美国国家公共电台 NPR CES 2020 Brings Toilet Paper Delivery Robots And Hopes For 5G

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Now let's go to the land of flying cars and trash cans that change their own bags. That is Las Vegas this week. About 200,000 people are meeting there for the annual extravaganza known as the Consumer Electronics Show, or CES. One of those people is NPR technology correspondent Shannon Bond.

SHANNON BOND, BYLINE¹: The first robot I meet at CES does just one thing, but it might come in handy.

GREGG WEAVER²: So you're on the commode. You look over. Oh, no. Somebody didn't change a roll. Hello? Nobody home.

BOND: That's Gregg Weaver of Procter & Gamble describing the Charmin Roll Bot, as in roll of toilet paper.

WEAVER: You take out your smartphone. It's Bluetooth-activated. It finds you in your home, delivers a fresh roll of Charmin, saves the day.

BOND: Saves the day? That might sound a bit dramatic, but it could save you a few uncomfortable steps to retrieve³ a spare roll. You can't buy P&G's robot or a lot of the stuff here, but that's what much of CES is about - glimpsing the future of technology. Things like touch screens and voice assistants showed up here years before they became mainstream⁴. The show is a dizzying display of tech in every form imaginable spread over almost 3 million square feet of exhibition space. I dodge⁵ rolling robots and people stumbling around, their eyes covered by virtual reality headsets.

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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Are you ready to be awestruck, to try experiences enhanced in ways you never imagined? Are you ready to build on what's next?

BOND: This year in Las Vegas, a lot of the buzz is about 5G. That's the next generation of much faster cellular⁶ networks. 5G is still in the early stages, but that's not dampening the excitement. Kevin Westcott is a vice⁷ chairman at consulting firm Deloitte. He says 5G is about more than downloading a movie really quickly.

KEVIN WESTCOTT: That's not going to change my life. What's going to change it is when people start envisioning new applications that use absolutely real-time data.

BOND: Think self-driving cars talking to each other and to the roads they're driving on. One company here at CES working on this is Valerann. The British-Israeli startup put sensors⁸ in roads. They detect traffic and weather and can light up in the road to direct the flow of cars around a vehicle that's had to pull over onto the shoulder. Shahar Bahiri is co-founder of Valerann. He says the company is already using 5G connections in some places.

SHAHAR BAHIRI: When you know that you have this stopped vehicle, when you know that you have black ice on the road, when you know when you will have a congestion⁹ and you can switch the traffic lights accordingly, your life is easier using data.

BOND: Many of the startups at this year's show are making health care apps and devices that bring the tools of the doctor's office to your smartphone. At another booth, a company called Binah uses an iPad's camera to read your vital signs by scanning your face. It looks for a tiny movement in the skin under the eye each time the heart beats. Mona Popilian, Binah's director of marketing¹⁰, explains.

MONA POPILIAN: There's a change in the reflection of the light on your skin, and we say, OK, now there's been a heartbeat. And then there's another and another, and so we have the heart rate. And based on this, we continue to calculate the rest of the measurements, like oxygen, respiration¹¹ rate, mental stress. And blood pressure we're going to have very soon.

BOND: Popilian says Binah's app can be used by doctors to remotely examine patients. A big Japanese insurance company is using it to monitor stress levels of drivers.

POPILIAN: So stand here, please, in front. I will just click here.

BOND: It takes a few seconds to deliver my results. The screen lights up. My heart rate and oxygen levels are normal, but after dodging¹² robots and surrounded by flashing screens, unsurprisingly, I'm mildly stressed.

Shannon Bond, NPR News, Las Vegas.

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1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

3 retrieve   

vt.重新得到，收回；挽回，补救；检索

参考例句：

• He was determined to retrieve his honor.他决心恢复名誉。
• The men were trying to retrieve weapons left when the army abandoned the island.士兵们正试图找回军队从该岛撤退时留下的武器。

4 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

5 dodge   

v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计

参考例句：

• A dodge behind a tree kept her from being run over.她向树后一闪，才没被车从身上辗过。
• The dodge was coopered by the police.诡计被警察粉碎了。

6 cellular   

adj.移动的；细胞的，由细胞组成的

参考例句：

• She has a cellular telephone in her car.她的汽车里有一部无线通讯电话机。
• Many people use cellular materials as sensitive elements in hygrometers.很多人用蜂窝状的材料作为测量温度的传感元件。

7 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

8 sensors   

n.传感器，灵敏元件( sensor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were more than 2000 sensors here. 这里装有两千多个灵敏元件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Significant changes have been noted where sensors were exposed to trichloride. 当传感器暴露在三氯化物中时，有很大变化。 来自辞典例句

9 congestion   

n.阻塞，消化不良

参考例句：

• The congestion in the city gets even worse during the summer.夏天城市交通阻塞尤为严重。
• Parking near the school causes severe traffic congestion.在学校附近泊车会引起严重的交通堵塞。

10 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

11 respiration   

n.呼吸作用；一次呼吸；植物光合作用

参考例句：

• They tried artificial respiration but it was of no avail.他们试做人工呼吸，可是无效。
• They made frequent checks on his respiration,pulse and blood.他们经常检查他的呼吸、脉搏和血液。

12 dodging   

n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避

参考例句：

• He ran across the road, dodging the traffic. 他躲开来往的车辆跑过马路。
• I crossed the highway, dodging the traffic. 我避开车流穿过了公路。 来自辞典例句