Small investors in RBS are pushing for the bank to set up a shareholder committee to give them a bigger say in areas such as executive pay.

Groups representing small shareholders argue they should be involved in ensuring good corporate governance.
Investors hope RBS will serve as a test case so other companies will consider installing a shareholder committee.
RBS said it had not seen full details but pledged to "look closely" at it once it had.
The way companies are managed - and how much bosses are paid - has been been under particular scrutiny this year following the collapse and loss of 11,000 jobs at BHS and the revelations about pay and working conditions at Sports Direct.
Chief executives of FTSE 100 companies have a median pay package of Â£4.3m, according to the High Pay Centre, which works out at 140 times that of the average worker.
In November, the government issued a Green Paper to explore improving how companies are run.
It proposed that a shareholder committee could be set up "to scrutinise remuneration and other key corporate issues such as long term strategy and directors' appointments".
The UK Individual Shareholders' Society (ShareSoc) and the UK Shareholders' Association (UKSA), who represent retail (individual) investors, said: "We suggest that this initiative will significantly benefit corporate governance at RBS, and represents a valuable opportunity for RBS to lead the way in exploring a concept which works well in other countries."
ShareSoc and UKSA will present RBS with a resolution for the proposal to be included on the agenda at the bank's annual general meeting in May, where investors would then be given the chance to vote on the measure.
A spokesman for RBS, said: "We have not yet received the final draft resolution. Once it has been delivered we will look closely to ensure that it complies with all corporate governance and listing guidelines."


Prominent Uighur academic Ilham Tohti has gone on trial for separatism in China's far western region of Xinjiang.

Mr Tohti is an economics scholar who has criticised Beijing's policies towards the Uighur minority.
He has been detained since January, after he condemned the government's response to a suicide car attack in Tiananmen Square.
The United Nations, the EU and US have all called for Mr Tohti's release. He denies the charges against him.
Mr Tohti, 44, is being tried at the Intermediate People's Court in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang.
Prosecutors presented evidence alleging that Mr Tohti advocated that Xinjiang should be made independent.
Their evidence included testimony from his former students. Mr Tohti was teaching at Beijing's Minzu University.
Mr Tohti has rejected the evidence, and his lawyers say that his students' testimony were made under duress.
One of his lawyers, Li Fangping, told Reuters news agency: "Most of the students said Professor Tohti had separatist goals or intentions... We believe they weren't trustworthy statements, that they were made under pressure."
Seven of his students, said to have been working on an Uighur website which Mr Tohti managed, were arrested shortly after he was detained.
Guzaili Nu'er, Tohti's wife, attended the trial with several of his brothers and appeared distraught, according to AFP news agency.
"He has never opposed the country or any ethnic group," she was quoted as saying. "He has never done anything like that."
Human Rights Watch, in a statement, said Mr Tohti had "consistently, courageously and unambiguously advocated peacefully for greater understanding and dialogue between various communities, and with the state".
"If this is Beijing's definition of 'separatist' activities, it's hard to see tensions in Xinjiang and between the communities decreasing," said its China director, Sophie Richardson.
Reports said the court building and surrounding streets were sealed off, with dozens of police officers standing guard, some in riot gear.
Foreign journalists were not allowed inside and while some courts release details of proceedings via official microblog accounts, the Urumqi court has stayed silent.
The Associated Press reported that several Western diplomats were prevented from entering and witnessing the trial. Police blocked views of the court building with tall panels promoting an upcoming trade event in Xinjiang.
The trial is set to continue on Thursday.
Xinjiang, which borders Central Asia, is home to the Muslim Uighur minority group.
In recent years the region has seen rising tensions between Uighurs and Han Chinese migrants. Violence has increased in recent months, with deadly attacks on civilians in Urumqi and the southern city of Kunming.
Last year, three Uighurs drove a car into pedestrians in Tiananmen Square, killing two people and themselves.
China blames these attacks on Uighur separatists inspired by overseas terror groups. But Uighur activists say increasingly repressive Chinese rule is stoking tensions and fuelling violence.
The most recent violence took place in July in Yarkant, killing 96 people.
State media say police shot 59 attackers after an armed group stormed government offices, killing 37 civilians. Activists say police opened fire on people protesting against a Ramadan crackdown on Muslims.
Critics say that the prosecution of Mr Tohti risks silencing moderate voices and will make the situation in Xinjiang worse rather than better, reports the BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing.


New research indicates that a species of invasive grass is making wildfires in the western US larger, hotter and more frequent.

Scientists say that a variety called cheatgrass dries out and burns more rapidly than other vegetation.
They believe it has fuelled almost 80% of the largest fires in the American West over the last 10 years.
Researchers are looking at a range of solutions including using a fungus to attack the grass seed.
Originally transported to the US in soils on board ocean-going ships, the noxious, weedy grass continued its journey west in the 1800s with settlers and cattle ranchers.
The species gets its name because it grows very early and very quickly and then dies, cheating other varieties out of valuable nutrients.
It is widely dispersed throughout the Great Basin of the American West, an area of 600,000 sq km that covers parts of Nevada and Utah, Colorado, Idaho, California and Oregon.
Scientists have long suspected that it played a key role in wildfires but this report is the most definitive evidence yet. Researchers used satellite imagery from Nasa to compare burnt areas with regions where cheatgrass dominates.
According to lead author Dr Jennifer Balch from Pennsylvania State University, the connection between the two was clear.
"We were able to pick out this species from space because it dries out earlier than native species," she told BBC News.  "We looked at all the really big fires, all the ones over 100 sq km in size and cheatgrass influenced the majority of those, it's fuelling those really big fires."
Over the period from 2000 to 2009 Dr Balch and her colleagues say that cheatgrass influenced 39 of the 50 largest wildfires.
"Cheatgrass promotes fires that are easily ignited, and spread rapidly." she said. "They cover large areas and across this landscape that translates to more frequent fires."
The research suggests that cheatgrass and fires are in a mutually beneficial relationship.
Michael Kodas is an author and expert on wildfires in the western US. He agrees that cheatgrass is fire-dependent.
"I think the fires are believed to help the cheatgrass outcompete other species and expand its range faster, he told BBC News.  "Basically the fires help speed the invasion."
Mr Kodas argues that the invasive species is extending the fire season across the Great Basin.
"Cheatgrass grows and dies earlier in the season," he said. "When native grasses and other plants are greening up and moist, it's already sprouted, spread its seed, and died. So after cheatgrass invades, wildfires can occur earlier in the season, when the native vegetation is still green and unlikely to burn."
Scientists are now working on ways of containing the threat and are investigating a range of control methods says Dr Balch.
"Strategies can be as brute as mechanical removal or as intricate as introducing a fungus that attacks the seed. There are a lot of folks looking at ways to reduce or eliminate cheatgrass."
The researchers say that invasive grass species are increasing fires globally, from molasses grass in Hawaii to gamba grass in Australia.
The research is published in the journal, Global Change Biology.
Follow Matt on twitter


Political rivals in Slovakia have agreed to support a crucial bill ratifying changes to the EU bailout fund in exchange for early elections.

The bill was defeated in a first vote on Tuesday, after a coalition party and the main opposition abstained.
A second vote is expected by the end of this week after Prime Minister Iveta Radicova's coalition struck the deal with the opposition Social Democrats.
Slovakia is the last eurozone state to vote on ratifying the fund's expansion.
It is proposed to expand the effective lending capacity of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) to 440bn euros ($600bn; Â£383bn).
The fund would also be empowered to buy eurozone government debt and offer credit lines to member states and to banks.
Top EU officials urged the country on Wednesday to ratify the bill swiftly.
"We call upon all parties in the Slovak parliament to rise above the positioning of short-term politics and seize the next occasion to ensure a swift adoption of the new agreement," European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a joint statement.
Ms Radicova failed to pass the bill on Tuesday when a junior partner in her coalition, Richard Sulik's free-market Freedom and Solidarity party, refused to back it.
By Gavin HewittBBC Europe editor
Sovereignty and the European project
Freedom and Solidarity asked why Slovakia's taxpayers should be asked to help cover the debts of richer countries.
Many Slovaks feel their country - the second poorest in the eurozone - should not have to bail out countries like Greece, correspondents say.
However, the EFSF looks almost certain to pass in the second vote after four parties reached agreement on Wednesday.
"We have reached an agreement on securing the adoption of the most important document of this period - the EU bailout fund," said Robert Fico, head of the Social Democrats.
Earlier, explaining his abstention in the first vote, which helped bring down the government, he said: "We're saying 'no' to a rightist government, but we're saying 'yes' to the rescue fund."
In return for his support, Ms Radicova's coalition agreed to hold snap elections on 10 March, one of her  ministers, Mikulas Dzurinda, confirmed.
"We decided that as the first point of [Thursday's] parliamentary session, we will work on a proposal to shorten the voting period, with the goal of organising an election on 10 March," he said.
"Immediately after, tomorrow or Friday, we will debate proposals related to the EFSF."
Correspondents say Mr Fico, a former prime minister, is positioned to do well at the elections because of the unpopularity of the outgoing government's austerity measures.


Heaven was a place on earth for the biggest fans of Minecraft this weekend as Minecon - the global gathering for players of the hugely popular game - came to London.

