Original subtitles

[narrator] On this episode of How Tech Works...

We're going to check out the latest

in facial recognition technology.

And... we'll meet a couple of grown-up rocket boys

who take their hobby very seriously.

[show intro]

[futuristic music]

Hi there! I'm Basil Singer, and you are in for

one incredibly "out there" episode of How Tech Works .

We're going to meet a former secret operative

from the British government with the keys to the X-files.

Plus, we'll see how CT scans are saving soldiers' lives,

in real time on the battlefield.

But first,

Imagine, if you will, a typical day in London.

You wake up, grab a coffee, dash to the tube, go to work,

pick up dinner, and grab a cab home.

In that time, guess how often you've been captured on CCTVs?

Around 300!

Facial recognition technology is getting

more and more sophisticated. But things like time of day,

and the direction you're facing can make it difficult

for security officers to know that it's you.

So we're going to catch up with a team in Bristol

working to change that.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] If you think it's hard to pick out

a particular face in a crowd?

Try getting a computer to do it, and do it well.

What we're trying to do is develop technology

that's able to be more robust at recognizing a person's face.

[narrator] Say hello to the new face

of recognition software,

set to change the way a computer sees you.

If you think about the technology that's used now,

what tends to happen is that a 2D image is captured

and then various features are measured.

So for example, length of a nose,

the distance between the eyes.

And ratios are taken of those features

and used to form a signature that can recognize a person.

[narrator] Melvyn Smith's team

is trying to overcome one big problem.

[Melvyn] If that person changes their expression,

or changes the pose, looks to one side,

or even if the lighting changes,

then those sorts of systems can fail.

[narrator] So together with colleagues

at Imperial College London, they created PhotoFace.

A system that gives computers a lot more to go on.

[Melvyn] We illuminate the face in different ways,

using different lighting set ups.

[narrator] A camera shoots 500 frames per second.

Its four lights are synchronized to go off

in such quick succession it looks like a single flash.

An ultrasound sensor triggers it.

So I'm gonna pass through now.

Just like that. So just a simple stroll through.

Nothing complicated. And what it's doing now

is just a little bit of processing

to estimate my shape. And there you can see,

it's estimated my shape. And hopefully, there you go,

it's recognized who I am,

so it knows that I can pass through.

[narrator] PhotoFace takes four images,

lit at different angles, and compiles them into one.

So this is four raw images of me that we captured before.

and we have to convert that into shape information.

What it's showing is that the blue areas

are at a grazing angle to the camera, like that,

and then the green areas are more parallel,

and then red areas are that way.

It's just a way of visualizing it.

But essentially what we have is the orientation

of the skin at each point on the image.

What that means is we can capture very fine,

textural features on the face, the wrinkles, the pores,

all the blemishes that we naturally have,

we can capture all that detail.

So in addition to capturing the shape of the face,

we can also use those blemishes

as a kind of signature to recognize someone.

[narrator] The system recognizes faces,

even under changing light.

If we change the lighting conditions,

doesn't make any difference. If the sun's out,

we can take that into consideration.

That doesn't change the 3D shape.

As long as we know where these raw images are from,

the 3D shape of my face is constant.

Could you just move slowly your lips?

[narrator] Across the hall,

colleagues are working on a 4D system.

It's a variation on PhotoFace, using strobe lights instead.

We are going to capture the face of somebody,

and then use that information to create 3D,

but we'll do it in real time.

[narrator] They can look at the changing face

any way they want.

it allows us to have high resolution information

so we could zoom on parts of the face.

and have a closer look at it.

That also opens up possibilities in biometrics,

because we might be able to use the way in which

a person smiles as a biometric.

For example, the way you and I smile

is probably subtly different,

the way the smile develops across the face.

So, that in itself could be a useful biometric.

[narrator] Systems like this make it easier

for security teams to identify a suspect in a crowd.

Because they can alter the image-on-file

for comparison.

[Melvyn] So, the person you see in the crowd

may be standing to one side so their face isn't clear,

and the lighting may not be ideal.

So what you could do is take the model that you have

of that person's face, and then synthetically alter

that model to match the face in the crowd.

So you would alter the direction in which

it is looking,

alter the lighting that's applied to it,

to make it as similar as possible

to what you're actually seeing, and then look for a match.

[narrator] It could also be used in the movie business.

