(UPBEAT MUSIC) We're living in a new age of invention. Brilliant brains no longer just hold up in leading the university labs or research facilities. Today inventors are coming together in technology hubs like this to design, to help improve people's lives. It's actually working. That's so cool! For this series, we've brought together seven of the UK's leading engineers, designers and computer programmers. Tada! Gonna make myself the guinea pig. They'll use cutting-edge science and technology to build life-changing solutions for people in desperate need,... I don't know who to ask... or where to go. In pain; uncomfortable. ...for individuals who are seriously ill,... (COUGHS WHEEZILY) Whoa! ...to solving issues affecting entire communities. Someone's either going to get seriously injured and can get AIDS, or someone's gonna die. They'll attempt to tackle major problems that have so far gone unsolved. I think I've created something really new and possibly revolutionary. The potential of this is massive. Fingers crossed nothing cracks or explodes. This week, they'll build life-saving equipment for two brothers with cystic fibrosis. Every time you blow, the red car accelerates. I have never, ever seen this before. They'll help a young girl who has to wear a protective helmet live a normal life. I just trip over a lot, and I can't stop. And build technology to give a partially sighted mum the freedom to enjoy the outdoors. We're here! I'm Simon Reeve. Over the next six months, I'll be working with the team. If they succeed, they could change these people's lives and the lives of many more. (LAUGHTER) Grr! (LAUGHS) This is the best thing that could ever happen for us. Keep going! Keep going! Keep going! Keep going! Copyright Able 2017 Our team's base is in East London. Known as a 'maker space', it's one of a national network of inventors' hubs. (ROBOTIC WHIRRING) Crammed full of the latest technology, it's from here that our seven leading inventors will attempt to create fixes for people with nowhere else to turn. I wanna explore their lives. We wanna discuss as a team and work with them to build the right solution. Our experts are all leaders in their field ` engineers who worked at Dyson and award-winning designers who've built everything from ambulances to earthquake sensors. Is it fair to say there is a technological revolution underway at the moment? Yes. I think` We call it the 'maker revolution'. It's a great way to leverage this energy that people have to contribute, to donate their time and their skills to help a great cause. Haiyan Zhang is a director of innovation at Microsoft Research. She'll lead the first case ` to help two boys with cystic fibrosis, a debilitating disease that severely affects their breathing. Every morning, mum Vicky is up at the crack of Dawn to prepare for their first treatment of the day. Hello. Welcome. Hi. Come on through. Yeah, thanks. Everything has to be sterilised every time you use it. Every time? And how often is it used? Well, they both have three nebulisers a day, so, yeah, six times we're sterilising. Do you spend your life cleaning and sterilising? I do, yeah ` boiling pans of water. I hear some stirring. (FOOTSTEPS APPROACH) Hi. First to wake is her 13-year-old son, Morgan. He's like a little dog. (LAUGHTER) Aren't you? (LAUGHS) Right, so, what happens now is Morgan starts his routine. Cystic fibrosis, or CF, is the result of a faulty gene that causes sticky mucus to gather in the lungs and digestive system. How does that taste? Disgusting. (LAUGHS) Awww. They should make better flavours. Yeah. It makes it hard to breathe and increases the risk of infection. Morgan begins his day inhaling saltwater vapour that helps to loosen the mucus. Salt flavour's not great, is it? A chocolate flavoured nebuliser. Yes. I would do that. Yeah. Oh, that's finished. Great. 'Next, Vicky prepares 13 pills.' First of one. They're basically a pain, cos sometimes they get stuck in my throat and it hurts for the rest of the day. So literally a pain. Yeah. (CHUCKLES) Cos I do spent my life, it feels like, nagging. 'It's time to do your nebuliser.' 'It's time to do your tablets.' 'Oh, it's time to do your physio.' But by far the biggest chore... Come on, Morgan. ...is physiotherapy for his lungs. It's a 30-minute exercise to loosen the mucus so it's then easier to cough it up. (COUGHS WHEEZILY) Whoa! Let's have that. You know, he's 12; he could do it by himself. But, as you can see, it's just tedious. He does anything he can to get out of it. To add to the difficulty, Morgan has a condition called ADHD, which means he has a short attention span and is quickly distracted. (HOOTS) We don't need noises. Keep going. What kind of things do you entertain Morgan with? We can't really have anything on cos he can't do two things at once. (WHISTLES) Yeah. So then they'll just stare at the TV and forget to blow and... Oh OK. They have to do this for 30 minutes, three times a day,... ...two, three... ...every day. And when Morgan's done,... Wakey-wakey. Vicky has to repeat the whole process... (GROANS) It's time for school. ...with 16-year-old Aiden. She's desperate for help. And how much do you like or dislike the physio? Dislike. Would you do it if Mum and Dad weren't hassling you into it? No. Even though you know it's really important. Yeah. Adrian, do you wanna come and sit over here? Ohhh. (GROANS) Where can he sit? Oh. Aiden, we're not using that, sweetie. MUTTERS: God's sake. Aiden has got autism. He doesn't understand the reason why he's got to do it. He doesn't understand what CF means. One, two, three, four, five. (DEVICE WHIRRS) Why do you hate it? Boring, waste of time. Aw. Better stuff to do. What kind of better stuff? Play games. What kind of games? FIFA. (LAUGHTER) What's your role in the morning's proceedings, Simon? I, sort of, take a back step from all the medication and physio just because Vicky's better with it. So I take the role of feeding them up. People with cystic fibrosis require up to 50% more calories a day because mucus stops nutrients being absorbed into their gut. Am I your servant? That's it, yeah. Thank you very much. Currently, the average life expectancy of someone with cystic fibrosis is around 40 years. And without daily physio, their quality of life is significantly worse. VICKY: Everything you do day-to-day, we try to