My sons, Toby and Callum, are huge fans of the game and went along both as spectators and experts to help me understand the significance of what and whom I was seeing.
It was the first Minecon held for 18 months during which time the 70 millionth copy of the game was sold and Mojang itself was sold to Microsoft for $2.5bn (Â£1.6bn).
In total, 10,000 fans visited the Excel convention centre in London's Docklands for Minecon and, in doing so, set a Guinness world record for an event dedicated to one video game.
The convention drew attendees from more than 73 countries, with some coming from as far away as New Zealand just to join in.
Brian Gow, visiting the show with his son Davis, had not travelled quite so far, coming only from Edmonton, Canada. Minecon was, he said, forming part of a longer European trip.
"It's our first Minecon," he said. "We've played the game since early on so seeing it evolve so quickly is really interesting."
He added: "I teach communications and technology at university and I talk about Minecraft quite a bit, about open source and communities and the players that make it bigger than it otherwise would be."
Minecon: A fan's view - Toby Ward (Aged 11)
Minecon was fun-filled - there were a lot of activities and other things to do - you could play Minecraft against other people in the Tournament area. I beat lots of people at the Hunger Games - a version of Minecraft made like the books and films.
You also got to meet a lot of people who are part of the huge Minecraft community. There were Mojang developers, staff and lots of YouTubers.
The Pack was at Minecon - they are a group of YouTubers who make a lot of Minecraft videos. They answered questions and met lots of their fans. I got to meet Mr Woofless who is my favourite YouTuber and I got him to sign my Minecon badge.
At Minecon the panels, discussions and Q&A sessions were tilted towards the players and helping them learn how to get more out of the game - often by putting more in.
There were many sessions on modifying, or modding, Minecraft to upgrade and change its basic blocks and creatures. In other rooms, show-goers talked about how to mod the game's code to turn it from a block-building exercise into a capture-the-flag or team deathmatch-type game.
There were also lessons on setting up servers that ran the modified code and on how to attract players to these places and keep them happy. Other sessions dealt with ways to use Minecraft to learn programming or other school subjects.
Chris White, who came from San Diego for the event, said Minecraft's diversity was part of its strength.
"A lot of people have made their own game, inside of the game itself," he said.
"I love how you can do anything you want in it, the amount of people you meet; how you can have your own server; how many people you can be friends with and play against."
He added: "I'm surprised at how big Minecon is, I knew 10,000 people was a lot but this, it's enormous."
Minecon filled every hall at the sprawling Excel exhibition centre. The main presentation stage hosted the opening ceremony, a Minecraft game show, costume competition and a dance show celebrating the game. Another hall was given over to an expo involving a tournament area, Minecraft-themed funfair booths, statues of blocky Minecraft animals and merchandise stalls.
Hands-on with Hololens augmented reality headset - Callum Ward (Aged 11)
When I was using the Hololens, it was amazing. I've never tried anything like it before.
I thought that it was cool in the way that you could project images on your wall, as a TV, or on a table as a perspective on Minecraft. But when you try to move around it is not that accurate and needs some improvement.
I would prefer the normal control system for Minecraft because the controller you get with Hololens is not very good. They really need to improve the control system and make it better.
As well as being a hit with many individual players, the game's success has made stars of many people who make Minecraft-themed videos - day in, day out. This year Minecraft became the most watched game of all time on video-sharing site YouTube.
Any vlogger or YouTuber recognised as they walked around the show was mobbed by fans who waylaid them to get an autograph or take a selfie with their idols.
One of the most popular sessions at the show was with a Q&A on Saturday on the show floor with a group of of popular vloggers and YouTubers known as The Pack. Between them the members of The Pack - Mr Woofless, PrestonPlayz, JeromeASF, BajanCanadian, Vikstarr123HD and Lachlan - have an average age of 20, and more than 15 million subscribers.
YouTuber Mr Woofless, aka Robert, said: "It's been amazing to meet fans that I wouldn't be able to meet in North America. It's definitely an experience being in an area in which people will swarm you.
"It can be difficult at times but it is absolutely rewarding in a sense that I would never have understood a year ago," he said.
Minecon was a way for him and other YouTubers to connect with people they otherwise only know via a user name or text comment, he said.
"It's a game that has grown mainly because of the community and I think that's what's amazing," he said.
Mr Woofless also gave advice to people who make their own videos to share with friends and online.
"Making videos is difficult, keeping it fresh, keeping it entertaining, keeping it always at 400%, you have to go in, go strong and start every video with absolutely all of your passion," he told the BBC.
"That's difficult but it's about balance, I think. Take that 30 minute run in the morning, it's about eating right, about spending time with friends and having a consistently balanced life," he told the BBC.
At the convention, Mojang also talked about features in forthcoming versions of the game which will include letting characters carry and use objects in both hands. In addition, some elements of the game, an area known as The End and its final boss - the Ender dragon - are also getting updates.
The first trailer for Minecraft: Story Mode - which turns the game into an episodic adventure - was aired at the show and gave people a glimpse of the story that will be played out in that.
Mojang owner Microsoft also took the opportunity to give attendees a glimpse of the version of Minecraft it is preparing for the Hololens augmented reality system. Microsoft staged a competition to pick 50 convention goers who were able to don the helmet and get a look at the invention.
But despite the enthusiasm and creativity on show, not everyone who attended was sold on Minecraft's appeal.
"I hate video games," said Melvina Lecaros who was chaperoning her son Jose around the event. "I'm really not pro spending a lot of time in front of screens even though it clearly does make them happy."
She said of her son "he has learned a lot of programming from it, and some science and geology, so he and his friends have got that out of it".
However, she was sceptical about the supposed educational side of it because, she said, often all they seem to do is run around hitting other players with swords.


Labour's Jonathan Ashworth has won the Leicester South by-election.

The election was called when previous Labour MP Sir Peter Soulsby stepped down to enter the race to become the city's elected mayor.
Mr Ashworth beat Liberal Democrat candidate Zuffar Haq, who came in second place, and the Conservatives' Jane Hunt, who was third.
He won 19,771 votes, compared to 7,693 for Mr Haq and 5,169 for Ms Hunt and promised to work for the city.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Ashworth said: "Labour is listening more, working harder and changing to get in touch."


Yorkshire is "fast becoming the heartland of cycling", according to the director of the Tour de France.

More than two million spectators watched the three-day Tour de Yorkshire, won by Thomas Voeckler.
Christian Prudhomme said: "The Tour de Yorkshire is on the podium for being one of the best bike races in the world and for me the best public for cycling in the world."
Frenchman Voeckler said the crowd "makes me want to come back next year".
The Direct Energie rider added: "When you see all the crowds on the road, I am sure that in 20 to 30 years there will still be a Tour de Yorkshire so I am really happy that my name is on the winner's list."
An estimated 2.5m people watched the opening two stages of the Tour de France when they were held in Yorkshire in 2014.
Voeckler clinched overall victory in the Tour de Yorkshire on Sunday by beating Team Sky's Nicolas Roche in a sprint finish to win the third and final stage over 123 miles from Middlesbrough to Scarborough.
The race is in its second year and Prudhomme said: "There have been huge crowds, huge enthusiastic crowds who respect the riders.
"The people of Yorkshire have passion and pride. I love what the Tour de Yorkshire has done for children who are watching this on the route and at the start and finish lines.
"These are memories that those children will never forget. The passion is growing and growing."


A businessman travelled around Scotland to register the births of 26 non-existent babies as part of a benefit fraud scheme, a court has heard.

Rory McWhirter has admitted collecting identity details from people he had deceived into applying for fake jobs at a Glasgow hotel.
He used the details to obtain their marriage certificates before using them to register the fake births.
McWhirter, 29, then used the birth certificates to claim benefits.
He claimed tax credits amounting to £14,222, child benefits of £19,658 and a Sure Start maternity grant of £500.
McWhirter, from Edinburgh, will be sentenced on 21 March.
Dundee Sheriff Court was told that McWhirter was caught after returning to the scene of one of his early false birth registrations at Aberdeen registry office where he was recognised by staff.
Around the same time, an "organised attack" on HMRC's computer systems - which showed that about 350 requests had been received for tax credit application forms from an address in Dundee and others in Campbeltown linked to McWhirter - triggered other alarms.
Depute fiscal Vicki Bell told the court that McWhirter presented letters to registrars at various offices throughout Scotland purporting to be from doctors confirming the births of children at home.
During the meetings he acted as if he was the male named on the marriage certificate while registering the birth, the court was told.
Miss Bell said: "Four of the names used as claimants were traced and they advised they didn't make the claims.
"They had all, however, applied for the same job for front-of-house staff at a four-star hotel in Glasgow advertised on Gumtree on March 2015.
"The ad required a CV and a national insurance number.
"It was then discovered that 14 claims for tax credits had been made by persons residing in Perth Road, Dundee, and in Campbeltown at flats related to the accused's company."
After being traced, McWhirter said he considered the registration system in Scotland "archaic and easy to create false registrations."
McWhirter admitted a charge of fraud committed between 1 June 2014 and 22 October 2015 at addresses across Scotland.
His solicitor John McLeod told the court his client was under no illusion that imprisonment was likely to be "at the top of the list".


A woman suffered only minor injuries when the car she was driving crashed in to a house near Birmingham.

The BMW Mini left Thornhill Road in Streetly just after 22:30 BST on Wednesday - smashing through a hedge, a tree and a brick wall before eventually hitting the property.
The woman, understood to be in her 20s, was freed by a passer-by before crews arrived, a fire service spokesman said.
She was taken to hospital to be treated for cuts and bruises.
Grandfather-of-four John Clifford, who has lived in the property with his wife Pam for almost 40 years, was watching television in the living room when the crash happened.
"There was a bang, bang, bang and then a huge explosion sound," said the 76-year-old retired teacher.
"My immediate reaction was 'is that a gas explosion?'.
"The house absolutely shook. I shouted to Pat 'what the hell is that?' I went to look through the window and all I could see was the car."
Mrs Clifford was watching television in bed when the drama unfolded.
"I heard this rumbling noise and thought 'that sounds odd'," she said.
"I thought 'it must be a lorry with a blown out tyre'. Then there was this crash seconds later and an explosion."
Just minutes before the crash, Mr Clifford had been in the downstairs bathroom, directly next to the wall where the car came through.
"We are lucky," he added.
"But the girl was even more lucky. How she got out in one piece I don't know."
No-one has been arrested. An investigation has been launched by West Midlands Police. An expert was due to visit the house to assess the damage.


MSPs have thrown out a petition calling on the Scottish government to make incest between consenting adults legal.