[Melvyn] If you think of what you see at the cinema nowadays,

it's very impressive. You go to see a 3D movie,

it looks very realistic, but it's not interactive.

So if you move your head to one side,

things don't change as they do in the real world.

And also different people in different locations

in the cinema would be able to see different things.

So what we want to be able to do is capture something

that's much more immersive and much more realistic.

[narrator] In the more immediate future,

4D imaging could change lives.

So the idea is that we could have some technology

like this, that a general practitioner

could use, to capture a very accurate

and very realistic description of a skin condition,

and then send that over the internet to a specialist

in a remote location, who could interact with that

as though they were with the patient.

[narrator] All of which adds up to imaging

that's almost... almost... better than the real thing.

And speaking of real things, when it comes to rockets,

it's hard to top the Saturn rockets

used by NASA in the '60s and '70s.

But while those behemoths are now a thing of the past,

I want you to meet a group of rocketeers

who are scaling things down, and having a real blast!

See what I did there? Have a look.

[voice on radio] Ignition. [rocket blasting]

[narrator] The last time the Apollo launched,

it was more than 40 years ago.

But at this farm in Bethesda, Maryland,

two men have their sights set on

re-living and re-igniting history

[man] It goes all the way back to fourth grade.

One of the kids' older brother came in and launched

a bunch of Estes, A, B and C rockets

out in the field behind the school,

and something just clicked in my head.

-Okay, hold on a minute. -Okay.

I know I used to watch all of the space launches on TV

back in the '70s, so...

I've been interested in it for years.

[narrator] Steve Eves and Vern Hoag

are gadget wielding, blast testing rocketeers.

[rocket roars]

The kind that spend thousands of hours tinkering

with every detail of building a scale model rocket.

[energetic rock music]

[Vern] The ultimate payoff is to put a smile on your face.

This is all for bragging rights,

just to say you did it.

These guys have thousands of dollars

tied up in these rockets, and they're doing it

just because it's cool.

[narrator] Today's launch features a pair

of Saturn 1B replicas.

[voice on radio] Ignition. [rocket blasting]

They're one ninth the size of the original Apollo.

Both Steve and Vern started working

on their identical rockets nearly two years ago.

We actually did not know that the other was building

these rockets until we were about

six months into the project.

Alright, powering up arch number three,

check the continuity on the pre-tensioner.

[narrator] The weight of this rocket is 400 kilograms.

When assembled and prepped for launch,

they each stand eight meters tall.

It's going to be fun, yeah.

It's something you'll never forget!

We drove all the way from Connecticut.

Did you really?

[narrator] It's not a cheap hobby.

[Vern] If you woke up and just wanted to do this one day,

it's about $15,000 to fly something like this one time.

[narrator] The electrical components that trigger

the launch and collect the data are key.

The amount of electronics is absolutely phenomenal.

We have approximately ten onboard computers

that are extremely expensive. Recovery is paramount.

[narrator] Time for Vern's launch.

-Ready under feet, Mike? -Ready.

[voice on PA] Go in three, two, one, ignition!

[rocket engine roars]

[rock music]

[man and woman] Oh, no! No!

[several voices] Heads up! Heads up!

[voice on PA] Stand clear! Do not try and touch the rocket!

[man] That big booster's coming down right by us.

[Vern] I guess I wish I knew what happened more.

[narrator] That's pretty tough.

Vern's rocket drag separated, literally

pulling the two rocket sections apart

a lot earlier than it should have.

Then, the parachutes slid out early, and it became unbalanced.

In mere seconds,

thousands of hours and dollars are blown apart.

It hasn't soaked in yet.

I don't know, I might just build another one.

We'll pick it up and see what we can come up with.

[narrator] Now Steve has even more pressure

weighing on his rocket.

The blood pressure is going up, butterflies are in the stomach,

there's a whole herd of them in there.

[narrator] All pre-systems checked,

and another Saturn 1B rocket ready for launch.

[voice on PA] Okay folks, it's time.

Three, two, one, ignition! [rocket engine roars]

[rock music]

[Steve] We got two chutes! Yes! Yes!

We got two chutes!

[narrator] This time, success.

I feel great, rocket's basically intact.

We may have a little bit of damage, but it flew good.

Nobody was hurt, we had a great flight.

Everything's good.

[narrator] Two endings. Not all happy,

but these rocketeers are in it for the thrill, no matter what.

