Shall I just give the camera a quick nudge and I'm recording my screen.
D'you want it more I've got a shiny face, i'll just de-shine it with
the cushion. Why don't you just go n make telly, do news n that?.
All right. Let's do it.
Hello and welcome to BBC R&D Explains where we lift the lid
on our big projects and chat directly to the people behind them.
This is our second episode about a big project of ours
called new forms of value. There is a link there if you want
to catch up on Episode One or else here's a super quick recap.
What could people love the BBC for as well as radio and television.
What would it look like if you had a single store for
all your personal data? How we could build systems
services that respects the privacy and agency of its audience.
In this episode, we're going to give you a first look at our brand new
augmented reality work, all developed with public service in mind.
With me again I've got Bill Thomson, Bill, thanks so much for taking time
out to tell us about the work on public service augmented reality.
So how does public service AR link into the personal data stores that you were telling us about last time?
One of the ways in which augmented reality experiences can be driven is
that they can be personalised. You could imagine something that is just
watching fish flying around in front of you and it's all very exciting,
but we think there might be ways to bring your personal data
into the experience into the augmented reality experience.
And if we're going to do that we want to look after your data properly,
so that builds on the work we are doing around personal data stores.
So earlier on I caught up with Alex Nelson and he's leading the
work on public service AR.
Alex. What exactly is public service AR?
That's a very good question. So most people will know AR from maybe selfie
filter that use or they might use it to look at and see how a piece
of furniture might look in the home. But the technology that's been
developed to power these experiences is actually really powerful.
Well with selfie filters there's no sign of the novelty wearing off just
yet, but Alex. What do you see as the future for augmented reality.
Yeah, so the technology that's powering things like selfie filters,
actually one day might enable what we call headset AR.
So if you imagine a pair of smart glasses that you wear on your face.
But those glasses are able to read and understand the world around you
so we'll be able to overlay content into the world, wherever you are.
And that sounds brilliant. But there's also a bit of a risk
that you end up with private companies that are essentially
able to mediate reality for people all around the world.
So it's important that we, as the BBC with public service in mind are
able to understand the role that we might have to play in the future.
So have you been buliding any prototypes to examine the
types of AR experiences that would be of value to people.
Yeah, so we've built a number of different prototypes that
we will be testing it in the lab with with our users.
We have one example of a virtual festival where you can plant
stages around your garden or in a local park and watch,
watch bands play or one where you are a treasure hunter or an explorer
and you're looking at fossils and trying to uncover dinosaurs.
And then we're working on one right now where we're exploring whether AR
can help encourage people to dance. Imagine mashing together Tick Tock
and ballet and science fiction and see what happens there.
So we think there's lots of ways they could benefit people from
really practical stuff to things that feel a bit more entertaining.
So we know that an augmented reality experience can be much
`more compelling than just words or numbers on a page. So have
you tested any of these out with real people to get some feedback?
Yeah. So we've been exploring a whole range of different 3D models that we
might bring, 3Dobjects that we might bring into people's environments but,
actually the really useful one we found in our experience is just
showing what two metres looks like on the floor between you and
another person. So, a 3D character pops up and you can see them,
you can see a 2m arrow on the floor and particularly at the
start of lockdown understanding what that distance actually
meant was quite a powerful and useful thing for people.
It's a great way of making something that's intangible feel like it's physically there in your own space.
You've also created one that shows you the flights of stairs,
you've climbed and equates that to landmarks like the Eiffel Tower.
Can you tell us a bit about that one?
Yeah, sure. So when you start thinking about y'know,
I've climbs six flights of stairs today.
I don't know, how high is that? Is that good? Is that high up?
So we were kind of interested in how we can help people visualise that.
And we were also interested in what it means to have a personal data
store and how we might link into different third party data sources
and so this was a really good way of us to be able to tap into the
health information stored on people's phones often by default and linking
to that data taking real data about how many flights fo stairs you've and
comparing that to scalable models of things that you might know whether
that's a bus or a building or a blue whale and seeing what you've done.
It's really impressed if you've climbed a large number of stairs.
Sadly, we were developing this at the start of locked down where most of
us weren't climbing that many stairs. So it was definitely a bit of a
wake-up call for some of us to start moving a little bit more.
And that's the other things - we're really interested in how
this might motivate people. So, if we could encourage
people to try and climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
That would be amazing. You know whether they could do that in a day.
Maybe that's a different matter, maybe there's some slightly
less ambitious landmarks they could try first.
And there's a wealth of data as well.
Not just the data you're actively generating as you go about your day,
you know if you're tracking exercise or nutrition,
but your phone in the background is constantly generating data as well.
So what sort of data points are you using for these AR experiences?.
Yeah. So. So we've been really careful about how we use this data.
We're making sure that we use the absolute minimum that we need
to and when we ask for data from people from their devices we're
really clear and transparent about how it's going to be used.
Well, these experiences you've created they sound fantastic.
Is there any way we can try them out for ourselves? Yeah. So the first
way you can probably have a go on this is to be one of a beta testers.
So if you head over to BBC taster. You should see on the homepage a
link to a sign up form to become one of our one of our testers.
So, over the next few months we're going to be testing out a whole
range of prototypes with as many users as possible, really. So, yeah.
Head over there and sign up. Depending on how those trials
go we may be releasing some of these experiences more broadly.
Yeah. Watch this space on that.
So, Alex. Loads of fantastic work going on here.
What's the best way to keep up with it all?
So we have a series of blog posts that are in the process
of being written so checkout R&D Twitter, the R&D Blog.
That's your best place to find out more about what we're doing.
Brilliant. Alex Nelson. It's been fantastic.
With me again I've got Bill Thompson.
So, Bill, these augmented reality prototypes look fantastic look really
fun. Some of them are really useful. But what about our wellbeing. And
how can we make sure they fit with the BBC's values, the core values?
That's one of the core questions we're asking ourselves what we've
seen that we can build these things and we know they're entertaining,
but it's really quite difficult with these new forms of experiences,
these new ways of doing things, to know how they're serving people
and so one of the other strands of work within New Forms of Value is
something we call the human values framework. And that's asking that
very difficult question about what are the values that motivate people?
What are the things that are good for them in their lives?
And how can design services and experiences that meet those needs?
Like the public service AR work.
Well, that's it for this episode.
As always do let us know what you think in the comments and don't
forget to like and subscribe. Tune in next time where we'll meet
Leanne Kerlin who's turning the way we evaluate content on its head,
putting human values at the centre, rather than clicks and views.