make it a treasured memory, because you just don't know what might happen in the future. Mum's morning is taken up cajoling Aiden and Morgan,... Hello. '...whilst dad Simon sorts the other two kids.' Great. OK. And we're off. All right. And then it's off to school. Vicky, I don't know how you do it with your four kids and... handling CF and... Yeah, I think everybody says that, but I think you just do. Yeah. You, kind of, get what you're given, and you deal with it. It's not ideal. I wouldn't choose it, but I wouldn't change the boys for the world. (CURIOUS MUSIC) At Aiden's school, he must exercise every day to help improve his lung function. To normal running. Well done. That's good. Wearing an altitude mask restricts my own oxygen intake and simulates how Aiden feels when his lungs are infected. Good. Well done. Off you go for 20 seconds now. Keep working it. That's good. OK. Well done. Keep going. Try and keep your hands on your chest, though, Aiden. Three, two,... one. And rest up, gentlemen. That's good. Well done. Oh, Jesus! Three, two, one. Three, two, one. And rest up, gentlemen. Well done. (EXHALES) (LAUGHS) (BREATHES HEAVILY) It's, uh... It's a window into a completely different world, actually. It's way beyond unpleasant. It's frightening. That's so` Is there anything more we take for granted in our bodies? So this gives me a sense of what it must be like. Yeah. (COUGHS) Oh, Aiden, mate... (SIGHS) After a humbling day with the Coxhead family, we leave them to begin yet another round of physio sessions. What a life they live. My goodness. Yeah. I mean, they're so loving, so caring, so sharing. Oh yeah, so lovely. Yeah. So open to us as well, but facing really tricky challenges. It's so complicated. What's your thinking? There are definitely ways we can, um, make Vicky's life easier through just simple things like ` how can we help her keep count? She needs to constantly remind them or nag them. And then thinking about ` how can we motivate the boys to do that programme? How can we just improve those things, those little things for her, maybe through digital technology? The next case is 7-year-old Rosie. She had brain surgery as a baby and now wears a cumbersome medical helmet whenever she's awake. She wants the team to invent something that'll be less visible and help her fit in with her friends. The case will be led by Dr Zoe Laughlin. I always wanted to make things. I wanted to, kind of, engage physically in the world and invent stuff. And it's fundamentally all about interrogating the world and going, 'Why is that like that? 'Could it be done better and differently and with a bit more ingenuity?' She's a materials engineer and an artist who works with everything from precious metals to porcelain ` and even space dust. ALL: Hello! Come on in. Are you Rosie? Today we've come to Stockton-on-Tees to meet Rosie and her mum, Nat. Can we talk about what you've got on your head? I just trip over a lot, and I can't stop. Do you trip or your legs give way underneath you, they get a bit wobbly? I just trip sometimes. She was born at 26 weeks, so she was born pretty early, and, um, she had a bleed on her brain. Because of that, she's now blind in her right eye. She's got undertoned muscles as well, and she just falls quite a lot. Don't ya? Will you show me your helmet? Can you take it off for me so we can have a closer look? Can you manage? Let's have a look. Does it get hot? Um, sometimes when it's really sunny, it rubs on my head and it makes my head go all sore. Look here. You can really see those two marks there where it rubs against the front of your head. So have you been wearing a helmet ever since you could walk, since you were a toddler? Yeah. To learn more about what Rosie wants from a protective helmet, Zoe asks her and her sisters to draw some designs. You're going to think about the most amazing helmet. What would it have on it? What would it be like, OK? So, we're gonna put on whatever we want? Yeah, whatever you want. As with any child, Rosie just wants to fit in with her friends. I'm doing it in orange. Permanent safety helmets are widely used by people with epilepsy and brain injuries. But Rosie's very keen that hers is different. Whoa. That's cool. She's never been able to wear her hair on a daily basis how she likes, in any kind of style she wants. She'll ask me for a bun in her hair, and I can't put a bun in her hair. So you'd like something, then, that means she can do her hair or express herself through her hair? I think she's probably outgrown it now as well. I think she needs something the next step up. And have you got any thoughts about what that should be? The only thing I can really say that she loves is music ` David Bowie, and she's absolutely fanatical about him, like really badly. Just absolutely loves everything about him. Like most 7-year-olds, Rosie already has ideas on what her new helmet will be like. This is the helmet. Yeah. And it's got what? What is special about that helmet? It's got a microphone, and it's got wings. And cakes on it. It's got a microphone and wings and cakes on it. That is a pretty special helmet. And it's got two light bulbs. They were the four key things ` lights, rings, music and cake. (LAUGHTER) 'Before we leave, Rosie is desperate to show us something.' Whoa! Wow. You do love him, don't you? What are your favourite pictures of him there? I've got that on one of my magazines. Have you? (DAVID BOWIES' 'MODERN LOVE' PLAYS) Yeah. # Never gonna fall for... # No confessions. That is on full volume! # No religion. # God and man. I have not had it this loud! # Don't believe in... SINGS: # But I never wave bye-bye. # But I try. # I try. # I've got some actions. Go on. Let's see them. Gonna teach me? # Never gonna fall for... # ...modern love. # Walks beside me. # Modern love. I can't quite Rosie's voice. ECHOES: # Church on time. # Back in London, Zoe and I feed back to the rest of the team. Rosie really touched me. What a character. Yeah, I really felt for her, and I really wanted to think I could just do the absolute best for her. Grown adults don't even like wearing bike helmets cos they mess up their hair. Imagine if you had to wear that all the time. How it impacts on both your identity, but also just the comfort. She said it's itchy and it's hot and you can't run around. And I think we can really do