I will rebuild this and it will fly again.

[Steve] One thing about this hobby is,

if you can't handle crashing them, don't fly them.

That is, in fact, part of the hobby.

It's a rocket. Nobody knows what's going to happen

until you hit the button.

Don't you move! We've got lots more How Tech Works

coming up after the break.

[futuristic music]

Welcome back to How Tech Works . I'm Basil Singer.

Now, our next story takes us deep into the paranormal.

You're about to meet a man who spent his career

investigating UFO sightings for the British government.

You're about to see how the most skeptical

of the non-believers among us must finally admit

there is actually something out there.

Well, have a look and decide for yourselves.

[narrator] Before there was Fox Mulder,

there was Nick Pope.

My job was to investigate

the two or three hundred UFO sightings

that were reported every year,

to see if there was evidence of any potential threat

to the United Kingdom,

or anything of more general defense interest.

[narrator] When the Ministry of Defense decided to open

a UFO investigation division,

Nick Pope got the call to lead it.

At first, I was a little worried that this would look

rather odd on my CV.

But of course I found the whole subject intriguing.

[narrator] He was the first official investigator,

but he had lots to work with.

The Ministry of Defense's UFO project goes right back

to the 1950s.

The thought was that however crazy some of the stories

about flying saucers sounded, if there was something

operating in our airspace, we ought to know what it was.

[narrator] Most of the documents are now housed

at the national archives.

There are tens of thousands of pages

of documentation on UFOs.

This includes over 12,000

sighting reports that the MOD received over the years.

[narrator] Including a memo from Britain's

most famous civil servant, Winston Churchill.

[Winston Churchill's voice] What does all this stuff

about flying saucers amount to?

What can it mean? What is the truth?

Let me have a report at your convenience.

[narrator] Investigating the paranormal is like

working a cold case. Going through old files

and re-interviewing witnesses.

From there, it's a process of elimination.

[Nick] Let's check the flight paths, weather balloon launches,

satellites, meteors, all the sorts of things

that you know give rise to misidentifications.

[narrator] Nick found that 80% of the reports

have rational explanations. Others remain a mystery.

In around 15% of cases,

there was insufficient information to come to

a definite opinion, leaving 5% genuinely unknown.

[narrator] UFOs are seen by all kinds of people.

But some witnesses are considered

more reliable than others.

Inevitably, the ones that were of particular interest

were when the witnesses were police officers,

military personnel and pilots. And this is because

those people we regarded as trained observers.

A police officer is well able to estimate the distance

that an object is from his perspective, or the speed.

The same with a pilot, of course.

[narrator] Britain's most famous case,

on par with Roswell,

happened at Rendlesham Forest, December 1980.

This is the East Gate at Woodbridge Base.

And it's from this point that the security personnel

in 1980, saw strange lights in the forest out there.

And they thought that an aircraft had crashed.

This is the exact spot where in 1980 it's claimed

that the UFO landed.

The two United States Air Force airmen actually got

close enough for one of them to touch the side

of this thing. Strange indentations

were found in the ground where this thing

was supposed to have come down on three legs.

[man's voice on radio] Let's identify that as point one.

That stake there, so y'all know where it is

if we have to sketch it. Got that, Sergeant Nevilles?

[Sgt. Nevilles on radio] Yes, sir.

What they found was that radiation levels peaked

in the three indentations and around the sides

of some of the trees here.

[man's voice on radio] You're getting readings on the tree

you've taken samples from,

on the side facing the suspected landing site.

[narrator] When the UFO came back the next night,

Deputy Base Commander Colonel Charles Halt

went out to debunk the event.

[Col. Halt on radio] Hey, this is eerie.

-Is it back again? -[second man] Yes, sir.

[Col. Halt] See if you can get the StarScope on it.

I notice that all the barnyard animals have gotten quiet now.

[narrator] Instead, he became a witness.

This is the spot where, on the second night,

Colonel Halt and his men encountered the UFO.

At one point, it fired a narrow beam of light

down at the ground, that came very close to his position.

Subsequently, the UFO was zigzagging around,

as if it was performing a grid search, Halt said.

And then it shot off at high speed.

Colonel Halt said that When he was witnessing the UFO,

the nearby farmyard animals were going into

an absolute frenzy, as if something was spooking them.

[narrator] Nick says if there was ever a case

to make a skeptic into a believer, this was it.