Richard Morris lobbied the government to amend the law against incest so that it no longer applies to consenting adults aged over 21.
The petition was not opened to the public for signatures, and Mr Morris did not appear to give evidence.
The public petitions committee unanimously agreed there was "no public interest" in taking it forward.
MSPs were given the option of closing the petition under standing orders, on the basis of a Scottish Law Commission (SLC) report from 2007 which recommended retaining the offence under the current definition.
Mr Morris has written to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the Queen and Police Scotland about the issue after starting a campaign on behalf of a Scottish man convicted of incest with his daughter.
By BBC political reporter Philip Sim
On the face of it, it might be difficult to understand why MSPs discussed this petition at all.
After all, it gathered a grand total of 0 signatures - in fact it was never even open to the public.
And it appears to have been submitted by a man living in Australia who claims to have "almost" written a book on the topic.
But those are the rules - when MSPs receive a petition aimed at changing a devolved law, they are duty-bound to consider it, no matter how cursorily.
Convener Michael McMahon, who said he personally found the topic "abhorrent", said that nevertheless "all petitions which fall within the committee's rules must be given our open and transparent consideration".
Questions may more readily be raised about why such a sensitive topic was scheduled for debate on the same day as one supporting survivors of abuse.
In his written submission to the committee, Mr Morris said he had also researched and "almost finished writing a book" about incest, and had written to "several major newspapers and Australian politicians".
Mr Morris said the law in its present form is "inappropriate, unfair, ineffective and discriminatory", saying public "prejudice and bigotry" about incest was caused by "ignorance", and likening the issue to historical treatment of homosexuals.
He said: "The Scots incest law perpetuates superstitious, bigoted, outmoded beliefs, and in its present form its continued existence is unjustified."
The current law on incest, the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act of 1995, defines incest as sexual intercourse between blood relatives of opposite sexes.
The last major review of the topic was in 1981, although the SLC also published a report on sexual offences in 2007 which recommended keeping the law as it stands.
Committee convener, Labour's Michael McMahon, suggested that there was "no value" in taking forward the petition, given the 2007 review and the lack of public interest.
After this view was echoed by Tory MSP Jackson Carlaw, the other committee members unanimously backed closing the petition.


Samantha Kingston fell into the video games industry by accident - but her rise has been meteoric.

Two years ago she had a marketing job at a community theatre when a recruitment consultant approached her, and asked whether she had ever considered a career in gaming.
"I said 'no, never thought about it, not interested'," says the 25-year-old.
"Then they said 'there's this really cool job that's come up, maybe you should go for it'."
That job was a social media role at a games developer called N Dreams.
Based in Farnborough, in the south of England, the company specialises in games for virtual reality (VR) headsets. These are games in which the player enters a simulated environment.
Samantha admits she knew next to nothing about this at the time.
"I thought, I'm just going to go in there and be really honest, and say I don't know anything about games."
However, she says she was immediately hooked.
"I went in and was introduced to the technology - and I just thought, yes, this is exactly what I want to do.
"The CEO wasn't too fussed that I didn't know much about games. He said, 'do you want to learn this tech with me?' and I said 'yes, that would be amazing'."
Today Samantha is an award-winning businesswoman who runs her own successful VR business called Virtual Umbrella. And she describes herself as an "evangelist" for the technology.
Samantha spent just nine months at nDreams, but learnt enough about VR to feel confident to leave and set up her own business in March of last year with her friend and business partner Bertie Millis.
Based in Southampton and London, Virtual Umbrella describes itself as a marketing agency that specialises in VR.
What it does is work with clients such as Nokia to help them develop and promote their VR content.
Samantha admits that getting the self-funded business off the ground was tough.
"We have learned everything by ourselves, and not really had much help," she says.
"There's no bible out there that tells you how to run a business, so it's been a lot of giving it a go, learning your lessons from the bad things you shouldn't do."
For anyone else looking to start their own company, Samantha has a list of advice.
"Learn how to do your taxes, have a good accountant, keep your receipts, always take advice, especially from others running companies," she says.
As VR is such a new market, Samantha says that a lot of her work is currently educational.
"Lots of big advertising agencies want to know how it works, what they can do with it - their clients want VR content," she says.
"VR to me is putting yourself into another world - putting on a headset and being in a completely different space.
"It can be somewhere you can walk around in, interact with or just look at. Putting yourself somewhere completely different while you are sitting in your kitchen or classroom."
And is not just about gaming, as Samantha adds that healthcare and travel companies are also keen to explore the benefits of VR with her firm.
As a woman in a male dominated industry, Samantha says she has experienced some sexism, and is quick to respond.
"I didn't even know it was a problem before I joined the industry," she says.
Recently she tweeted "yup, this girl is perfectly capable", after she overheard a man mutter about whether "a girl" could possibly have set up her demonstration at a digital festival.
But when it comes to hiring staff, Samantha says she doesn't focus on a person's gender.
"I will support women as much as possible and I do that in the industryâ€¦ but I'm all about the talent. I've never said I want to work with women or men," she says.
"I want to work with people who are good at what they do."
Looking ahead, Samantha says the big thing for VR will be when it cracks the mainstream consumer market.
She says this is possible due to the increased availability of low cost headsets to which you attach your mobile phone. These now cost as little as Â£15.
"Everyone has a mobile phone," she says.  "The technology is advancing so quickly, and all the phone companies are backing it".
For now, the top-of-the-range VR devices are not only expensive but also reliant on being plugged in to high-powered PCs. But the industry may one day get a boost from cloud gaming, where the processing is done in data centres, meaning less powerful, cheaper equipment would be needed in the home.
Matt Desmier, founder of Silicon Beach, the annual technology industry gathering in Bournemouth on England's south coast, says "Samantha's enthusiasm is contagious".
He adds that while Virtual Umbrella is only 15 months old, it is "infectiously passionate".
But despite the current buzz around VR, could it be just a short-lived craze?
Samantha says: "There are a lot of people saying 'Oh, it's a fad', and I get that, because it's happened before, but we are in a really good position with the technology, phones have really advanced it."


The top five ranked teams in world cycling will all be taking part in this year's Tour of Britain.

Quick-Step Floors, Team Sky, BMC Racing, Movistar Team and Orica-Scott are among 10 UCI WorldTour teams who will be racing, organisers confirmed.
Britons Mark Cavendish and Geraint Thomas, European road race champion Alexander Kristoff and world time trial champion Tony Martin plan to race.
The Tour of Britain starts in Edinburgh on 3 September.
There are 20 teams in total taking part and a provisional list of all 120 riders will be released later in August.
"We are delighted with this year's line-up of teams and with riders of the calibre of Geraint Thomas, Mark Cavendish and Alexander Kristoff coming out to say they will be targeting the Tour of Britain, this bodes for a fantastic spectacle for fans," said race director Mick Bennett.


India's latest crackdown on black money is turning out to be a nightmare for the poor and the middle class.

Three days after 500 ($7) and 1,000 rupee notes were withdrawn as part of anti-corruption measures, hordes of panicky people are thronging banks and ATMS to deposit expired money and withdraw lower denominations to run their lives.
The queues are getting longer and angrier, and despite the government's loud promises, banks and ATMs are quickly running out of cash. Limits on cash withdrawals are not helping matters much.
There are stories of desperate people burning sacks of illegal cash and of people unable to pay for cremations and hospital admissions. Wherever I go - my workplace, the community park, the local market- people are fretting over ways to get some of their own hard-earned money to run their lives.
A kind neighbour swiped his card to take 400 rupees out of a groaning cash machine and give it to me when  he saw my crestfallen face after the machine rejected my card. Friends and co-workers are generously lending from their own limited stocks of small cash. After several unsuccessful visits to overcrowded banks and empty cash machines, many ordinary people are living on a wing and a prayer.
Outside the chaos inflicted upon honest, tax-paying and low-income Indians, a burlesque of sorts is playing out as others try to game the system and convert hordes of scrapped illegal cash into gold and goods, which they can then hoard or sell. For a country inured to corruption and illegal money, there's no dearth of ideas.
A salesman of a shop selling mobile phones in an upscale Delhi suburb told me that a man walked up to his shop on Wednesday with 3 million rupees in cash and offered to buy up his entire stock of iPhones. (He said the owner balked, and shut shop.) A politician in Bihar walked into a jewellery shop and bought gold ornaments worth 20 million rupees. In Kolkata, a dengue patient reportedly settled his 40,000 rupees hospital bills in coins.
There is also what is being called a thriving 'discount scam': people are offering to buy stocks of scrapped notes at a premium, before laundering the expired money.
A builder in the capital has apparently paid his daily wage workers two years of advance salaries with the expired cash, leaving his workers to exchange the money. Relatives with expired money at home are calling friends and relatives and asking if they can deposit some of their money into their accounts. Then there's my favourite story of a doctor who had some cash at home which he planned to turn over to the bank, and then discovered to his dismay that his wife had squirreled away six times the amount in her cupboard.
These are desperate times which require desperate measures. Last week, the central bank assured Indians that production of new notes had been "ramped up" to meet requirement, but banks are running out of cash very quickly. What is happening in far-flung villages at this point is anybody's guess.
If the banks are unable to ease cash supplies soon, the reported goodwill for prime minister Narendra Modi's so-called game-changing, path-breaking crackdown on illegal - or black - money could easily lead to an angry backlash. What is being also described as his political masterstroke - key state elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are due early next year and his government's "war on black money" could be an effective campaign slogan - could also backfire.
At the root of this chaos is the fact that India is an overwhelmingly paper currency country: some 90% of the transactions are done with cash. India's cash-to-GDP ratio is 12%, some four times that of Brazil, Mexico and South Africa. More than half of Indians still don't have a bank account, and some 300 million have no government identification. The two scrapped denominations - 500 and 1,000 rupees - account for more than 85% of the value of cash in circulation.
Some of the cash is stashed and transacted in what is a booming "black economy" to evade taxes - politicians, property developers and dealers, traders, doctors, lawyers and sundry white-collar professionals are some of the biggest hoarders. A lot of the illegal cash is actually held in assets - real estate, jewellery - and in banks outside the country.
The size of India's shadow economy is estimated at more than 20% of its GDP, and nobody quite knows how much of it is in cash and assets.
However millions of low income working class people, poor and roadside small businesses and traders hoard cash because they need the liquidity to run their lives and also, because there is no bank where they live. Supporters of the move say Indians will suffer some short-term disruption to make a dent in the shadow economy, but many are asking why the honest taxpayer and the poor should suffer most.
Demonetisation of currency - India's third after two previous exercises in 1946 and 1978 - has predictably turned into an administrative nightmare, as a commentator feared, in a country with a strained state and creaky services. It has also opened a Pandora's box, bringing out the worst - and occasionally, the best - in Indians. It also reminds me of Groucho Marx, who said, "While money can't buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own form of misery."


