube technology is not quite ready to ship yet! _ we have phones and we have other things where technology is omnipresent in our lives and we are over reliant on, and that's something we wanted to play with. stop that, nick. it's disrupting the study. we wanted to see how we could invent a sort of technology that people aren't yet scared of and now make them scared. yes, very scared. yeah. all: disengage the cube! beeping time for a look at this week's tech news. microsoft has made another attempt to take over blizzard, the makers of the video game call of duty. it was bought by uk regulators. uk competition and markets authority says they will review deal and it is not a green light. india's space agency has become the first to land a spacecraft on the south pole of the moon. the land are successfully touched down on thursday. it will be searching the surface per a water—based eyes, which scientists say could support life on the moon. without this, the world would not be able to move forward with its plans to put a moon base and colonies on the moon. this is going to provide invaluable data on which to take those next steps. fix, invaluable data on which to take those next steps.— those next steps. a pilots cargo ship which _ those next steps. a pilots cargo ship which aims _ those next steps. a pilots cargo ship which aims to _ those next steps. a pilots cargo ship which aims to reduce - those next steps. a pilots cargo ship which aims to reduce the l ship which aims to reduce the shipping industry's carbon footprint has made its maiden voyage. the vessel has two wind wings sales, which are designed to cut fuel consumption. the ship will travel from china to brazil, to test how well the technology works. it’s from china to brazil, to test how well the technology works. it's me, mario. nintendo _ well the technology works. it's me, mario. nintendo has— well the technology works. it's me, mario. nintendo has announced - well the technology works. it's me, | mario. nintendo has announced that charles martin _ mario. nintendo has announced that charles martin e, _ mario. nintendo has announced that charles martin e, the _ mario. nintendo has announced that charles martin e, the voice - mario. nintendo has announced that charles martin e, the voice behind i charles martin e, the voice behind its famous character mario is stepping down. he has been voicing the italian plumber since 1996. there are so many things on at the edinburgh festival that it is a fight to get audiences interested in your show. now, there are many tricks that you can use to get people's attention. colour, movements and an element of surprise tend to work best. well, shiona mccallum has beenjust down the road from here to a company that makes that kind of thing their living. visual communications dates back around 40,000 years, when the earliest civilisations used cave walls as canvases to share their knowledge, beliefs and stories. fast—forward to today, and it's clear that images are still the preferred way for us to tell stories. creating super engaging visual images is what this company here in edinburgh is all about. artists come together with data scientists who create interactive spheres that are used in museums, businesses and education to get a particular message across. why is this such an attractive product for people to absorb information? human beings are more attracted to a sphere than any other shape. so what happens when you hang a sphere on the ceiling or you put it on a floor or mount it, people immediately gravitate to it and they want to engage with it and they want to touch it. the great thing about a sphere, especially if it's floor mounted, is you're still engaging with the individuals, because a crowd can go round the sphere, but you're also going on a personal journey, and you're going at your own speed and learning and seeing new things. so, you know, it's different. it's still new. even after 18 years, it's still new and it will beat a flat screen hands down. tell me a little bit about the business here in edinburgh. the business has been around for about 19 years now. in fact, we call it the largest start—up in edinburgh. so these are all over the world with organisations trying to share with their audience stories about their brand or their product. because it's so engaging, because it's so interactive, it's a great communication tool. thereafter, it's definitely visitor attractions, museums, planetariums, oceanariums, art galleries. you'll see these all over the world. they cost anything from £30,000 to £250,000. describe to me what i'm seeing. yes. so in the heart of this system, - we've got a very powerful projector. |that's shining a light through this| fisheye lens that's taking the light and bending it and filling the entire sphere. - the other aspect to it, | as you may have seen, it's a touch system as well. so if you look here, we've got one, two, three, four infrared leds. - what they're doing is they're l bathing the inside of the globe with infrared light. combined with this infrared camera, we can see all the infrared light - movements inside the globe. what that means is that when someone comes along with a finger _ and they touch the edge of the globe, it can - detect that touch. the projector inside the sphere uses a powerful computer and works with an algorithm to generate the moving images. an app is used to load different content onto the spheres. each app is built in the pufferfish lab. we can load any number of apps onto here. - i mean, some of the