[Nick] Multiple witnesses, military personnel

from the two bases at Bentwaters and Woodbridge.

Radiation readings taken at the landing site.

This wasn't just lights in the sky,

this thing actually came down.

I'm not sure what people should draw from any of this.

I think to a certain extent, the debate about UFOs

is quite polarized.

Skeptics aren't going to be convinced unless we do have

the archetypal landing on the White House lawn.

[narrator] A physical artifact seems the only way

to end the debate.

It's one of the great tenets of science,

you must have repeatability. So scientists must be able

to get this artifact to do something that we can't do.

And it mustn't be just once.

[narrator] And while Nick doesn't believe

in little green men, he does say: We're not alone.

[Nick] In this infinite universe,

with the laws of physics and chemistry being constant,

I think it's inconceivable that it's just us.

I'm sure the universe is teeming with life.

The question of whether we're being visited or not

is a separate one.

I can't rule out the possibility,

but the truth of the matter is, I don't know

Finally, I want to take you to a farm in the American Midwest,

where a radiologist and a military physician

have partnered up to solve a mystery,

like those forensic crime shows,

and it all starts with a rifle...

and a phantom leg.

A very real-looking phantom leg.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] It's an odd task.

Duct taping an artificial leg to a work bench,

only so it can be riddled with bullets.

Yeah, shooting a body part, to me never seems natural.

I like to look past that a little bit,

and what we gain through this research is going to help

the soldiers and sailors and marines in the future.

[narrator] As a military doctor, Michael Frew has seen

a lot of trauma. But he never thought he'd be asked

to re-create a sniper scenario on his farm

out in Lovettsville, Virginia.

Well, he knew we had a range that was available,

he knew we had weapons, and he knew we liked to shoot.

[narrator] Radiologist Dr. Les Folio

is the man behind this.

When we image this, as we'll see later,

we look at the path, measure that angle,

and provided we know the position, like we do here,

and we often do for field conditions

because of security cameras,

we can recreate that scene, if you will,

of what that angle is,

where did that shooter shoot from.

[narrator] So, with a clinometer in hand,

Les begins the day by marking targets and choosing angles.

So even down here will work, so about six shots.

[narrator] An Olympic pool length away,

the sniper gets into position.

He will be aiming at targets the size of a penny.

We chose this weapon, which is a Remington 700,

because it fires a 30 OTT 6 round

that is very similar in size and shape and capacity

that our soldiers use.

[Les] Yeah, 92. So it was a two degree pitch down.

We're looking at plus or minus five degrees.

Okay, I think we're ready to shoot.

[Michael] Range is live.

[gunshot]

Let's go check.

[narrator] Target hit.

Next time they want to make sure they get bone.

This one obviously didn't hit bone, because it's scraped

and you can see the internal tissues here,

the red, they look like muscle, that's what they're made for.

Range is live.

[upbeat music]

[gunshot]

Probably right on.

[narrator] A stark difference

between the entry and exit wounds.

[Michael] Every shot counted.

[Les] Well, the CT will tell the story.

[narrator] So, with the badly wounded limb,

Les heads to the lab.

[Les] Computer tomography is the main stay of imaging

when it comes to ballistic trauma.

We're dealing with metallic fragments

or bone fragments that have been secondary missiles.

[narrator] The images are revealing.

The bullet enters.

Hits the fibula and then tibia before exiting.

So, now that the blast test dummy leg has been

scanned in the CT, we can see the wound path nicely here.

[narrator] The imagery proves that this method

can accurately confirm where a sniper was standing,

and where the leg was most vulnerable.

A big turning point, not only to help solve cold cases,

also to help the living.

A radiologist can quickly paint the picture,

and then we can do more effective CT triage,

which means the triage not just into the CT, "who's next?",

because you may have 20 people waiting,

but who then is next for the operating room

based on the critical organs

damaged in that wound path.

[narrator] Beyond the lab, this data is being compared

to combat casualty files, teaching soldiers how to

better position themselves in war, and prompting

the creation of more protective body armor.

Just one more thing Dr. Les Folio can be proud of.

You know those forensic crime shows are still

quite popular, well I think we've got

the inspiration for a new series here.

Oh yes, CSI radiologist on the scene.

Well, that's all we've got time for today.

Thanks very much for watching How Tech Works .

Until next time, I'm Basil Singer.

[ending music]