A serial criminal who was brought to the ground by the owner of a shop during a failed axe raid has been jailed for six years.

Shaun McKerry tried to rob Shildon Post Office in County Durham on 15 March.
CCTV showed the 31-year-old threatening staff with the axe before shopkeeper Sab Dhillon tackled him to the floor and restrained him.
Durham Crown Court heard McKerry, of Coundon, near Bishop Auckland, had earlier admitted attempted robbery.
McKerry, whose face was hidden by a scarf and hood, brandished the weapon as he ordered shop assistant Andrea Brighty to fill a bag with money from the till, the court heard.
But Mr Dhillon ran from a back office, grabbed McKerry from behind and wrestled him to the floor.
The court heard McKerry, dubbed Boomerang Boy because of his repeated spells in prison, had been arrested more than 80 times.
He was told he must serve an extended four-year licence period after he is released.
The court was told McKerry started shoplifting at the age of 12 and by 15 he had been arrested 80 times, and had convictions for aggravated vehicle-taking, sending indecent letters, and burglary.
McKerry once stole 22 charity boxes while dressed as a woman, and locals dubbed him a one-man crime wave.
Dramatic CCTV footage from the shop showed the masked McKerry waving an axe as he demanded cash from terrified assistant Andrea Brighty.
But he did not see Mr Dhillon's rugby tackle, which dropped him to the floor, sending shelves and produce tumbling.
As the men wrestled, and with McKerry still holding the axe, Mr Dhillon's wife Sam helped, hitting him twice with a baseball bat to make him drop the weapon.
Blood can be seen coming from the would-be robber's nose and Mr Dhillon gestured to his wife to drop the bat.
Minutes later the police arrived and arrested McKerry, who, the court heard, had been arrested more than 80 times and had 64 previous convictions.
Speaking to BBC Tees shortly after the raid, Mr Dhillon said: "I was in the back storeroom on the computer and I heard Andrea, who was behind the counter shouting 'no, no, no'.
"I saw a guy waiving an axe at her. I came up behind him and pulled him away from Andrea and the counter. We struggled, fell on the floor.
"I managed to keep hold of him and get the axe off him and hold him there until the police arrived."
During his summing up in court, Judge Christopher Prince described Mr Dhillion's actions as a "conspicuous display of bravery."
The court was told McKerry's history of offending also included burglary, assaulting a police officer, attempted robbery and criminal damage.


Scotland's men have won promotion to European hockey's top tier after a 4-3 victory over Russia in Glasgow.

Scotland led the EuroHockey II Championship semi-final 4-0 with 10 minutes to go but were given a scare in the closing stages.
They will now face Wales in Saturday's final, having already beaten France, Portugal and Ukraine to top Group A.
Both the winners and runners-up secure promotion for 2019, Scotland's first time in the top dvision since 2005.
Kenny Bain broke the deadlock for Scotland after 29 minutes when he fired home a penalty corner.
Ben Cosgrove netted seven minutes later from close range.
Cammy Fraser made it 3-0 after 45 minutes, and Alan Forsyth added the Blue Sticks' fourth.
Semen Matkovskiy started the late comeback from a penalty corner and after a William Marshall mistake, Pavel Plesetskii made it 4-2.
The Russians took their goalkeeper off to have 11 outfield players and it paid off with Nikolay Komarov adding a third, but Scotland held out.
"I can't really put into words how I feel, it's absolutely brilliant," said Forsyth.
"We've worked so hard, we've had our ups and downs, but to pull through the way we did says so much about this squad.
"We had a terrible last 10 minutes but it doesn't really matter, we've done the job we came to do and we'll look forward to the final tomorrow."
Marshall added: "This is my fifth Europeans in B division and it's been a struggle to find that final push and get promotion, it feels really good to finally get it.
"I'm so relieved, it feels like we were doing everything in our power to keep them in it, but when that final whistle went I was so happy."


Justin Thomas won his first major with a thrilling two-shot victory at the US PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.

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The American, 24, trailed leader Kevin Kisner by two shots going into the final round but hit a three-under-par 68 to win on eight under.
Francesco Molinari (67), Patrick Reed (67) and Louis Oosthuizen (70) tied for second.
"I can't put it into words right now. I'm glad to have a trophy now," an emotional Thomas said.
Thomas made six birdies in his round, including spectacular efforts on the 10th and 13th holes.
Rickie Fowler carded a four-under-par 67 to tie for fifth on five under alongside Japan's Hideki Matsuyama, who went round in 72.
At one stage on the back nine, Thomas, Molinari, Matsuyama, Kisner and Chris Stroud were tied for the lead.
Kisner, who led after each of the opening three rounds and for much of the early part of his final round, fell away late on as a one-over 72 left him four under for the tournament.
Thomas, from Kentucky, is the eighth first-time major winner in the last nine majors.
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Thomas started the round on five under but he slipped to three shots behind leader Kisner with two bogeys in his opening three holes.
The world number 14 picked up birdies at seven and nine while Kisner slipped back after finding the water on the seventh.
At that point, Thomas' playing partner Matsuyama - bidding to become Japan's first male major champion - took the outright lead thanks to back-to-back birdies before faltering on the back nine.
Thomas' round gained momentum on the 10th, when a birdie putt clung to the lip of the hole for 15 seconds before dropping.
"It was funny because it snuck up on the hole. We read it going left and then a bit right and it never came back right," Thomas said.
"Once it got there I felt it would go in but it didn't so I acted like a child and had a tantrum. Suddenly it went in and I didn't look so dumb."
Thomas moved two shots clear of the field on the 13th when he chipped in from the edge of the green as the crowd erupted.
He made another birdie on 17 and, despite a bogey on the last, led with one pairing left on the course.
Kisner had to eagle the 18th to force a play-off, but he found the water and double-bogeyed.
Iain Carter, BBC golf correspondent
This was an outstanding performance from Justin Thomas, taking the initiative, seizing the moment. The birdie at the 17th meant he could drop a shot at the last.
It was Thomas' fourth victory of the year. He really kicked on this week. The way he finished this off was very impressive and now he rises to number six in the world.
Jay Townsend, BBC golf pundit
The strength of Justin Thomas is everything. He hits it a mile, he can hit it high. He is a more talented hitter of the ball than Jordan Spieth, although I don't think there's a more talented all-round golfer at making scores than Spieth at the moment.
If you think about Spieth, Thomas, Patrick Reed, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson - these are young guys that are going to carry the US Ryder Cup team for probably the next five matches. The tide has probably turned.
Rory McIlroy was the pre-tournament favourite at Quail Hollow, where he has won twice on the PGA Tour and holds the course record, but two 72s and a 73 left him out of contention after three days.
The Northern Irishman carded a three-under 68 in the final round to finish one over, but he will end the year without a major - his third consecutive season without winning one of golf's four biggest tournaments - and suggested he may miss the rest of 2017 because of a rib injury.
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Spieth was also heavily fancied following his triumph at The Open in July, as he looked to become the youngest player to complete the career Grand Slam.
But the American hit a final-round 70 to finish two over, ending his hopes of breaking Tiger Woods' record.
Woods was aged 24 years, seven months and 25 days when he completed the full set of majors and Spieth will be 25 by the time of the 2018 US PGA.
2015 champion Jason Day, who was in contention before a quadruple bogey on the 18th in his third round, closed with a one-under 70 to finish one under for the tournament.
World number one Dustin Johnson ended with a four-under 67, including seven birdies, to finish level par.
England's Jordan Smith, competing in his first major, was the highest-placed British player on one under after a three-under 68.
Compatriot Paul Casey hit a 71 to tie for 13th at level par for the tournament.
Englishman Ian Poulter's two-under final round of 69 gave him a top-25 finish at one over.
Further down the leaderboard, Chris Wood carded a final-round 73 to end three over, Tommy Fleetwood finished eight over thanks to a final-round 74, while Lee Westwood hit a four-over-par 75 for 11 over.


Euro 2016 may have ended in unlikely fashion - a goal from a Swansea flop giving Portugal the trophy against favourites France - but when it came to your team of the tournament there were few surprises.

