麻豆约拍

In a sign of our times, we鈥檙e getting fewer letters each week but increasingly rely on the postcodes designed to sort them to transport ourselves.

For many of us this isn鈥檛 a huge problem. However Chris Sheldrick thinks it is. One that鈥檚 bigger than waiting for a parcel that doesn鈥檛 arrive, a curry that turns up cold or driving in endless circles looking for a seemingly imaginary car park.

Although he grew up in the countryside, Chris didn鈥檛 give this problem much attention until he his work took him to cities. After a sleepwalking accident cut short a career as a musician he organised concerts instead. He quickly found drivers of tour buses carrying orchestras and instruments had recurring nightmares finding the stage doors to even the most well-equipped venues. Eventually, enough was enough and he decided to do something about it.

Sitting down with a mathematician friend the pair divided up the globe into 3x3 metre squares and worked out each one could be identified by a unique combination of three commonly used words.

The result was a system called What Three Words. It was launched in 2013. Since then the app has now been downloaded 50 million times and is available in dozens of languages and 193 countries. Its users range from car manufactures to emergency services.

We find out how it works, how it makes money and the route Chris plans to take himself for the serious challenges that lie ahead.

Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Julian Paszkiewicz