Micro Live

Has the dubious distinction of being America's drug capital and one of the most difficult cities in the world to police. Now a new system, using computerised portable radios that can be programmed from headquarters, is helping in the fight against crime. In Oxford, Kittredge Cowlishaw runs a unique course called 'Computing for the Terrified'. One of the applications the students are introduced to is the 'spreadsheet' - the software which has probably sold more computers than any other. Micro Live shows the basics of how to use one.

With Lesley Judd. Are computers going to the dogs? Harringay Stadium is one of the few tracks which hasn't replaced its electro-mechanical tote system with a computer. American reporter Freff visits Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, one of the key centres in computing research. Rock-eating robots, world-beating chess machines, a Cray supercomputer - you name it, CMU probably has it.

The weekly look at the world of information technology with Lesley Judd and Fred Harris. This week's programme includes a visit to Salt Lake City, Utah, headquarters of the Mormon Church. The Mormons believe that if they convert you to Mormonism, they will convert all of your ancestors. This has led them to create the largest genealogical database in the world. They are now transferring all this information onto a computer network so that it will be available to everyone with a home micro

The weekly look at the world of information technology with Lesley Judd and Fred Harris. Customised chips - complex and specialised chips for specific needs - used to be very expensive. But now there is a way of producing them cheaply. In an exclusive interview Sir Clive Sinclair gives an insight into past successes and failures and looks forward with new plans for the next generation of computers. Four- and 5-year-olds are now getting hands-on experience of computers in nursery classes.

The BBC and the ITV companies used to disagree cordially when it came to audience figures. But recently they joined forces and turned to electronics to measure the ratings. Fred Harris finds out if the numbers are more reliable. The Veterans Association runs hospitals in the US for members of the armed forces injured in action. Lesley Judd investigates a project at Stanford University where engineers and philosophers are working with the VA to create a robot that will be of real use to disabled ex-servicemen.

With Ian McNaught-Davis and Fred Harris. Robots Special: The humanoid robots of fiction and today's industrial robots are as far from each other as chalk from cheese. But slowly robots are being incorporated into systems capable of bringing some of the flexibility of man on to the factory floor. Robotics scientists are making great headway in giving robots vision, touch and even the ability to play a mean game of table tennis. Explaining developments is Professor Mike Brady , who recently returned to Britain from one of America's leading technological universities to run an Oxford research team.

With Lesley Judd and Ian McNaught-Davis. From Washington Freff investigates the way that American politicians use computerised direct mail to target key groups of voters. The technique is so effective that it is now an essential part of US political campaigning. Could it happen here? Also the best and the latest computerised film animation from the Imagina Conference at the Monte Carlo Television Festival, where Hollywood film-makers and academic researchers recently showed their work.

The weekly look at the world of information technology with Lesley Judd and Ian McNaught-Davis. This week an examination of the use of computers and microelectronics in the world of medicine - the successes, the failures and the ideas still waiting for trial, including superb new diagnostic tools for the future. But will the NHS be able to afford them? From America, a robot being instructed in plain English might eventually be used to help disabled Vietnam war veterans. And an examination of medical software for the home micro - some of it good and some of it very bad.

With Fred Harris and Ian McNaught-Davis. The Epcot Center in Florida is next door to Disneyworld, but it's not just there for entertainment. It was the last great dream of Walt Disney and it's designed to give the visitors who flock through it every day an image of past, present and future. Micro Live takes a look 'backstage' at the computers in control. The technologies of computerised graphics, text processing and printing are being brought together in a new way that allows almost anyone to do their own desktop publishing. Micro Live assesses the competing systems that claim to turn a home micro into a mini Fleet Street.

The weekly look at the world of information technology with Lesley Judd and Fred Harris. If you book an airline ticket you're likely to be in the hands of a computer until you pick up your luggage at the other end. Micro Live investigates the system. When the Torrey Canyon sank in the English Channel 20 years ago this week, the oil it spilled caused great damage to the coast and to wildlife. If it happened today, a computer model would be used to speed up decisions on how to fight the disaster. Micros have become a familiar sight in our schools, but they may become as familiar in the nursery.

The final live programme from the popular 1980's BBC series 'Micro Live', broadcast early 1987. Micro Live sees a play about the father of modern computing, Alan Turing, and finds out about the latest research projects in California. In the last, extended edition of the series, Micro Live visits the Haymarket Theatre where the world of Alan Turing, the father of modern computing, is portrayed by Derek Jacobi in the stageplay Breaking the Code. Turing's computers in the 1940s and 1950s were 'first-generation' machines; now computer scientists are working on the 'fifth generation'. In Scotland the institute named after Turing has a world reputation in artificial intelligence work, but its software products are hardly used in the UK. In California, where seemingly limitless sums are thrown at research projects, 'Chinese temples', 'brainstorming' and robots for war veterans are the subjects of fifth generation work. Dr Ian Page of Oxford University puts such present and future work in perspective.