托福阅读背景之“会飞的家具”

 Imagine a future where your furniture flies, reacting and responding to your everyday needs. You could have an almost-sentient desk that jets off when it feels you’re over-working, or a remote control that floats over when you think you’ve lost it.

　　想象一下，未来你的家具会飞，还能满足与回应日常需求。当你工作过量时，智能书桌会自动飞离;当你以为遥控器丢了，它会自动浮现在你眼前。

　　In an interactive² project dubbed³ “L’evolved,” Harshit Agrawal and Sang-Won Leigh, two researchers from the MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces⁴ Group, are exploring how to make everyday objects transform into “flying smart agents.”

　　来自MIT媒介流界面小组的两位研究者哈什特·阿格拉瓦尔与桑王·利，正探究如何让日常用品转变为“会飞的智能物件”。

　　“We really look at this as a way of making the objects around us kind of speak with us,” Agrawal said. “In the sense that they somehow know what they are doing, so they might prevent you from doing something wrong or light up your path in a dark environment.”

　　阿格拉瓦尔说：“事实上，我们希望能让身边的物品与自己对话，即物品从某种程度上了解你的需求，因此它们能避免你做出不当举动，或者懂得在黑暗中为你亮起一盏灯。”

　　So far, their project features drones acting¹ as flying tables that adjust to your height, fly away once you’re done, or auto-eject if you start using the wrong pen on your homework. They also have a lampshade drone that hovers⁵ above you, focusing light on where you need it when you’re reading a book in the dark.

　　到目前为止，这项以智能飞翔为特点的家具计划中，有会飞的桌子能自动适应你的身高，一旦工作完成，它会自动飞离;有当你做作业时拿错了会自动弹开的钢笔;还有悬浮在你身边的灯罩，它会自动在黑暗中为你提供光亮。

　　To power their flying furniture, the pair used a motion capture system where a camera tracks everything in the room—including the person and the drone, which receives commands from the computer.

　　为了快速推动飞翔家具，两位研究者使用了动态捕捉技术，让摄像机对房间的每一个角落进行追踪，包括主人和该家具，然后通过电脑接受指令。

　　“The computer knows where the drone wants to go by tracking where the person is,” explained Leigh. “We are feeding that data from the computer to the drone so that it can move smoothly⁶ to the required position.”

　　利解释道：“电脑通过追踪人的位置，就能知晓飞翔的家具应去往何处。我们将电脑中的数据传输给家具，使其准确移动到指定位置。”

　　Currently, the duo faces two main challenges: stabilizing⁷ the drone, and feeding it a regular power supply (at the moment, it’s connected to a power socket).

　　如今，两位研究者面临着两大挑战：增强飞翔家具的稳定型，并实现充电功能(现在它们仍依赖电源插座)。

　　Drones can’t support much weight yet, so the team opted⁸ for a paper tabletop. They soon found, however, that if they placed the tabletop directly on top of the drone, it blocked airflow. To solve this problem, they made the distance between the drone base and its paper tabletop greater so it could keep flying.

　　飞翔家具还无法承受过多的重量，因此研究团队选用了纸质台面。然而他们很快发现，如果直接将台面搁到飞翔家具上，会阻碍飞行。为了解决这个问题，他们加大了飞翔家具底座和纸质台面的距离，以保证它能飞行。

　　Agrawal said that in the future, they could optimize⁹ stability by replacing a hovering¹⁰ desk with one that parks in front of users when they need it, then clears off when the user has finished their task.

　　阿格拉瓦尔认为，在未来，他们将优化飞翔家具的性能，用飞翔的桌子代替用户面前静态的桌子，当使用者工作完成后，桌子能自动离开。

　　Ultimately, the researchers are set on enchanting¹¹ everyday appliances so that they surpass their limitations as static objects, and have a more socially collaborative relationship with their human owners.

　　最终，研究者将让日常家电也魔力四射，它们将超越传统静态物品的局限，与人类建立更好的协作关系

　　Vocabulary

　　sentient: 有感情的;有感觉力的

　　lampshade: 灯罩

　　power socket: 电源插座

1 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

2 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。

3 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 interfaces   

界面( interface的名词复数 )； 接口（连接两装置的电路，可使数据从一种代码转换成另一种代码）； 交界； 联系

参考例句：

• If the class needs to be reprogrammed, new interfaces are created. 如果class需要重新程序设计，新的interfaces创建。
• Interfaces solve this problem of evolving code. Interfaces解决了代码升级的问题。

5 hovers   

鸟( hover的第三人称单数 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫

参考例句：

• A hawk hovers in the sky. 一只老鹰在天空盘旋。
• A hen hovers her chicks. 一只母鸡在孵小鸡。

6 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

7 stabilizing   

n.稳定化处理[退火]v.（使）稳定， （使）稳固( stabilize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The disulfide bridges might then be viewed primarily as stabilizing components. 二硫桥可以被看作是初级的稳定因素。 来自辞典例句
• These stabilizing design changes are usually not desirable for steady-state operation. 这些增加稳定性的设计改变通常不太符合稳态工作的要求。 来自辞典例句

8 opted   

v.选择，挑选( opt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was co-opted onto the board. 她获增选为董事会成员。
• After graduating she opted for a career in music. 毕业后她选择了从事音乐工作。

9 optimize   

v.使优化 [=optimise]

参考例句：

• We should optimize the composition of the Standing Committees.优化人大常委会组成人员的结构。
• We should optimize our import mix and focus on bringing in advanced technology and key equipment.优化进口结构，着重引进先进技术和关键设备。

10 hovering   

鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫

参考例句：

• The helicopter was hovering about 100 metres above the pad. 直升机在离发射台一百米的上空盘旋。
• I'm hovering between the concert and the play tonight. 我犹豫不决今晚是听音乐会还是看戏。

11 enchanting   

a.讨人喜欢的

参考例句：

• His smile, at once enchanting and melancholy, is just his father's. 他那种既迷人又有些忧郁的微笑，活脱儿象他父亲。
• Its interior was an enchanting place that both lured and frightened me. 它的里头是个吸引人的地方，我又向往又害怕。