Christmas 1904 brought back to life digitally

UPSOT: 'WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS' This Christmas carol rendition might sound faint, but then it is more than a century old. UPSOT: 'WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS' The song was recorded by Cromwell Wall back in 1902.. as his family gathered around the table for Christmas. It's believed to be the oldest Christmas recording ever uncovered... Wall made the recording using a phonograph and wax cylinders. Museum of London's Bill Lowry says the fact that the cylinders have survived all these years.. is hard to believe. Lowry and a team of digital sound restorers have spent months carefully digitising these recordings and bringing them back to life. SOUNDBITE (English) BILL LOWRY, DIGITAL COLLECTIONS MANAGER FOR THE MUSEUM OF LONDON, SAYING: "I've taken the digitised recordings and used current technology to try and reduce the surface noise, but I haven't wanted to go too far because if you take away the crackle and the other noises that come away they you reduce the authenticity of the recording." UPSOT: PIANO PLAYING The fragile cylinders' individual grooves were first carefully cleaned with a fine brush before the audio was digitised. Lowry then used sound restoration technology to delete and repair glitches - attempting to re-create how the recording would have sounded when they were made. UPSOT: CROMWELL WALL SPEAKING That is Cromwell Wall addressing his family on Christmas day 108 years ago. Museum curator Julia Hoffbrand says 24 of these century old recordings were successfully resurrected. She has her favourite. UPSOT: CHURCH BELLS PEALING SOUNDBITE (English) JULIA HOFFBRAND, SOCIAL AND WORKING HISTORY CURATOR AT THE MUSEUM OF LONDON, SAYING: "There's an amazing recording of the bells of Old Southgate church pealing in the New Year 1904. Cromwell apparently wheeled up the phonograph in his children's pram over a mile at midnight to record the sound of the bells." Wall family descendant David Brown donated the recordings to the museum in 2008. When they were finally converted, Brown's relatives gathered to hear the unique blast from the past. SOUNDBITE (English) JULIA HOFFBRAND, SOCIAL AND WORKING HISTORY CURATOR AT THE MUSEUM OF LONDON, SAYING: "Oh, they were very excited. Some of them hadn't heard their grandfathers speak before and it was quite emotional. They were very thrilled." And as they gather for this year's Christmas turkey the current Wall clan will raise a glass to their ancestors - thanking them for providing a such a memorable window into the past. UPSOT: WALL FAMILY MEMBERS SHOUTING 'HIP HIP HOORAY'

Dec 21 - The earliest known Christmas home recordings have been brought back to life. Using state-of-the-art sound restoration technology, experts at the Museum of London have managed to resurrect Christmas Carols performed and recorded by an affluent English family more than a century ago. Jim Drury reports.

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Overcoming the fear of Santa

STORY: Meeting Santa can be stressful for children as well as their parents eager for a photo op. But seeing jolly old Saint Nick in person can be fun for everyone, according to Martin Antony, a leading expert in anxiety and psychology professor at Ryerson University in Toronto. (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) MARTIN ANTONY, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, RYERSON UNIVERSITY, SAYING: "Children when they're visiting Santa experience a wide range of feelings. So, some kids are very excited, very happy to see Santa, but a small number of kids are quite terrified when they see Santa." (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) MARTIN ANTONY, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, RYERSON UNIVERSITY, SAYING: "Kids with a fear of Santa may be ambivalent. So on the one hand they may want to see Santa, they may want to ask for certain presents, they may want to get that picture, that candy cane. On the other hand, they may be terrified of seeing Santa." (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) PAUL, DEWLING, MAN DRESSED AS SANTA, SAYING: "A lot of kids, they're not scared of Santa in general, they're scared of the facial hair. Whether it's a real beard, or a pretend beard." (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) MARTIN ANTONY, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, RYERSON UNIVERSITY, SAYING: "On the one hand, Santa is a stranger. On the other hand, Santa is a familiar character so children are certainly familiar with Santa before they meet Santa for the first time and parents are there. Parents are defining that as a safe situation. But for some children, that unfamiliarity has a very strong effect on fear." If a face-to-face close-up with Santa is too much for tots, speaking to Santa using virtual technology such as Skype or websites like Magic Santa dot C-A, can help. (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) MARTIN ANTONY, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, RYERSON UNIVERSITY, SAYING: Nowadays there are opportunities to visit with Santa in new ways - virtual Santas for example. And in some ways, having some distant between Santa and the child will help reduce fear in the short-term, so in that way it's helpful. On the other hand, if the child is afraid of the situation, NOT encountering the situation may not help the child in terms of getting over the fear. (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) MARTIN ANTONY, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, RYERSON UNIVERSITY, SAYING: For a child who's mildly afraid and sort of wants to see Santa but is apprehensive about doing that, then just taking it slowly is the best thing to do. And taking it as far as the child is willing to take it. So a child may not be willing to sit on Santa's lap, but a child might be willing to stand beside Santa. For parents worried about the long-term effect of their child being afraid of Santa, Antony says have no fear. (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) MARTIN ANTONY, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, RYERSON UNIVERSITY, SAYING: "The best way to overcome fear if it's important to overcome fear, is through exposure. Through confronting feared situations and young children may need incentives to carry out exposure because they may not be invested in getting over the fear as much as their parents are invested. (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) MARTIN ANTONY, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, RYERSON UNIVERSITY, SAYING: "And the other important thing for parents to remember is that it's not essential to get over every fear. There are a lot of fears (and the fear of Santa may be one of them) that children will outgrow on their own, or the fear doesn't really interfere that much with the child's life and parents need to not push in those cases."