something to help her. Uh, the idea that it's not one helmet. It's potentially... We're potentially designing a system for her to look nice. You probably don't look like David Bowie every day, but you want to be able to look like David Bowie sometimes. I'm really conscious with this that` This is obviously a medical device that's been designed as a medical device and tested as one. And anything that we produce here would need to be subjected to that same testing regime. The team have hit on a serious problem. Testing any medical device can take years to get the right certification. Zoe and the team must find a quicker way to create the potentially life-changing helmet for Rosie. (CURIOUS MUSIC) Haiyan has spent three months researching cystic fibrosis,... (AIR HISSES) ...talking to medical experts, chatting to mum Vicky,... I think the fix should really help you as well. ...and analysing every part of the boys' treatment. (WHIRRING) She must juggle the Coxheads' case with her own new-born baby... HIYAN: Someone's fallen asleep. ...and international travel for her work. Uh, it's 6am in Seattle. I was just thinking about the Coxheads. But back in her lab in Cambridge, she hits on an idea. How do we make CF physio more exciting for the boys? And my solution is to turn physio into a video game. And, actually, the controller for that video game is right here. This is an acapella. It's an airway clearance device for cystic fibrosis. The better quality of the breath that the boys are breathing, the higher the score that they might score in a video game. She takes the idea to the inventors' hub. That sounds like a very difficult thing, a very expensive thing to create. Cos these boys, surely, they're going to be used to, um, I don't know` One of the big selling games, they cost as much as a Hollywood movie to make, don't they? You might've hit the nail on the head with a` A game is a big, big deal these days, making a modern game ` huge budgets, huge time scales. What we're seeing with the tablet games, with mobile games, is that you can create really compelling play experiences with very simple graphics. That's true. That's very true. Very simple game mechanics as well. Could it be rich enough in content and activity to make it have some sort of legacy? Will it last? Will they get bored within a week? It just had to be better than lying on your side on your own doing your physio, right? It doesn't have to be better than Call of Duty. We don't have to make the game. I think we could engage a wider community and run a hackathon where we bring together designers, programmers, hardware, electrical engineers. They'll hack together a project, and at the end of it, they actually have working prototypes. Hiyan posts messages on social media, and a few weeks later, a 48-hour hackathon is underway. Day one gets off to a good start, with volunteers fuelled by pizza, and work goes on late into the night. The next morning, I come to see the progress. Oh wow. Hey, Hiyan! Hello. Hello, hello, hello! Look at this. Welcome to our hackathon. This is very impressive. Yeah. Where has this idea come from? So, the hackathon's, kind of, a recent invention, and it's the idea that people volunteer their time and their skills in a very compressed timeframe. And when you've got that 48 hours, that 24 hours' compressed timeframe to get together and make something, you can really achieve a lot. Right. They're volunteering their time to create video games using CF airway clearance devices that I've created. I haven't seen this. What have you come up with? Oh! Let me show you! I really wanna see. So this is something that you've developed? Yes, exactly. So this chip has a sensor on it. It's a pressure sensor. When I blow into it,... (WHIRRING) ...the air pressure that I'm producing is being turned into digital signals. Mm. And those digital signals are triggering the lights on the board, but it's also being transmitted on to my laptop so I can use it as an input into an app or a videogame. But how would you use this, then, to control a game? The breath propels him forward, makes him run, and then the button allows him to jump, kind of like if you've ever played Mario. Is this actually doable in the time you've got? Uh... yes. (LAUGHTER) These guys are actually hacking a physical car racing set. Right. So the airway clearance device is going to be helping the boys race cars in the living room or even outdoors. Whoa. The Coxhead boys would love this. Working with the team are two of the UK's leading cystic fibrosis physiotherapy experts, Professor Eleanor Maine and Ammani Prasad. I think it's the most interesting thing that's happened in airway clearance for a long time. Wow. Actually, airway clearance has always been the bug bear, and seeing in 48 hours people making it possibly fun, (LAUGHS) it's just amazing. And behind that, then there's a whole other thing about what data we can collect. Exactly. And as clinicians and researchers, what can we do with that data? But this game isn't just a toy. Hidden within it is technology that can store clinical research on patient breathing. If lots of CF sufferers play the games, they could create a treasure trove of data about physio for cystic fibrosis ` the biggest, in fact, ever. You can look at hundreds of people simultaneously over a long term, and that hasn't been possible... I'm so glad that this could potentially change physio research for you guys. The fact that, you know, I can create something that might improve the lives of a lot of CF sufferers is just incredible to me. After 48 hours of hard work, the hackathon draws to a close. (ALL CHEER) Hiyan has prototypes of games, but there's still a lot of work to do. (REFLECTIVE MUSIC) Zoe is redesigning 7-year-old Rosie's bulky medical helmet. Today we've come to Rosie's school. Here she comes! Hey! Ahhh! (LAUGHTER) (LAUGHS) We want to know how her teacher feels about her helmet. Five. Five. Do you feel more comfortable as her teacher knowing that she's got quite a, you know, large, bulky helmet on her head? Definitely when she's walking around the classroom and walking free of school, she needs to have something to protect her. The thing that concerns me a little bit is sometimes I look at her and she just looks uncomfortable. Like, you can see that she's hot in that, and you think, 'She's wearing that