Wanting to show a good bit of fun and humour, the boffins at BBC R&D invited a handful of journalists into their labs recently to show off the latest in scare-the-last-generation technology, toy Daleks (of Doctor Who fame) that move in sync with their on-screen counterparts. All necessary metadata is sent from a set-top box to the miniature time-agnostic cyborg via Wi-Fi. An iPad app was developed for in-house use to help the TV production staff input the tracking data.

This project is just one of 50 for BBC R&D, according to The Register, and is more of a proof of concept than a preview for holiday shopping 2012. Doctor Who has previously experimented with subliminal messaging after proving it could induce millions to dip fish fingers into custard. Video demo just below, taken minutes before a madman wearing a fez and bowtie ran in and kicked the thing into a wall with extreme force and prejudice.