A visit to Santa can be a terrifying experience for some kids, according to a leading expert in anxiety and stress disorders. But facing the fear in stages or chatting with Saint Nick over the Internet are two ways to make a meeting with Father Christmas a jolly one. Natalie Armstrong reports.

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Mind control brings new taste of life for paralysis patient

For 53-year-old Jan Scheuermann, chocolate never tasted so good. Using a robotic arm that is directly controlled by her thoughts, Scheuermann, who is paralyzed from the neck down, has been able to feed herself. SOUNDBITE: JAN SCHEUERMANN, PARALYZED PATIENT, SAYING: "I just can't stop smiling. It's just so cool. I'm moving things, I have not moved things for about 10 years." The robotic arm Scheurmann is maniplulating is called a brain computer interface (BCI). Using a computer algorithm the system accurately translates brain signals into actions - one of the biggest challenges in mind-controlled prosthetics. It was developed by Dr. Andrew Schwartz and a research team from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. SOUNDBITE: DR. ANDREW SCHWARTZ, NEUROLOGY PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, SAYING: "We wanted to be able to capture that natural, those natural features of movement from brain activity. This led to the idea that we could make this prosthetic and make sure that the prosthetic obeyed the rules of natural movement. We had a device that let subjects express themselves and that was what I was after. It's really nice to see that happening." After successfully testing the device on monkeys, the scientists implanted two microelectrode devices into Scheurmann's left motor cortex, the part of the brain that initiates movement. The researchers used a real-time brain scanning technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging to find the exact part of the brain that lit up after the patient was asked to think about moving her now unresponsive arms. Dr. Elizabeth Tyler-Kabara oversaw the neurological procedure. SOUNDBITE: DR. ELIZABETH TYLER-KABARA, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF NEUROLOGY AT UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, SAYING: "The surgery went about as smoothly as I could have hoped. I held my breath until she was out of the hospital and at the rehab hospital … And we said ok, imagine wiggling your thumb. Of course we were expecting to hear fuzz and instead what we hear is the rush of the neurons coming and then activating again for each time she imagines wiggling her thumb." The electrodes are connected to the robotic hand via a computer. The system runs a complex algorithm that translates the signals that mimic the way an unimpaired brain controls healthy limbs. After weeks of training Scheuermann learned to master control of the hand. SOUNDBITE: JAN SCHEUERMANN, PARALYZED PATIENT, SAYING: "I used to have to think up, clockwise, down, forward, back … It's not a matter of thinking which direction anymore. It's just I want to do that and my brain knows which direction to move to make that happen." It's a remarkable step forward for prosthetics controlled directly by the brain says Dr. Mike Boninger. In the future it could even be paired with robotic exoskeletons that allow paralyzed individuals to walk. SOUNDBITE: DR. MICHAEL BONINGER, PROFESSOR AND CHAIR, UPMC REHABILITATION INSTITUTE, SAYING: "After completing a task in a time that is close to what I could complete that task in you think wow, we just have to take the next steps where we make this a clinical tool not a research one." In the meantime, Scheuermann is enjoying her new found freedom. She's tasting cheese, red peppers and truffles in a whole new way.

Dec. 17 - A Pennsylvania woman who became a quadraplegic through a genetic disease has fed herself for the first time in nearly ten years, using a mind-controlled robotic arm. A research team at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine developed the device, an arm that can move in seven dimensions and perform many of the natural motions of a real arm in everyday life. Sharon Reich reports.

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