all of the time, all day long.' I can't imagine personally having a helmet on literally from the moment I wake up until I go home at night. Zoe goes to meet Dr Wing Ting, Rosie's consultant. He's looked after Rosie since birth and through two major brain operations, but now thinks she could reduce down how much she wears the helmet. During the school time, during the bedtime, of course, I don't think she really needs it. But, again, it's a comfort zone and it'd be a confidence factor, which I think is important for Rosie. So, do you envisage a time when she wouldn't need a helmet? I do. The difficulty is nobody can tell when, I think, she will be in a position to come off, and when everybody's surrounding her will also be comfortable. So, a less protective helmet that enabled her to transition between helmet and no helmet psychologically might be helpful. Yeah. That would be very useful for her, actually. Yeah. So it's clear Rosie won't always need a helmet. Zoe knows she needs to create head protection that provides safety, but crucially starts to wean Rosie off wearing a helmet altogether. I've got some helmets. And we've got one here that's actually pretty close to the type that Rosie has. The blue foam. Really nothing very sophisticated. It's almost like wetsuit material. In the case of this, nothing more than a web that attaches to the head. But, you know, there's a gap that provides some form of protection. When you, you know, get a knock, it's going to make your head shake around, whereas this will just absorb it and be much softer and just provide better cushioning, really. We see these everywhere now, don't we? We think a lot of people associate them now, I suppose, with ludicrous health and safety. What force can this withstand? (BANG!) (LAUGHS) It's not a bowling ball. Goodness. OK. This is a challenge now. (BANG!) A bit harder. (BANG!) I don't think I'm gonna get much purchase on it. (THWACK!) Oh look! A bit of a dent now. Ohhhhh. A bit of a dent. And a crack. But look ` the head inside would be nice and safe. A bit more purchase. (CRACK!) It's the foam which is doing all the protecting now. We start to investigate protective headwear to examine the different materials that are used. Let's take that out there. So there's our hard shell, like the crash helmet` the builder's helmet has. Now, look ` here's the polystyrene,... similar to the bike helmet. Look ` standard polystyrene, like you get for a TV or something. Then Zoe mixes up a non-Newtonian fluid, something you find in your kitchen cupboard. Big bag of corn flour. Yep. Want to get it to the consistency of double cream. Can I assist? Yeah, get your hands stuck in there. Right, so, actually, this is pretty perfect, consistency wise. This, if you just put your hand in, it's soft and runny. But if you punch it... (THWACK!) (KNOCKING) That is astonishing! Go on ` pop your hand in. No! What do you mean pop my hand in? Keep the hammer away! I wanna do the punching more. Go on. You do a punch, just so you get your confidence up. Fast release and you'll come away clean. That's astonishing. How is that possible? Look! (LAUGHS) Yeah, that's good. That's it. That's` That's incredible! So that is a liquid that will absorb energy and provide protection. What's happening is those particles, those little, tiny grains of the flour, they're not dissolved; they're just suspended in the water. And they normally just move over each other nicely. But if you give them energy, they can't get out the way quick enough, so they actually, in effect, lock together and provide that protection. It's this principle that Zoe now needs to turn into practical head protection for Rosie. (REFLECTIVE ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC) Two cases are now underway, and the team are about to begin their third. They must find a solution for a partially-sighted mum who's scared to leave home with her children. She's a top design strategist and often the first port of call to decide the direction the team will take. your background. I've done a lot of work with, um, older people, in particular, my grandmother. I think you're always inspired by things that you know. One of the real handicaps for her was losing her sight. Um, she's now been classified as blind. We've come to Woking to meet partially-sighted mother-of-two Shamreen Hussain. Hello. Hello! Hello, Shamreen. Hello. (CHILDREN SHOUT) Oh my goodness. Such excitement. (LAUGHTER) Hello, gentlemen. Hello. That is very exciting. In terms of what makes things particularly hard, are you able to tell us a little bit about that? Yeah. Um, I've got something which is called cone dystrophy, so it's, um, the cone cells in the retina which is at the back of the eye which are damaged, and I'm totally colour-blind. Can you see us now? Yeah. Do you only see us? Or are we out of focus? Am I in focus? I can't see fine details. So, my fine vision is very weak. Right. Um, but inside, when a room's really bright, I struggle, because I get a glare. So everything just becomes a blur. Her visual impairment makes everyday tasks, like cooking, a nightmare. What I'll do is I'll use my hands to know how far in I should be cutting. Mind your thumb! Whoa! That was a nervous moment for me then. I could see that thumb. I kept wanting to pull it out of the way of the knife. (GRINDING) I've got a slight chill going through me when I see you doing that. That's why I tend to avoid cooking. You try and stay out of the kitchen? You don't cook? I don't cook. My husband does it all. Mm. I've been in situations when guests have come. My brother-in-law and my husband would do the joint cooking, and when they've come, I'll do the serving so it looks like I've cooked. That's because of the pressure of` Because it's too much explaining that` It's not accepted for me not to be able to cook and not to be able to serve. So people genuinely don't know that you have a sight problem? No. They'd know I have a sight problem. They don't understand what it means. Shamreen can overcome most things in the home. But outdoors she struggles to cope. Hang on. Hang on. Don't run out. Now, what about obstacles on the road? Do you feel OK with`? No. Like, um, manholes and stuff, you just trip over them. Have you fallen over in the street? Oh... yes. (CHUCKLES) Have you? Yes. Have you hurt yourself? Um, manies of times. Many