apps could be about data visualisation. _ they don't even have i to be about the world. they could be about the universe, the solar system. _ it could actuallyjust be abstract completely. i so we can load any number of apps onto here. - could you show me something else? so this particular application is showing the ipcc data - climate report from 2021. we've taken the tables of data i and some artwork and then we've visualised them on this particular sphere here. j it looks really cool, and we can click into the data, can't we, and find out more. so will we have a look at what's next? so what we have here - is basically what could have happened in the future, . depending on how we react to climate change. and, famously, there are two scenarios. i one is the government target — a 1.5 degree increase. - what you can see here is how the world would look- if there's a 1.5 degree global increase in temperature. - if you go and click. on the 4.5 increase, which is the worst—case scenario, what you can now see _ is a much different scenario, - and it's very clear and very obvious on this globe what the difference looks like. i and, really, the purpose of thisl display is to be able to take that raw data and turn it into a message that's really impactful_ and makes people go, "mmm. "i understand that - there's a problem now." getting the message over about the climate crisis is a tough gig, and with more and more entertaining ways of communicating out there, and no shortage of messages, true or fake, will pufferfish still have a place in a world that's dominated by chat bots and the metaverse? who knows? the future is really exciting. so we're not in any way complacent, it's not all road—mapped out, we definitely believe that the sphere in some shape or form, moving forward, will absolutely stand the test of time. that was shiona. now, if you do come to the edinburgh fringe festival, you will have a choice of around 2,000 shows every day, performed by artists from over 70 countries. they cover pretty much any theme you can think of, but one of the popular ones is technology, like the one i'm about to catch next. distant memories of the near future is a one—man show by david head exploring how ai may ultimately change our lives. it's ok, isn't it, to not want to feel alone. that was the question you asked yourself before using the app, but you didn't like phrasing it that way. it made it seem like you were incomplete, and that wasn't true. the show weaves together five stories, including that of a computer scientist who creates the ultimate algorithm, one that supposedly finds everyone their perfect partner. you are not alone. sign up today and answer a short questionnaire, endure some mild brain scanning under observational conditions and hey, presto! the video rapidly exposes you to a series of stimuli, while the app tracks neurological responses, faces places, abstract patterns, cartoon characters, charming landscapes. the mini—brain—scanning headband thingy also checks your sweat or something. looking for pheromones. in a way, this is taking the idea of the dating apps that we have nowadays to its logical conclusion. when we talk about the fact that, with enough data, we might be able to find, with the right algorithm, the right mate, as it were. hmm. it kind of sounds horrific on the surface, but, actually, thinking about it a bit more, what's wrong with that? that actually sounds like a decent thing. ithink, potentially, it could be if used in a healthy way. i think, potentially, as we find out in the show, the risk is that people who are already in relationships might then be tempted to view their own as suboptimal. the issue with the app is that it can solve attraction, but it can't make relationships work. his brain function monitor... what inspired you to put this show on? i wrote the first draft in 2019 where i was suffering quite badly from clinical depression and was in the midst of what you might politely refer to as a breakdown, and the act of being creative and writing was a way for me to rediscover things about myself i liked and to find a way sort of back to a kind of stable place, i suppose. one of the stars of the show is an artificial intelligence called hope. huh? artificial. i understand the semantics at play here, but i don't like the implications of fake intelligence or a lesser one when it is very clear the opposite is true. you're talking about the creation of... ..let�*s call it a chat bot that can write advertising copy and a different chat bot that can write poetry. yes. did you come up with the idea before chatgpt arrived? when i wrote this, it was science fiction. it was supposed to be speculative. ai existed and the companies were gearing towards where we now are, but i didn't think the zeitgeist would move quite this quickly. it's moved very, very quickly. so yours has become less of a future and more of a history lesson? absolutely. like i say, it's a period drama now, whereas, previously, it was a sweeping science—fiction odyssey. this is not, however, a dark vision of the future. david was determined that the audience should leave feeling hopeful about the possibilities of technology. ultimately, it is a sentient artificial intelligence who presents the overall kind of thesis of the show, if you like, that lands the point that to be human is to be connected to one another in a way that's intrinsic and undeniable, and it's the al's perception of that that is critical to the moral of the piece. what i need you to picture is this. you are