We asked you to pick your best XI from Euro 2016 and over 100,000 of you responded.
An old-fashioned 4-4-2 was the preferred formation - 55% of you went that way - and the team was dominated by players from France and semi-finalists Wales.
Who made the cut and who missed out?
France captain Hugo Lloris was picked by 32% of readers - 32,720 - to start in goal for this team.
Lloris, 29, conceded just five goals in his seven appearances at Euro 2016; keeping three clean sheets in the process.
Italy legend Gianluigi Buffon was the second-most picked goalkeeper, with Germany keeper Manuel Neuer selected by just 480 fewer people.
Northern Ireland's Michael McGovern - outstanding against Germany - was picked by just under 10,000 people.
Over 80,000 of you - or 79% - wanted a back four in one guise or another, but the problem came with picking a right-back.
Euro 2016 was clearly not a tournament of outstanding full-backs and so Germany defender Jerome Boateng - who played throughout the competition as a centre-back - was actually chosen to play on the right by more people than anybody else.
Boateng was also heavily picked to start in the centre - he was the most selected defender overall.
Italian centre-back Leonardo Bonucci was the second most popular pick to play at right-back, while the most popular specialist full-back was Wales' Chris Gunter.
However, Gunter was only chosen by just over 10,000 users - he was the 10th most popular defender overall.
Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini is the unlucky man to miss out on a place in the team. Chiellini was the fourth-most popular pick in defence - and the ninth-most picked player in any position - but he is reserve centre-back behind Bonucci and Ashley Williams, with Germany left-back Jonas Hector easily the most selected player on the left.
Hector made more open play crosses than any other player at Euro 2016 (33).
Williams played every minute of Euro 2016 for Wales (540) and made the most blocks (seven) and clearances (43) for them.
It turns out that the midfield at Euro 2016 picks itself.
West Ham winger Dimitri Payet was the most popular pick in midfield, with over 70% of you placing him in your first XI. His most popular position was on the left of midfield.
Payet scored three times and created a tournament-high 24 goalscoring chances.
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Not far behind comes Wales and Real Madrid star Gareth Bale. Bale was actually selected by more users than Payet - Bale is in 84% of all teams chosen - but 35,000 people selected him in attack.
However, with 50,000 choosing to play him in midfield, that's where he starts. His most popular position was on the right. You like an inverted winger.
In central midfield Paul Pogba and Aaron Ramsey complete the Franco-Welsh domination. Pogba saw off competition from Germany's Toni Kroos, picking up 1,616 more selections.
The only England player available to select - Tottenham's Eric Dier - was picked by 5,600 people - just ahead of Iceland's Birkir Bjarnason.
We'd be interested to hear the thoughts of the 144 people who chose Italy wing-back Mattia de Sciglio as a central midfielder...
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It comes as no surprise that France forward Antoine Griezmann - winner of the Golden Boot - was the most picked player in any position.
The Atletico Madrid man was selected in 87% of all teams and starts up front alongside Real Madrid and Portugal legend Cristiano Ronaldo.
Griezmann scored six goals, more than any other player; and only Michel Platini (nine in 1984) has bettered that tally in a single Euros finals.
By scoring against Hungary in the group stage, Ronaldo became the first player to score in four different European Championship finals tournaments (2016, 2012, 2008 and 2004).
Bale was the third most popular forward, while France forward Olivier Giroud came next.
Wales striker Hal Robson-Kanu may have scored the goal of the tournament but just 11,000 of you opted to start him.
Sometime Republic of Ireland playmaker Wes Hoolahan was selected as a striker by 656 people. A niche option.
Uefa's team of the tournament contains five players also selected in your XI - Ronaldo, Griezmann, Payet, Ramsey and Boateng.
Set up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, the Uefa side had Portugal's Rui Patricio as goalkeeper, with team-mates Pepe and Raphael Guerreiro in defence along with Germany's Joshua Kimmich and Boateng.
German Toni Kroos and Wales' Joe Allen form the defensive midfield duo behind Griezmann, Ramsey and Payet with Ronaldo the lone striker.
The team was selected by 13 former players and coaches, including former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, England Under-21 boss Gareth Southgate, ex-Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Packie Bonner, former Finland forward and manager Mixu Paatelainen and ex-Aston Villa and Serbia striker Savo Milosevic.
We asked some of our TV and radio colleagues to nominate their chosen teams of the tournament.
Former Everton and Republic of Ireland winger Kevin Kilbane:
Hugo Lloris; Joshua Kimmich, Jerome Boateng, Leonardo Bonucci, Raphael Guerreiro; Aaron Ramsey, Grzegorz Krychowiak; Gareth Bale, Antoine Griezmann, Dimitri Payet; Cristiano Ronaldo
BBC Radio 5 live senior football reporter Ian Dennis:
Manuel Neuer; Joshua Kimmich, Jose Fonte, Leonardo Bonucci, Jonas Hector; Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Paul Pogba; Dimitri Payet, Antoine Griezmann, Mesut Ozil
BBC Match of the Day commentator Steve Wilson:
Hugo Lloris; Joshua Kimmich, Jerome Boateng, Leonardo Bonucci, Jordi Alba; Joe Allen, Andres Iniesta; Ivan Perisic, Antoine Griezmann, Gareth Bale; Cristiano Ronaldo
BBC Radio 5 live commentator Conor McNamara:
Michael McGovern; Lukasz Piszczek, Jerome Boateng, Andrea Barzagli, Raphael Guerreiro; Luka Modric, Aaron Ramsey, Aron Gunnarsson; Ivan Perisic, Antoine Griezmann, Gareth Bale
BBC presenter Dan Walker:
Hugo Lloris; Jerome Boateng, Gareth McAuley, Pepe, Leonardo Bonucci; Mesut Ozil, Paul Pogba, Aaron Ramsey, Dimitri Payet; Antoine Griezmann, Will Grigg


Windsurfing will remain in the Olympic programme after the International Sailing Federation reversed a decision to replace it with kiteboarding.

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Both men's and women's windsurfing will be retained after a vote at the governing body's annual general meeting in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland.
The reversal comes after a surprise decision in May to drop windsurfing for kiteboarding at the 2016 Olympics.
Delegates later blamed the move on confusion due to language difficulties.
The ISAF at the time described the move as a "fantastic addition" but windsurfing federations vowed to pressure sailing chiefs to reinstate their sport.
British windsurfer Nick Dempsey, who won silver at last summer's London Olympics, condemned the decision as "bizarre" back in May.
Israel's sailing chief Yehuda Maayan later revealed that, in voting for kiteboarding, delegates had probably been confused or did not understand the motion because of ambiguous language translations.
Steph Bridge
Four-time kiteboarding world champion
"I am really gutted, as myself & Oliver (eldest son, aged 15) had a really great chance to represent GB for the men's and women's events at Rio 2016.
"Oliver will still have a huge chance when kiteboarding makes it back in 2020 but for me this will probably be four years too late.
"What I know is that tomorrow I will wake up and want to go kiteboarding. The passion is huge and will continue.
"Every athlete wants to win a gold medal but if this is too late for me, I hope I can help someone else to make this dream come true."
Among those, the Spanish Sailing Federation has since acknowledged that its representative voted for kiteboarding by mistake.
The Royal Yachting Association has been among those campaigning for windsurfing and its performance director, John Derbyshire, said: "This is what the membership of the RYA asked for.
"We have a very strong youth pathway and some 10,000 windsurfing members of the RYA, so on their behalf we are delighted with the decision.
"We obviously have great compassion towards the kiteboarding community, with whom we have been working very closely, and I am sure that they will continue to work very closely with both the RYA and ISAF families with a view to gaining inclusion for the discipline in future Olympic Games.
"We can now look forward to preparing for Rio 2016 with the clarity that this decision brings."


A truck driver has been charged with illegally transporting immigrants after dozens of people were discovered in the back of his trailer.

Eight people were found dead in the vehicle in a Walmart car park in San Antonio, Texas, and 31 others were treated. Two later died in hospital.
The driver, named as James Mathew Bradley, 60, could face the death penalty.
He says the immigrants were placed in his trailer while he was distracted.
They were inside the trailer without access to air conditioning or water while outside temperatures hit 38C (100F).
Police say they believe the incident is linked to people smuggling.
Video footage from the store reportedly showed a number of vehicles arriving to pick up some of the survivors. Several others may have managed to escape on foot into the woods nearby.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting head Thomas Homan said more than 100 people could have been in the truck at one point.
Mexico's government said it was working closely with US authorities to identify the nationalities of the victims.
San Antonio is a few hours' drive from the border with Mexico, and the US immigration department is trying to establish the victims' legal status.
Officials were brought to the trailer by a man who had approached an employee of the Walmart store and asked for water.
San Antonio police chief William McManus said in a press briefing that the people ranged from school age to in their 30s.
Local fire chief Charles Hood said the survivors had heart rates of over 130 beats per minute and were very hot to touch.
The fire chief confirmed at least two of the victims were school-age children. Their condition is not clear.
The US attorney for the Western District of Texas, Richard Durbin, said the people were helpless victims of "ruthless human smugglers indifferent to the wellbeing of their fragile cargo".
Experts say people smuggling is a serious issue in southern Texas, and there have been a number of similar cases in the area just in this past month.
On 7 July, US Border Patrol agents found 72 undocumented immigrants from Central American countries locked inside a trailer "with no means of escape".
The next day 33 people were found locked inside a trailer at a checkpoint on the road to San Antonio.


A student who made a bomb filled with ball bearings and left it on a Tube train has been jailed for 15 years.

Damon Smith put his homemade device into a rucksack and left it on a Jubilee Line train in October 2016.
The 20 year old claimed it was a prank but was found guilty of possession of an explosive substance with intent.
Sentencing, the Old Bailey judge told Smith "the seriousness of what you did cannot be overstated".
The court heard had the device exploded, it would have gone off as commuters left the North Greenwich station platform.
Smith, who has an autistic spectrum disorder, built the device using a Â£2 clock from Tesco and an al-Qaeda online article on bomb-making.
Before sentencing, his lawyer had pleaded with the judge for "mercy" and said the "unique" student had "learned his lesson".
But Judge Richard Marks QC said that while Smith was not motivated by terrorism, he was a dangerous offender who had constructed other devices before planting one on the Tube.
"I am influenced by your history of preoccupation with weapons and bombs as well as by your condition which makes it difficult for you... to understand and fully appreciate the very serious potential consequences of your actions," he said.
He said the student's actions came at a time of heightened fear of terrorism, "an all too timely reminder of which were the events in Manchester".
His mother, who he lived with in Rotherhithe, south-east London, said her son was "just a vulnerable little boy who needs help, not prison".
"He just made a smoke bomb and the prank went wrong, and now he's paying for it," she said.
The former altar boy smiled in the dock as he was sentenced to 15 years in a young offenders' institution with an extended period of five years on licence.
Commander Dean Haydon, head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, said Monday's attack at Manchester Arena had demonstrated "the horrifying impact a bomb can have".
"The bomb Smith made was a viable device, but it failed to detonate, which was our good fortune," he said.
Smith grew up in Devon and only moved to London to attend university three months before leaving his homemade bomb on the Tube.
An only child who lived with his mother from a young age, he has a form of autism that impairs social communications but not his intelligence.
An able student, Smith also displayed a persistent fascination with Islamic terrorism and mass murders.
Friends were shown violent propaganda by so-called Islamic State and Smith created YouTube videos of himself using computer games to re-enact infamous real-life mass killings.
In a shopping list of the components for his bomb, he had written: "And keep this a secret between me and Allah #InspireTheBelievers."
He tried to cover his tracks by shredding the manual and deleting the list from an iPad, but detectives were able to recover them.
Dismissing Smith's claim that the device was a "prank" smoke bomb, explosives experts say it was viable and would have caused mass casualties had it been constructed slightly differently.