times, really? Yeah. She doesn't want to use obvious visual aids like white sticks, guide dogs or support workers. She'd prefer something that keeps her impairment discrete. I feel quite vulnerable and very stressed. My stress levels are quite high. Well, this feels like a much more difficult environment... (LAUGHS) ...for you to be in, doesn't it? Yep. Listen, I can feel you're getting stressed. Yeah. Are you all right? Yeah. BOY: So cool! Right, Muham, can you hold my hand? We're gonna cross the road now. Take your time. No rush. Good boy. Good boy. Cone dystrophy is a hereditary disease, and Shamreen's son, Muham, has the same condition. Right, let's cross the road. OK. You're closing your eyes a lot more, aren't you? Yeah. So am I right in thinking you can see less now than... Than before. ...than in the house? The road ahead is quite busy, so it's one of the main roads, and it's gonna be very difficult to cross. So, there's a van coming from the right. Can you see the van there? Do you want us to cross? OK. Yeah, so he's stopped. He must have given you indication to go. So he probably waved his hand. He did, yeah. I don't see that. All I see is a stopped vehicle. Do you do things like go to the park with them? It's not an everyday thing. It's not an every weekend thing. It has to be pre-planned, and I need to have someone. I need to ask someone to drop me off or come with me. On the way home, the dangers for Shamreen and her boys are all too apparent. There's not a lot of room in here, is there? No. I wouldn't wanna be dragging two boys along here. With Shamreen and the kids safely back home, we bring an end to a stressful afternoon. It was quite distressing to see her like that. It was. I agree. I really didn't want` I wanted to just take her out of it straight away. Take her back into the house. Take her back into the house. But then that in itself is very telling, cos it just shows how trapped she is. What will you do from here? So I need to go away and digest all the information that we've got today. I've still got to share everything with the rest of the team and get some more input from the rest of their expertise. I do think it would be really useful to do an audit of existing products and technology just to see how she reacts to them, because... That's for visually impaired people and blind people, right? Exactly. Just because it's a fast-track way to find out what works and doesn't work for her. Is the fix what you imagined? Or is it more complicated? It's a lot more complicated. It affects every aspect of her life, so how do you decide which one of those you want to make better? Mm, yeah. (UPBEAT JAZZ MUSIC) 250 miles away in Stockton-on-Tees, Zoe's been teaching Rosie how to customise her helmet. But Zoe never stops searching for a way to make the helmets as lightweight and inconspicuous as possible. Inspiration comes from the most surprising places. Hiya. So, I've just had a bath, and I was in the bath and I had a thought about Rosie and the crash helmet... and the problem of phones ` what it is you actually want from a phone. You want it to be able to collapse and absorb the energy. But actually you want it to spring back and recover so it's ready to, you know, receive another impact. She begins investigating every foam in existence. Wouldn't want that as a crash helmet. She settles on a revolutionary new phone which has similar properties to corn flour. Got this special type of material that's really high-tech, used in top-end protective clothing. So it's a kind of foam and a liquid at the same time. It's soft and malleable. But... Ow. If you bash it, it becomes more solid. Then, on a night out, she has a moment of inventor's inspiration. I was walking down the street, and I've seen a man wearing a headband, and it made me think of Rosie's helmet being just a headband look. Can you see him over my shoulder? It's quite wide at the front. And it goes down to a narrow thing at the back. Back at her workshop, Zoe begins working on high-tech headbands that will protect the weakest parts of the skull around the temple. It takes two months of prototype testing. Then she's ready to see what Rosie and her parents think. What I've looking and making here... is actually looking at making a range of headbands that use absolutely high-tech internal materials. They're soft, but actually... (KNOCKS) really robust and really absorb loads of energy. But I thought it'd be interesting to try and essentially make for Rosie objects that she can wear in the classroom or when you go for dinner. Something that's not a helmet at all, and then enables her to have her own hair and give her that confidence to take the helmet off. So straight over your head, all the way down. (LAUGHS) Or like that. So then much cooler. Tis a lot cooler, innit? It looks like a sports thing that goes on your forehead. It is like a sports thing. This is used in Olympic ski suits, and the top-end motorcyclists' clothing. People who ride horses use it in breast plates. This is a part of a breast plate for a horse-rider. Things where you need flexibility, movement, but you need protection as well. So it's, kind of, come from the elite athletes. As parents, how comfortable would you feel about this idea at all? Oh, perfectly comfortable. Yes. Cos it has got the protection on it as well. It's about finding the appropriate object for the appropriate moment. Yep. When she's outside and running around, the helmet is appropriate. But when she's sat at the desk at school, it's just too much. It really does get her hot. Yeah, I think it's lovely. It's a great idea, cos, like you said, it's what other people would wear, but it's got the protection in it, which you can't really tell by looking at them. Is it feeling comfortable now? Does it feel hot? I wear this one for school? You can take one for school, yeah. Yeah, you can wear it for school. One for inside and a different one for outside. This has all been a revelation for us. We can't thank youse enough. And I think it will transform her life. You think this will transform her life? It's significant as that? I really do. To give her that confidence, learn to do her own hair and little things like that. To see the benefit of the headbands, Zoe has organised for Rosie to meet a top hairdresser. Free from her helmet, Rosie can now have almost any hairstyle