a light in the darkness, a firefly, a glowing pinpoint. you are not alone. you cannot be alone. so the ai ends up telling us how to be human. basically, yes. yeah. mmm. if you find something in your eye near the end of the performance, you're not the only one, let me just tell you that. with hope, a misstep and a connection... ..this story finally... ..begins. applause and that's it from us from the edinburgh fringe festival 2023. it's been a joy to be back. i hope you've enjoyed our coverage too. thanks so much for watching, and we will see you soon. hello there. earlier in the week, we had some pretty decent warm and humid weather in britain, with some sunshine around. but now things have changed, and we have low pressure dominating the scene for this upcoming weekend and for next week, it will feel cooler and fresher across most areas come up with a mix of sunny spells, scattered showers, some of which will be heavy and fun to places. low pressure dominates the scene to start the weekend. you'll notice more isobars across northern and western areas, so it is breezy here, where it is further east, it will be a little bit lighter with the winds. saturday starts off fairly bright and driver some sunshine, but fairly quickly, the showers get going for england and northern ireland. these will be thundery and head in some places. central and northern scotland will see more cloud, and some persistent rain at a time. as i mentioned, those winds stronger across western areas, with what will be further east. temperatures certainly cooler and fresher across urban areas than what we have been used to. 21 or 22 degrees here. it is the mid to high teens further north and west. as we move out of saturday into the overnight period, was to have those heavy showers fade away, and you can see clear skies for much of the country. further north and west, there will be thick cloud at times, with temperatures holding up in double figures will be have more cloud. but with the clearer skies, without them, it will be quite chilly so to be out of town. into sunday, we have this brief ridge, which will bring some dry weather put a time. some spiny spells, but still, showers will get going as we head into the afternoon. —— some sunny spells. this will start to push into northern ireland, bringing the big outbreaks of light and patchy rain, and then pushing into parts of western scotland, spread across the irish sea, where it will completely visit our do no more then a band of cloud. top temperatures again of 20 to 21 degrees. it is the mid to high teens further north. that weather front is almostjust mid to high teens further north. that weather front is almost just a band of cloud then come up with the chopper, and it spreads across england and wales as we head into monday. rememberthat england and wales as we head into monday. remember that monday is a bank holiday for many others. that band of two showers spread across england and wales, but not a bad day for england and wales come up with some more sunny spells into the afternoon. more cloud, and still quite breezy across the western isles. we motsonjanik quite breezy across the western isles. we motson janik across england and wales, we could be isles. we motsonjanik across england and wales, we could be up to around 22 degrees again. the mid to high teens again further north and west. maintain this north—west wind as we head into tuesday as well, with low pressure to the north. that's a little feature to the south, so the top and tail of the country will see cloud, outbreaks of rain, certainly, blustery showers for the northern and western islands, and to the north—west of the mainland of scotland. but in between, a lot of dry weather on tuesday, with variable cloud and some good spells of sunshine, the low 20s in the warmer spots, and the mid to high teens were bcd showers. and then, beyond there, as we move deeper on into the following week, although low pressure will always be close by to the south, they could be some drier interludes at times, but this area of low pressure is quite a d feature, and could bring some wet and windy weather to the north and west of the country. but it will do is scoop up some slightly warmer air from the south—west, as this moves towards the north—west of the uk. you can see that with the deep orange colour is there. we could see plenty of sunshine as we move into the week. they could be some showers around, and signs of it's warming up around, and signs of it's warming up a little bit as a move out of augers into the very first few days of september. temperatures reaching the low to mid 20s in places. —— as we move out of august. live from london, this is bbc news. fifa has provisionally suspended the president of spain's football association, luis rubiales, following his refusal to resign after kissing spanish women's world cup player jenni hermoso on the lips. investigations into thefts at the british museum continue — as the institution says some of the 2,000 items believed stolen have now been recovered. more disruption to uk rail services expected today — with workers in england walking out over pay and conditions. i'm courtney bembridge, we're live at the edinburgh festival fringe, where we're setting up for something special. hello. we begin with breaking news. fifa has provisionally suspended the president of spain's football association, luis rubiales, from all football—related activities. association, luis rubiales, from all the suspension applies to both national and international football.