Peter Robinson has said the assembly could not survive the scenario which would unfold if the welfare reform bill is not approved.

Assembly members are due to debate the controversial bill brought by Social Development Minister Mervyn Storey next Tuesday.
In a statement, the first minister said the stakes could not be higher.
However, Sinn Féin has again accused the DUP of scaremongering with its budget forecasts.
Sinn Féin's Daithi McKay said Finance Minister Arlene Foster should appear before her Stormont committee to explain her prediction that the Stormont budget could be cut by £2.8bn.
The BBC has seen a document which Mrs Foster circulated to other executive ministers.
In it, she said no deal on welfare would mean the executive having to make cuts of £604m in order to balance its books.
Mrs Foster said health could lose £280m and education £114m.
Talks are continuing at Stormont about the welfare deadlock.
The SDLP is understood to be holding internal discussions over whether its MLAs should sign a petition of concern which could block the welfare reform bill.
The Northern Ireland parties had agreed a deal on Westminster's welfare reform in the Stormont House Agreement last December.
However, Sinn Féin withdrew its support for the bill in March.


Chesterfield have sacked manager Danny Wilson and assistant Chris Morgan following Saturday's League One 2-0 defeat by Bradford City.

Wilson, 57, took charge on Christmas Eve 2015, but after winning only six of their 26 league games this campaign the club are in the relegation zone.
Saturday's loss, their fourth in the last six games, left the Spireites in the drop zone on goal difference.
Left-back Ritchie Humphreys has been named as caretaker manager.
The 39-year-old, who is also the current chairman of the players' union, the Professional Footballers' Association, will be in charge for Tuesday's EFL Trophy game at Luton.
Former Sheffield Wednesday and Barnsley boss Wilson has managed in more than 1,000 competitive games and replaced Dean Saunders at the Spireites with the club 18th in League One.
Last term, Chesterfield finished in the same position they were in when Wilson took over, but are now 22nd in the table.
Following what proved to be his final game, Wilson said: "We're not playing badly. Yes, we're getting punished for opportunities we're giving to other teams but we're not playing badly.
"But it's about results, winning games, getting as many points as we possibly can and get us in a safe or safer position."
Director and company secretary Ashley Carson told BBC Radio Sheffield that Chesterfield did not want to be a club that had a "knee jerk reaction" when things were not going well.
But he said poor results, plus a dwindling fan base, had prompted the board's decision to relieve Wilson of his job.
"He had a great affinity for the club and he's an absolutely top drawer manager, but it gets to the stage where you look at everything that's happening and think 'we have got to change something'," Carson continued.
"We've just had to look at the bigger picture with all this, and feel the time is right, and that if we get a new (management) team in before the end of the month they can make some changes while the transfer window is open."


Swansea City winger Jefferson Montero has been cleared to play with a protective cast on his broken hand.

The Ecuadorian, who recently returned from a calf injury, was hurt during the Swans' 3-1 defeat by Manchester United.
Montero flew to Ecuador after the match for international duty but returned to Wales to see a specialist on Wednesday.
Following x-ray confirmation of the break in his hand, the 27-year-old was told he was able to continue training and playing in a cast.
Meanwhile, striker Oliver McBurnie has signed a one-year contract extension which will see him stay at the Liberty Stadium until June 2019.
McBurnie, 20, joined from Bradford City in July 2015 and spent loan spells with League Two sides Newport County and Bristol Rovers last season.
"A new contract shows faith in me and from here I just want to crack on and keep working hard to get more opportunities on the pitch with the first-team," McBurnie said.
"If the next 16 months goes as well as the first has, I will be happy."
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Urgent calls have been made for Welsh children aged two, three and four to be vaccinated against flu.

Health officials in Wales said just one in five of children eligible for the vaccine, which is given as a nasal spray, has had it.
According to figures, that means 78% are currently unprotected.
The vaccination call comes after Public Health Wales revealed just as many children were admitted to hospital as adults for flu last winter.
The free vaccine is available from a GP but all stocks will reach their expiry date by early January 2015.
Wales' Chief Medical Officer Dr Ruth Hussey said: "Children in Wales aged two to four years old are entitled to free flu vaccinations and I encourage all parents and guardians to have their children vaccinated as soon as possible.
"Flu is an unpleasant illness at any age and can cause fever, chills, aching muscles, headaches and tiredness amongst other symptoms and, for some, result in hospitalisation.
"The flu virus spreads easily among children as they are less aware of good hand hygiene or using tissues," she added.


Manchester United had manager Jose Mourinho and midfielder Ander Herrera sent off as they failed to break down Burnley and lost more ground on the pacesetters at the top of the Premier League.

On a fractious afternoon at Old Trafford, United were left frustrated by a series of unsuccessful penalty appeals, a string of saves by inspired Clarets keeper Tom Heaton and the woodwork.
Mourinho, who was incensed when Jon Flanagan was not punished for a challenge on Matteo Darmian inside the Burnley box, paid the price for allowing his frustration to boil over at half-time.
He sat in the main stand behind the dugout at the start of the second half but was quickly moved to the directors' box, with a go-between running up and down the stairs to pass on his instructions to his assistants.
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Herrera got his marching orders in the 68th minute, with referee Mark Clattenburg showing him a second yellow card for a challenge on Dean Marney, although the United player appeared to slip as he made the tackle.
That eased some of the pressure on Burnley, who had needed an inspired performance from Heaton to keep United at bay.
The former United keeper made a string of spectacular stops, with the pick of them being a Peter Schmeichel-style scissor save that saw him spread himself brilliantly at the back post to keep out a Zlatan Ibrahimovic volley.
When Heaton was beaten, United's frustrations continued with Juan Mata's shot hitting the outside of a post and Ibrahimovic's looping header coming back off the bar. They had 37 efforts at goal in total but none were successful.
United have won only one of their last seven league games and are now eight points behind Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool, who all won on Saturday.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic had more shots - 12 - than any other player against the Clarets but his fruitless run in front of goal continued.
Nothing summed up his current form more than the late chance he spurned when Paul Pogba found him unmarked at the back post, but he failed to find the target with the goal gaping.
The 35-year-old Swede has had more shots than any other Premier League player this season, with 57 in 10 games, but he has not scored in this competition in six games since his goal against Manchester City on 10 September, his worst run since his time with Inter Milan in 2007.
He has managed a goal in the Europa League but his record in all competitions is not much better, with just one goal in his last 10 games. The correlation between his form and United's is surely no coincidence.
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Heaton was the standout performer and he will rightly make the headlines with his saves.
But Burnley's whole team deserve credit for their defensive efforts in holding out against a siege that continued even when they faced 10 men.
The Clarets rarely threatened at the other end, with Johann Berg Gudmundsson's first-half strike their only effort to bring a save out of David de Gea.
They have only managed a total of four shots in their four away league games to date, but that statistic matters a lot less when they mount a rearguard action like this.
Only one candidate. The pocket of Clarets fans at Old Trafford chanted "England's number one" throughout the game in recognition of a brilliant performance by their goalkeeper.
United travel to Turkey to take on Fenerbahce in the Europa League on Thursday, then go to Wales to play Swansea on Sunday in their next Premier League game. Burnley are at home to Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Match ends, Manchester United 0, Burnley 0.
Second Half ends, Manchester United 0, Burnley 0.
Tom Heaton (Burnley) is shown the yellow card.
Attempt missed. Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Daley Blind following a set piece situation.
Dean Marney (Burnley) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Marouane Fellaini (Manchester United) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Dean Marney (Burnley).
Attempt missed. Marcos Rojo (Manchester United) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Daley Blind.
Attempt missed. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Manchester United) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box is too high. Assisted by Paul Pogba with a cross.
Attempt missed. Luke Shaw (Manchester United) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Daley Blind following a corner.
Corner,  Manchester United. Conceded by Michael Keane.
Corner,  Manchester United. Conceded by Ben Mee.
Attempt blocked. Daley Blind (Manchester United) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Paul Pogba.
Hand ball by Jon Flanagan (Burnley).
Substitution, Burnley. George Boyd replaces Johann Berg Gudmundsson.
Paul Pogba (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Paul Pogba (Manchester United).
Matthew Lowton (Burnley) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Marcos Rojo (Manchester United).
Ashley Barnes (Burnley) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Substitution, Manchester United. Memphis Depay replaces Marcus Rashford.
Corner,  Manchester United. Conceded by Matthew Lowton.
Hand ball by Ashley Barnes (Burnley).
Attempt missed. Ashley Barnes (Burnley) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Johann Berg Gudmundsson with a cross.
Foul by Marouane Fellaini (Manchester United).
Ashley Barnes (Burnley) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Substitution, Manchester United. Wayne Rooney replaces Jesse Lingard.
Substitution, Manchester United. Marouane Fellaini replaces Juan Mata.
Attempt missed. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Manchester United) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Jesse Lingard.
Attempt missed. Scott Arfield (Burnley) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Ashley Barnes with a headed pass.
Second yellow card to Ander Herrera (Manchester United) for a bad foul.
Foul by Ander Herrera (Manchester United).
Dean Marney (Burnley) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt blocked. Paul Pogba (Manchester United) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Attempt blocked. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Manchester United) header from very close range is blocked. Assisted by Juan Mata with a cross.
Jon Flanagan (Burnley) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Ander Herrera (Manchester United) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Jon Flanagan (Burnley).
Juan Mata (Manchester United) hits the right post with a left footed shot from the centre of the box following a corner.
Corner,  Manchester United. Conceded by Michael Keane.