she wants. How would you describe today? I'm thinking. You're thinking. Good. Serious question. The best day of my life ever. Pardon? The best day of my life ever. The best day of your life ever? So far. You never know what's to come. That's great. Pop it up. That's it. That's good. And we can even put the kit back in. I wanna look in the mirror. Hold on. I knowww. It looks good. Let's have a look. Shall we have a look in this mirror? What do you think? That's brilliant. Give us a twirl. Whoo-hoo! Is that a happy face? Mm-hm. Are you looking forward to showing friends at school? It looks great. And there's still protection there in that delicate bit at the front. Yeah. You look fantastic. I wanna show my mum and dad. WHISPERS: Go. You can show Mum and Dad! For six months, Zoe has researched and tested nearly every type of helmet and material that could protect Rosie. The high-tech headband she has invented is a world first. Back in Cornwall,... Aiden. Yeah? I want you to do physio. Nah! ...Vicky faces a constant battle to get her two sons to do daily physio for cystic fibrosis. There's no point. No point. No point, then? Fine. If that's the way you wanna be. Aiden! Fight number 325 about to commence. Come on. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. Listen. Come here just a minute. No! It needs to be done! I'm not (BLEEP)! No. I'm going out now! Somehow she manages six half-hour treatments every single day. ...and then you can have a holiday. All right? No. Hiyan has been working round the clock on the video games controller she hopes will help transform the boys' monotonous treatment. She's desperate to reduce the strain on Vicky. Do you ever have moments where you're just, like, not... just exhausted? Always, yeah. I mean... I kind of obviously put on a brave face, but there are loads of times I just don't wanna have that fight with them again. And as soon as` I work myself up to go, 'OK, we're gonna do physio now,' and that takes a lot of mental emotion to actually know I'm going to have a fight on my hands. And at what point do I wanna pick that fight? Seeing the amount of effort and the amount of emotional investment you put in to the boys' exercises every day, I think what we'd really need is something like a digital Vicky. (LAUGHS) Fantastic! Yeah, that's exactly what we need. I'd love it. (LAUGHS) Yeah! So that, you know, you don't have to nag the boys, we could get digital Vicky to nag the boys, and you can just sit back and relax and be their mum. Perfect. Yeah, that would just be amazing. Obviously making the boys happy and making it more engaging is great, but, actually, yeah, if you can take some of that strain and time and hours away from my day, then that would be a miracle. (CURIOUS MUSIC) The idea behind Digital Vicky is to monitor the boys' daily physio but also track their fitness routine, a vital part of cystic fibrosis therapy. Digital Vicky should replace much of the monitoring that takes up so much time in real-life Vicky's day. Brought along this for you. Haiyan has fitness tracking devices she hopes will integrate with the Digital Vicky app. They're taking a walk on the beach to see what information the fitness trackers collect. So I've just uploaded the data from my fitness tracker. OK. And you can see my heart rate's been up. There's some information about heartbeat that might be important, because I think that differentiates between regular walking around and actually high impact. If you're classing any exercise as physio, then actually the intensity needs to be really quite high, and they need to actually make their lungs work by huffing and puffing and you need to be able to see that. I mean, is there something that when you take the boys to the hospital, to the physio, is that something that`? They would love it. They would love it. (CHUCKLES) Really? They really would love it. Do you think the boys will feel like they're being surveilled? Watched? Yes. A little bit Big Brother. Maybe. But I that hope they can see that it will make them more responsible and more independent. I think it's great. Oh great. It's very exciting. Oh cool. Haiyan goes away to build Digital Vicky and finish the games for the boys. began researching Shamreen's case. Today they've got together to look at existing kitchen technology for partially sighted people. Right. We have got a selection of products for you that we thought you might find useful when cooking. Um, these have all been designed for people with visual impairments, so they've all got a little trick or feature. This is a talking labelling device, so it's supposed to be to help you know what's in different packets that you bring home from the shops. You press record. (BEEP!) Test. And then the idea is when you touch it,... FEMALE VOICE: Test. OK. So we'll put one of the... (BEEP!) Chickpeas and water. OK. Now, if you touch that, it should work. DEVICE REPLAYS RECORDING: 'Chickpeas and water.' (CHUCKLES) That's quite neat, actually. The pen labelling system could help Shamreen easily identify the ingredients in her cupboard. 'Chopped tomatoes.' That's brilliant. I like that. Rice. 'Rice.' Brilliant. From talking scales to ID pens, Shamreen tries a range of kit. It's all available to her through charities or the NHS. But until now, Shamreen has always said she wants to cope on her own. (DEVICE BEEPS, VIBRATES) Oh, it's vibrates as well. I think it gives me that guarantee that I know I'm not gonna food poison my family. I can really depend on these products. I really am quite surprised. Right. I guess we wanna go and taste the creation now. You've got your confidence in the kitchen now. Do you think we could maybe push forward even further and find... you know, more ways to give you what you really` the real crux of the matter, which is quality time with your kids, doing things that a mum would do? Do you feel`? Do you feel happy with that as a kind of moving forward? Definitely. It is being a mum for my kids and not using my disability as an obstacle. You know, the simplest things, like taking them to the park, it shouldn't be something that I do with my eyes closed, let alone` let alone me trying to keep them safe and cooped up inside. And sometimes they're just bouncing off the walls, because they just need that fresh air and to be able to go out. I do really wanna be close to my