Find out about the technical innovations being made at BT’s Adastral, including ‘Double’, a virtual doctor who can follow you around the room, and a smart city made from Lego

‘Double’

Double enables a doctor to get to a place they might not be able to get to normally – rural surgeries, for example.

You can see BT’s director of research, Lisa Perkins, operating double at the moment by pushing keys forwards on her keyboard.

East Anglian Daily Times: Lisa Perkins on BT's 'double'Lisa Perkins on BT's 'double' (Image: Archant)

“The point is your doctor can move around the room and speak to people,” explained BT’s showcase manager Shane Allum. “You can change the height, have a little tray on the front, some of the instruments can be there for measuring temperature and heart rate.

“This is not futuristic sci fi – BT were the first company in Europe to have a double unit a couple of years ago, for getting colleagues around the world into the same space.”

Using Lego to depict how the Internet of Things could really work in our cities

East Anglian Daily Times: Lego Smart City at BT's Adastral ParkLego Smart City at BT's Adastral Park (Image: Archant)

This clever construction was created by Mr Allum himself - and although it’s made from lego, it’s far from childs’ play.

“We’ve got smart sensors in everything in this Lego City – we feed all the information from the sensors into our database,” he explained. “It allows us to change the management of the city. For instance, parking sensors, updates to say busy right away. Imagine if that updated for everybody in real time.

“On average, 30% of traffic during the day is people looking for a parking space. If you have a simple system that tells you where parking spaces are available, you could reduce that traffic by 30% just like that.”