Donald Trump has won three more states, Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii, in his bid to be the Republican White House nomination.

In the Democratic race, Bernie Sanders had a surprise victory in Michigan, but Hillary Clinton increased her overall lead with a big Mississippi win.
Ted Cruz won a Republican-only race in Idaho.
The states are the latest to choose candidates to compete in November's presidential election.
It was a terrible night for Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who came in a distant fourth in both Michigan and Mississippi, a week before his must-win contest in his home state.
Has Trump killed off Rubio?
US media: Has Sanders changed Democratic race?
What will Americans do if Trump wins?
Election results - as they come in
Mr Trump is leading Mr Rubio in his home state of Florida 40% to 24%, according to new CNN/ORC polls.
On Wednesday, he called on the Republican party to unite behind him, after a week of stinging criticism from party leaders.
"Instead of fighting it, they should embrace it," he said.
Former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina came out in support of Ted Cruz, calling him a "constitutional conservative".
"Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are two sides of the same coin," she said at a rally in Miami. "They're not going to reform the system. They are the system."
"We're going to have to beat Donald Trump at the ballot box, and the only guy who can beat Donald Trump is Ted Cruz."
With his victories, Donald Trump has solidified his position as the Republican front-runner, withstanding a barrage of negative advertisements questioning everything from his business acumen to his use of vulgar and profane language.
Rather than deliver a conventional victory speech, the billionaire held a news conference and conducted what looked in parts like an infomercial, arguing that products that bear his name, like bottled water and wine, are commercial successes.
But it's the Trump political brand that's not only proving highly popular but also resilient to attacks from establishment Republicans who have intensified their attacks in the hope of slowing his momentum.
Showing how the normal political rules do not apply, Trump reckoned that one of the attack ads, bleeping out various swear words he's uttered during the campaign, actually boosted him because it showed that he's not bound by political correctness and tells it like it is.
In search of Trump's Scottish roots
How extreme are Trump and Cruz?
The Democratic opponent Mr Trump is most likely to face if he gets the Republican nomination, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, addressed voters in Ohio after her Mississippi win.
"Running for president shouldn't be about delivering insults," said Mrs Clinton, in a thinly veiled dig at the outspoken Mr Trump.
"It should be about delivering results."
Republican
Democratic
Mr Sanders' win in Michigan came as a shock after weeks of polling that suggested Mrs Clinton was well ahead.
"I am grateful to the people of Michigan for defying the pundits and pollsters and giving us their support," Mr Sanders said in a statement following his win.
"This is a critically important night. We came from 30 points down in Michigan and we're seeing the same kind of come-from-behind momentum all across America."
Analysts say conservative firebrand Mr Cruz appears to be the only candidate capable of stopping Mr Trump, who has been fiercely attacked by the Republican establishment.
The party's 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney, described Mr Trump as a bully and a fraud who would lose a general election because of his extreme positions on immigration and Islamic State.
A central plank of Mr Trump's campaign is to deport 11m undocumented migrants and build a wall on the southern border, paid for by Mexico.
The primary and caucus elections determine the number of delegates assigned to each of the candidates.
The delegates then endorse their candidate at the party conventions in July. To secure their party's nomination, a candidate must win a majority of delegates.


The process of replacing outgoing Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Enda Kenny begins officially later with a meeting of his Fine Gael party.

Mr Kenny stood down as the party's leader at midnight, but will stay on as PM until his successor is chosen.
Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney are considered favourites to lead the party but the winner would then face a Dáil (parliament) vote to become taoiseach.
The nominations deadline is expected to be 17:00 local time on Saturday.
Fine Gael's ruling body - the executive council - will meet on Thursday evening to finalise its plans for the party's leadership contest.
Mr Varadkar, the social protection minister, and Mr Coveney, the housing minister, are expected to announce their candidacies shortly.
However, Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) Frances Fitzgerald has ruled herself out of the contest.
Ms Fitzgerald, who is also the current justice minister, said in a statement that she had "seriously considered contesting the leadership election".
However, she added: "I have decided that entering the contest is not the right decision for me."
Ms Fitzgerald also paid tribute to Mr Kenny saying: "His work on behalf of the country and our party has been immense and extraordinary."
Another Fine Gael veteran, Finance Minister Michael Noonan, announced his decision to step down from Cabinet after the leadership election.
Mr Noonan also confirmed that he will not contest the next general election.
In order to get their name on the ballot paper, prospective candidates must secure signatures from at least eight members of Fine Gael's parliamentary party.
The parliamentary party comprises:
There had been speculation in the media for months about Mr Kenny's future.
It followed a series of scandals involving An Garda Síochána (Irish police force) and the party's disappointing performance in the 2016 general election.
As he resigned, Mr Kenny asked the executive council to "expedite the process" and chose a new party leader by Friday 2 June.
Speaking to Irish broadcaster RTÉ, Fine Gael chairman Martin Heydon said that meant the timescale would be tighter than had originally been planned, but would be manageable.
"Anybody who wants to be nominated will need 10% of the parliamentary party to nominate them, and by Saturday evening we'll know how many runners are in the field," he said.
After nominations close, Fine Gael will then choose its leader through an electoral college system in which weighed votes are given to different branches of the party.
Mr Heydon told RTÉ that while Fine Gael members have the power to pick the new leader of their party, Dáil TDs must then vote on whether or not they become taoiseach.
"If we have a new leader of Fine Gael appointed on 2 June, the Dáil doesn't sit until the following week, for the June bank holiday, so there would be a 10-day period there before the Dáil would be back."
He said the next opportunity for the Dáil to vote on a new taoiseach would be Tuesday 13 June.
Over the last year, Mr Kenny led a minority government, which was propped up by an alliance of independent TDs and required the support of the opposition party - Fianna Fáil - to pass its budgets.
Mr Heydon added: "We have a lot of partners in government - between the Independent Alliance, our supply and confidence arrangement with Fianna Fáil.
"And I think that it is right that a new leader coming in would be given the time and space to be able to consult all of those parties, let them known their vision and our plans, to get that process in place."
Mr Kenny leaves the Fine Gael leadership as the party's most successful taoiseach.
In a statement announcing his retirement, he said it had been a "huge honour and privilege" to lead the party over the course of 15 years.


Edinburgh lock Grant Gilchrist has been named captain of Scotland's 33-man squad for the autumn Tests against Argentina, New Zealand and Tonga.

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Gilchrist, 24, captained Scotland twice on their summer tour - against Argentina and South Africa.
The only uncapped player selected by head coach Vern Cotter is centre Mark Bennett, one of 17 Glasgow Warriors players included.
However, former captains Kelly Brown and Al Kellock are absent.
"You only have to meet him and talk to him to understand that he is a leader," said Cotter of his skipper. "People follow him.
"He likes making decisions, he likes being involved and creating outcomes. Even if he is only 24, he shows these qualities, I think he was born a leader and he gets the role."
Saracens lock Jim Hamilton, capped 56 times, is another experienced player to miss out, as does Castres wing/centre Max Evans.
Glasgow number eight Adam Ashe, 21, keeps his place after a late call for the final game of the summer tour; a 55-6 mauling by the Springboks.
Hooker Fraser Brown is another player looking to add to his solitary cap, while prop Gordon Reid, flanker Blair Cowan and fly-half Finn Russell are retained after making their debuts in June.
Matt Scott, David Denton, Ryan Grant, Ruaridh Jackson, Ross Rennie, Jon Welsh and Ryan Wilson are sidelined by injuries.
"The most important thing for us, other than showing improvements in key areas, is developing an attack that will give us opportunities to score tries or earn points through teams being forced to infringe," said Cotter.
"We want to develop, and impose, our style, will, and strategy on our opposition."
The series kicks off with Argentina visiting Murrayfield on 8 November, with New Zealand in Edinburgh a week later, while the Tonga clash is at Kilmarnock's Rugby Park on 22 November.
"Argentina will offer us a very stern test, especially at scrum time," said Cotter. "They have good variety and move the ball well from nine, through the middle of the paddock and out the back.
"The All Blacks have just won the Rugby Championship and are the best team in the world, so we'll have to be on our toes.
"Tonga will be the final big test psychologically, having come through two big games. It's essential that we show maturity, mental strength and adaptability throughout the series.
"We have a good group, but the most important thing is that we play for each other, we play for the shirt, and we enjoy what we do."
Allan Dell and Hamish Watson of Edinburgh and Glasgow's Zander Fagerson have been invited to train with the squad.
Scotland squad:
Forwards: Adam Ashe (Glasgow Warriors), Johnnie Beattie (Castres), Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors), Blair Cowan, Geoff Cross (both London Irish), Alasdair Dickinson, Ross Ford (both Edinburgh), Chris Fusaro (Glasgow Warriors), Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh, capt), Robert Harley, Jonny Gray (both Glasgow Warriors), Richie Gray (Castres), Scott Lawson (Newcastle Falcons), Kieran Low (London Irish), Euan Murray, Gordon Reid (both Glasgow Warriors) Alasdair Strokosch (USA Perpignan), Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors).
Backs: Mark Bennett (Glasgow Warriors), Chris Cusiter (Sale Sharks), Alex Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors), Dougie Fife, Tom Heathcote (both Edinburgh), Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors), Greig Laidlaw (Gloucester), Sean Lamont, Sean Maitland, Finn Russell, Henry Pyrgos, Tommy Seymour (all Glasgow Warriors), Duncan Taylor (Saracens), Tim Visser (Edinburgh), Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors).


President Barack Obama has said no nation should rely on exports to the United States for growth.

