The team, from the university's School of Computing Science, are also experimenting with smells to act as reminders.

BBC: 'Smelly' fans remind people to eat

"Smart builds upon the existing concept of 'smart cities', physical spaces which are covered in an array of intelligent sensors which communicate with each other and can be searched for information, " said Dr Iadh Ounis of the University of Glasgow's School of Computing Science.

BBC: Researchers work on smart city search engine

"Employed across a variety of sectors, these systems can quickly process huge amounts of information when deciding how to act, " said Dr Wamberto Vasconcelos, who is leading the research at the University of Aberdeen's School of Natural and Computing Sciences.

BBC: Robots and humans could 'talk' via new software

But this is not a call to some nostalgic lost era of education, and nor is the life-crushing tedium of school computing unique to the U.K. It appears, in a straw poll, to be common across a lot of Western Europe.

WSJ: U.K. IT Teaching Gets With the Program

Teachers who understand computing is another: only 45% of primary school teachers and 36% in secondary schools have had information technology training in the past two years.

ECONOMIST: Education

But the problem, according to those campaigning for change, begins at school with ICT - a subject seen by its detractors as teaching clerical skills rather than any real understanding of computing.

BBC: Coding - the new Latin