children. I think she's spent her whole life hiding her disability. And because of the social stigma around it, we need to get her more confident and more independent when it comes to spending time with her kids and taking them out. Armed with a better insight into Shamreen's situation, Ruby begins to plan how the team might help her. How might we give her freedom to go out? How might we better educate people in her network? How might we make her take care of her children? Make her feel secure and safe walking down the road? After discussions with the team, they come up with a solution. Basically, the idea is... an app that will` it's effectively like the pen friend that we tried, but it's like a kind of giant world version of that. So, instead of labelling jars of food and that sort of stuff, it's like labelling things that she might trip over, crossing roads ` all that kind of stuff. Over the next few weeks, the team help to develop an app using the existing Global Position System, or GPS, technology that's built in to most smartphones. This is basically like an app version of the pen for real life, and instead of the little stickers, it's just using GPS co-ordinates. Exactly. Yeah. Ooh! There you go. I have a notification. They build a rough prototype. a visually impaired mobility expert who will test the GPS app for Shamreen. I think maybe we should go out and give it a go. Lawrence and his support worker, Naru, walk different routes around London. OK. And speak in. Point one. They lay down markers... Yeah, I guess here. Here? Yeah. Point two. Should we go all the way up to the door, maybe? OK. Point three. Great. ...and then retrace their steps, hoping the app will trigger an alert. Yep, should've been one around here. Yep, there it is. Oh, it has? Yep! Excellent. What's the location there? APP: Point three. Oh. It thinks it's point three, but it... OK. OK. At least it's picking them up. Yeah. OK. So I think we need to stop there. I think there's quite a bit more work to do debugging this and getting it to work accurately. I think it's got a lot of potential, definitely. I think it's gonna have to be part of someone's mobility experience, really. We need to assess what's causing the delay. Is it the speed at which we're walking? Is it the radius around the pin? Beginning to realise why this hasn't been done before. But if you can do it, if you can crack it, it'll be really exciting. It'll be really useful. Lawrence has really helped work out what the ideal is in quite a lot of detail. So we know what we're shooting for; it's just about whether we can actually do it or not. Because t the end of the day, we are relying on satellites in outer space to tell us whether there is something that's 3 metres in front of us. I mean, it's really quite extraordinary it's got this far, really. GPS doesn't work quite as well as Ruby had hoped, so the team turn to mathematician and physicist Dr Sam Parkinson for help. GPS isn't totally accurate. The phone is gonna know you're in an area. It won't know exactly where you are. It'll have a pretty good idea of where you are, but it'll kinda say that you're anywhere within a circle within 5 metres of where you are. And that's like on Google Maps or something like that. That's when` That's when the circle grows. That's when you get he big blue circle versus the little pin ` that's what it's doing. And it can get better with time. So, like, as GPS gets a fix, it'll get smaller. The app needs to trigger an alert when it's closer to a marker just 3 to 5 metres from an object, rather than 10 to 20 metres. Sounds simple, but it requires complex computer code and algorithms. We kind of recognise that a really important thing for Shamreen was the ability to independently go out and do the things that any mother would wanna do,... Mm. ...like take her kids to the park. It won't totally replace something like a cane or a guide dog or something like that. It's more, uh, a kind of aide-memoire to help use those tools as well. Mm. Exciting! Hello! Shamreen! Hello! SHAMREEN: Hi! How are you? of work on your behalf. You have? Can't wait. I'm really, sort of, excited to try and give you something that might enable you to do even more, cos I feel like you've got that spirit already, and it's just about giving you something else to just, kind of, take it on a run with it, you know? Anything's a bonus ` any little thing. Even if it's one aspect of my needs that you've got, it's a bonus. What the app allows you to do is enable you to identify things along the route that are gonna cause a problem ` low walls, uneven pavement, lamp posts. Trip hazards. Trip hazards. And you have a little super-small and discrete wireless headphone... Lovely. ...that you put in your` Goodness. It's really small. That's tiny. Yeah! So you put that in your ear. It's really discrete. No one else knows that it's there. It's pretty high-tech, eh? It is pretty high-tech. Does that appeal to you? Definitely. And the fact that it's small, it's quite discrete. So this could be something magnificent? It gives me that independence. That Ruby here has created, eh? It sounds like you're going to invest in this. I am. I'm already like, 'Oh, I could do this now. I just need the one guy with...' I love it. I love the fact that you're coming up with lots of ways that you wanna test it. I'm really excited to see how you, kind of, get on with it, really. for giving this to me. And I can't believe that you spent so much time, and I really do appreciate this. It means a lot to me. Oh, you'll get me going now. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHTER) We head out so Shamreen can test her new app for the very first time. Where are we going? To the park! That's right! We're going to the park. The icon for recording a tag is in the bottom right-hand corner there. OK. So what you do is you hold this down. OK, go. Top of White Rose Lane. DEVICE REPEATS: 'Top of White Rose Lane.' (LAUGHS) There you go. Success. Yeah, so we can label the lamp post as one of the tags. Lamp post to the right-hand side. I know I need to stop and look for cars. Exactly. Go. Drop kerb to Wildbank Court. OK. And go. Road island. Entrance to the park. Having laid down all the markers, it's time to see if Shamreen's new app actually works. It's telling me 'lamp post to the right-hand side'. No! Oh, it's buzzing. 