He was speaking in Yokohama in Japan on the sidelines of the Apec summit.
Mr Obama said countries with a large surplus must take steps to boost domestic demand - in an apparent reference to China and Japan.
Chinese President Hu Jintao said his country was trying to increase domestic consumption, but any currency adjustments would come gradually.
The leaders of 21 nations are taking part in the meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum (Apec), with talks focusing on ways to establish a free trade area in the region.
It follows a G20 summit in Seoul, which highlighted disagreements among members over trade imbalances.
Addressing business executives in Yokohama, President Obama said the economic crisis had shown the limits of depending on US consumers and Asian exporters to drive growth.
"Going forward, no nation should assume that their path to prosperity is simply paved with exports to America," he said.
He added that healthy competition need not cause rifts between nations.
"There's no need to view trade, commerce or economic growth as zero-sum games, where one country always has to prosper at the expense of another."
Taking the podium after Mr Obama, Mr Hu reaffirmed Beijing's commitment to gradual currency reform and balanced trade.
"China will continue making encouraging a balanced international balance of payments an important task in ensuring macro-economic stability," he said.
The BBC's Roland Buerk in Yokohama says the Apec meeting may have helped to resolve a row between Japan and China.
Relations have been tense since early September, when a Chinese trawler and Japanese patrol ships collided near disputed islands in the East China Sea.
President Hu held talks with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on the sidelines of the summit - their first formal meeting since the row began.
"I recognise that ties between Japan and China have taken a big step towards improvement," Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama told reporters.
Earlier thousands of Japanese took to the streets of Yokohama, waving flags and placards with slogans such as "defend our territory" and "defeat Chinese imperialism".
Japan's ties with Russia have also been coming under strain recently, after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited one of four islands claimed by both countries.
The dispute was discussed by Mr Medvedev and Mr Kan on the sidelines of the Apec meeting.
Mr Kan said the Russian president's visit had inflamed the feelings of the Japanese people, and the two nations must build mutual trust.
But speaking afterwards, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters that his country's position was unchanged - and that Mr Medvedev would "decide for himself which region of Russia to visit".
"The president said it would be better to discard emotional statements and diplomatic gestures, because they do not help matters, quite the contrary," Mr Lavrov said.


Exactly how many people have been killed during the repression of the uprising against the rule of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad?

The movement of foreign media and independent human rights organisations has been severely curtailed within the country, making the verification of casualty figures almost impossible.
Recently, the presence of UN monitors has provided another source of information - as with the massacre in the village of Taldou near Houla - but for the most part, the outside world has been reliant on casualty figures supplied by opposition activists.
Syrian government sources and the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency Agency (Sana) have been issuing casualty figures for specific events, but official estimates of the overall death toll have been more sporadic.
In early April, Sana quoted a letter from the Syrian foreign ministry as saying 6,143 Syrians, including both soldiers and civilians, had died since the beginning of the crisis, placing the blame on "armed terrorist groups".
In the same letter, the foreign ministry sharply criticised UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay for what it called "bias" in her comments on Syria.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva had been providing some of the most widely quoted estimates of death toll earlier in the uprising.
However, in December, the OHCHR stopped trying to produce estimates because verifying the toll had become too difficult.
Up to that point, the OHCHR had been taking figures from "five different organisations who were compiling lists, and then coming up with our own... figures, tending towards the cautious end of the spectrum," according to Rupert Colville, spokesman for the OHCHR.
It is an approach that is also used by some activists; sharing information in an effort to better corroborate it.
Two of the organisations that the OHCHR had used were the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) and the Violations Documentation Center (VDC). Those behind these sites say they run verification on reports of casualties.
After initial reports from activists and volunteers in the field, those at VDC say they try to add "video clips, pictures of the martyrs, or any other details about the victim".
The data is periodically audited by sending it back to activists in the field for correction and addition of any missing information.
However, VDC does admit that these steps "do not present the possibility of a complete and full checking of the information".
Furthermore, the methodologies of the different sites vary and the tolls they have arrived at differ greatly.
For example, as of 29 May, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had put the number of civilian dead at 9,183, with 3,821 dead from the security forces.
However, at the same time the VDC had a tally of 11,884 civilians killed and 2,159 casualties from the military and security forces.
Another opposition website referred to by some branches of the UN, Syria Shuhada (Syria Martyrs), had an even higher number - 15,344, of which it says 14,072 were civilians, the rest being defectors from the military. It does not count deaths from regime forces.
The activists who run the Syria Shuhada website recognise that their estimates are consistently higher than those produced by other activists.
One reason they give for this is the wide range of sources that they gather their information from in the first instance.
Their figures are collated from other opposition websites and cross-checked, but they say that since becoming more well-known in Syria they have also received information directly from protesters' "committees".
The other reason for the higher figure is that they record deaths even when no name is given for the individual.
"Many of these have videos attached to them or are from sources we trust," the activists who run the website say.
"Other organisations don't accept bodies with no names which seems ludicrous to us," they add.
A UK-based activist who has been making his own efforts to compile casualty figures, Mahmoud Ali Hamad, says another issue is the large number of people who have been detained.
"If months have passed after someone being detained and they're not heard of again and we don't even know where they are - then they're considered dead," he says.
"Even before the start of the uprising, this is deep down in people's consciousness in Syria," he adds.
Even though many websites document victims' manner of death, or keep separate lists of the detained, he suggests that this may be causing some discrepancy in the figures produced by different groups, if some are including the numbers of missing in their death tolls.
Those trying to stay in touch with activists in Syria say the upsurge in violence this year has complicated the issue further as many of those who were reporting deaths to the outside world have been killed or displaced themselves.
"Lots of my contacts in Homs have died, and many people have left," Mr Ali Hamad says. "It's a chaotic situation."
Activists in the US who set up the Syria Tracker website say that "with the escalation of violence starting in February 2012, some groups have needed to change their methodologies... and relax some of the controls they are placing" on recording deaths.
And what of the danger of exaggeration of the data to garner sympathy for the opposition?
"It's not fair to expect people in that situation to be unbiased," Mr Ali Hamad says. "This regime is their ultimate enemy."
"So even when I'm talking to people who I went to school with, I am taking into account that they are traumatised people. I don't take their word for everything."
He says there have been instances where has had to "weed out" sources because they have exaggerated, but says that this hasn't affected the integrity of his work.
Those at the Syria Shuhada website are even more vehement.
"There is absolutely no exaggeration of the data," they insist.
"Anyone who says this is the one driven by politicisation," they add.
They say they believe many victims' relatives are too frightened of retaliation to report casualties and that the true figure must therefore be even higher.
Mr Ali Hamad, while admitting he wouldn't use some of Syria Shuhada's methods, agrees that "the numbers reported in the first instance always turn out to be lower" than those which emerge after verification.
Whether and how to count casualties among army defectors and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) is another point of contention.
Even some websites that keep separate tallies for civilians and those involved in armed opposition class fallen FSA fighters as "martyrs".
Most of those involved in trying to collect the information admit that current conditions in Syria simply do not allow for an accurate toll.
"Everyone needs and wants a number - including us - but the cost for us of getting it wrong would be high and could undermine the credibility of our human rights reporting," Rupert Colville says.
So should the attempt to compile figures be abandoned?
"The UN and NGOs can stop trying, but we Syrians can't," Mr Ali Hamad says.
"I have lost cousins, schoolfriends in Syria. The only thing that keeps us going is that some day we will be able to hold accountable those who have killed people simply for expressing an opinion," he adds.
Those at Syria Tracker say: "In the long run, we don't feel that the specific counts are as important as the individual names, dates and places, which can be edited, updated, and revised over time.
"When the most accurate tally is collected and correlated across the different sources... we only hope that we can preserve the memory of a victim that may otherwise be forgotten."


Cardiff City have signed Queen's Park Rangers defender Matthew Connolly.

The 24-year-old was part of the QPR team that won the 2010-11 Championship.
But though Cardiff have secured Connolly, fellow new recruit Kim Bo-Kyung is likely to miss the next game while he waits for a work permit.
"We've signed Matthew Connolly from QPR and when we get Kim Bo-Kyung over from South Korea it brings another two quality footballers into the club," said Cardiff manager Malky Mackay.
"He [Connolly] is an experienced defender, he's come out of the Arsenal school... played at Colchester and got his experience and then went and played for QPR at our level for a good number of years, played a lot of games.
"So he's someone who can play right-back, left-back, centre-back and is experienced, is a good professional and is the right type of person that I want to bring to Cardiff."
As well as the capture of Connolly in a three-year deal thought to be worth £500,000, Mackay also confirmed that Cardiff are in negotiations with QPR for 32-year-old striker Tommy Smith.
"It's something that's ongoing at the moment, we've made a bid... we'd like that to happen but we'll see," Mackay said.
We have brought five or six in, but at the same time we probably need to at least bring another couple in if we can
Smith has also played for Watford, Mackay's former club, plus Sunderland, Derby and Portsmouth.
Kim, who has signed a three-year contract with Cardiff, was part of the South Korean Olympic football team which took bronze medal in London.
He has now returned to South Korea but is due to return to the UK this weekend after sorting out some red tape.
"It's nothing other than the fact that Korea got to the bronze medal game, [he] flew back when they did and now he has to do some paperwork over in Korea," explained Mackay.
"It's purely administration work - we are not having to clarify status. That will take that time for him to come back in the country.
"We would love to have him back for Bristol [City, who Cardiff play on Saturday] but it's probably going to be Wolves."
Connolly, 24, was an Arsenal trainee and had loan spells at Bournemouth and Colchester United before signing for Rangers in 2008 for £1m.
He has made 116 League appearances for QPR and spent a stint on loan at Reading in the 2011-12 season.
Despite having Kim and Connolly on board, Mackay insists he wants to recruit more players ahead of the 31 August transfer window.
"We need more strength in depth if we are going to have this 46-game season," insisted Mackay.
"Because, as was shown last year, we didn't have enough bodies. Seven people left the club this summer again so we are down again.
"We have brought five or six in, but at the same time we probably need to at least bring another couple in if we can."
After their opening 1-0 home win against Huddersfield Town, Cardiff City travelled to Brighton on Tuesday and came away with a 0-0 draw