'Manhole cover'. Oh, manhole cover! Manhole cover ` just here. It's coming up. Yep. So, the idea is that it's a warning for all these things so you've got a bit of a chance to prepare. It's telling me about the grass kerb coming up. Yay! To the left. Just over here! Yep, brilliant. Does this feel like this could work? I like the fact that it gives me a couple of minutes' warning before ` before I hit the obstacle. It's a moment, isn't it? And it just feels like the right amount of time. And I can focus on that area. Shamreen, how`? 'Drop kerb to Wildbank Court.' It's telling me it's a drop kerb coming up. Brilliant. It even looks as though you're approaching it more confidently, Shamreen. Yeah, cos I know it's coming up. (CHUCKLES) So you've just already heard it. Oh, that's such a relief saying 'entrance to park'. You know it's coming. It's given me a guide. Brilliant. We're here! We have made it to the park! Yay! Yay! Yes! Yayyyy! Come on. In the park! No dogs allowed. Wow, that looks fun. Yeah! It worked! It did. It did work! You've done a good job there. (LAUGHTER) You've done a really good job there. Oh, I'm really pleased. There's big potential for this ` for me and for, I think, other people. Even like sighted people can take advantage of this as well. It's given me the independence that I wanted. And not only just independence ` the confidence. The confidence that I will be able to take my kids and enjoy going out with my children and enjoy discovering new routes now. It does feel a little bit like you're going to be able to do things as a mum now... Yeah. ...that you haven't been able to do before. Oh, Shamreen! (LAUGHTER) Thank you. Haiyan's been working for six months to help two brothers with cystic fibrosis,... Aiden. Yeah. I want you to do physio. Nah! ...complete vital daily treatment,... It's impossible! ...and reduce the strain on their mum, Vicky. (DEVICE WHIRRS) But just as she finishes, one of the boys becomes seriously ill. So, Morgan, he's being admitted to hospital today. He's got a lung infection that's settled in. I mean, it does really bring it home how serious the condition is, doesn't it? He's got 50% of his lung capacity at the moment. I'm a little bit worried about if he's up for trying out some of the games... Mm. ...that have been created. Fingers crossed. Yes. It's time for them to see what you've done. (REFLECTIVE PIANO MUSIC) Very good to see you. Hello. Good to see you. Ooh, look at that. OK, so what do we have? What do we have? What do we have? We built a custom electronic piece. And now, when you blow into it, it will transmit the amount of blowing into joystick movements that feed into a video game. Sounds pretty impressive. Yeah! (LAUGHTER) Give it a hard blow. (DEVICE WHIRRS) Aiden gets a blue bear. (DEVICE WHIRRS) So, do we notice anything about our game characters? You tried to get them just like us. One seems to have similar glasses to Morgan, and one seems to have similar glasses to Aiden. (LAUGHTER) Oh. It really does go! Don't forget to press the button to jump. He does go quite far. How do you know what to do already? (LAUGHTER) So, Morgan's already done over 10 breaths. Oh OK. Has he? Holy. Just in these few minutes, without us really noticing. You're surprised, Aiden? Yeah. He's just done it without really realising and... Yeah. He's cracking on with them as well. And he's carrying on! So, how do we like the game? I like it a lot. Out of 10, Morgan? 10. (LAUGHS) Wow! Yay! Amazing. Aiden, how's it looking to you? Uh, at the minute, 10. Yes, so pretty good? Wow! I'm so happy. Thank you so, so much. I'm glad you like it, Morgan. Do you really like it, Morgan? Yeah, I do. (LAUGHTER) And this isn't all Haiyan has created. Right. So, has everybody got their devices? Give it a good breath. (DEVICE WHIRRS) So you can see` Wow! So there's Aiden's... Oh my goodness! Look at you! So you're the red car, and every time you do a good blow, the red car accelerates. It's not about the strength; it's about the length of the blow. So you've gotta be able to blow for... Here it goes! Come on, red! Look at the concentration on his face. We don't ever get that with physio. And it's working. (COUGHS) And that coughing is what's needed for cystic fibrosis, isn't it? That's loosening mucus. Yeah. Come on, red! Come on, blue! Come on, Morgan! Come on! This is the best thing that could ever happen to us, because... I just know that the hardest thing for him to do is physio, and it's the only thing he needs to do to get better. I'm gonna be doing it probably every day now... without Mum asking me to. I'm so happy to see these boys so happy. It's phenomenal. And they're really, really into it. I just... (LAUGHTER) Normally I say, 'Get off your iPad and do your physio!' Now I'll be saying, 'Get on it and do your physio.' Success. I don't know what to say! Oh, I'm so happy. Morgan is back home within a few days. We meet up with the family at the local football club where dad Simon is a coach. He's putting the kids through their paces to help demonstrate Haiyan's final gift to Vicky. I think meeting you and meeting your family, what struck me the most was how much time and effort you put into holding this family together. So I wanted to create really two fixes ` one for the boys and one for you. It's a dashboard that's really about bringing your family together. And it's the idea that as the boys are doing their exercises, you can actually log in and see their progress over time. OK. Like a running live diary. (LAUGHTER) Exactly. That's brilliant. Flippin' heck, Haiyan. That's very, very clever, isn't it? (LAUGHS) Yeah. For all those who will be diagnosed in the future, hopefully there are applications here that could really, really help them. I just want to say one thing, which was what Morgan said to me when you guys left. He didn't really know how to say it, but he said, 'This is actually a good part for cystic fibrosis, 'isn't it, Mum? Cos normally it's all really bad.' And for me, that was just the best thing he could've ever, ever said. (LAUGHS) Oh, thanks, Vicky. Oh, amazing. And our other inventions are also changing lives. Shamreen is using her app every day to live life, taking her kids to the park. And Rosie's enjoying the freedom her high-tech headband is now giving her. Yay! (CHUCKLES) Captions by Jake Ebdale. www.able.co.nz