科学美国人60秒 这部手机不需要电池

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A dying battery is a huge annoyance¹ for cell phone users. But for engineers? It's inspiration. "Can we design a smartphone which can make a phone call and have a conversation without the need for any kind of battery?"

电池没电对于手机用户来说是一大烦恼，但对于工程师来说，它就是灵感。“我们能设计一部可以在不需要任何电池的情况下就能打电话交谈的智能手机吗?”

Shyam Gollakota is a computer scientist at the University of Washington. And he and his team have indeed designed a battery-free phone. It looks like a circuit board, with touch-responsive numeric buttons. And it runs on just a few microwatts of power, which it harvests from light, and the radio signals emanating² from a nearby wireless³ base station.

夏玛是华盛顿大学的一位计算机科学家。他和他的团队真的设计出了一个免用电池的电话。它看起来像一个电路板，带有触摸响应程序的数字按钮。它仅靠从光线中获取的几微瓦的能量运行，并接收附近无线基站发出的无线电信号。

The team achieved the battery-free, energy-efficient design by ditching two power-hungry features of modern cell phones. The test unit skips digital to analog⁴ conversion⁵. And does not generate its own wireless signals to make calls.

通过甩开现代手机的两个耗电特性，该团队实现了无电池节能设计：试验设备使用了数模转换技术，而且它无法通过产生自己的无线信号来打电话。

Instead, in receiving mode, it absorbs incoming radio waves from the base station, and converts them directly into vibrations⁶ of its speaker. In sending mode, it uses the vibrations of its onboard microphone to change the way radio waves are reflected back to the base station.

相反，在接收模式中，它通过接收来自基站传入的无线电波，并将它们直接转换为扬声器振动。在发送模式中，它利用内置麦克风的振动来改变无线电波反射回基站的方式。

And it worked, to make a Skype call: <"Hello?" "Hello, from the battery-free cell phone.">

而且它成功了。我们来打了一个网络电话：<“你好?”“你好，这是来自免用电池手机的电话。”>

The findings appear in the Proceedings⁷ of the Association for Computing⁸ Machinery⁹ on Interactive¹⁰, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies.

这一研究结果发表在计算机协会关于人机互动、移动、可穿戴和普适技术的会议上。

The demo device does have limitations: It can only stray 50 feet from the base station. The voice quality is pretty lo-fi. And you can't check Facebook either—yet. "Oh, —we're going to get there. This is again a first step. Think of it as like: you need to make a first move to get someplace where you can harvest power to do other operations."

演示设备的确存在局限性：它必须在距离基站50英尺的范围内，且音质很低。另外它也不能用来浏览社交网络脸书。“但是，我们正在努力实现这个功能。这只是个开端。大家可以这样想：你需要迈出第一步，才能到达某个地方，以收获力量来进行其他操作。”

And it’s those other operations that will ultimately be crucial. Because, battery or not, you could argue that voice calls are by now just a neat retro feature of our ever-smarter phones.

而那些其他操作最终才是至关重要的。因为，无论有无电池，你都可以说目前这种语音通话只是我们即将变得更智能的手机的一个简单的复古特征。

1 annoyance   

n.恼怒，生气，烦恼

参考例句：

• Why do you always take your annoyance out on me?为什么你不高兴时总是对我出气？
• I felt annoyance at being teased.我恼恨别人取笑我。

2 emanating   

v.从…处传出，传出( emanate的现在分词 )；产生，表现，显示

参考例句：

• Even so, there is a slight odour of potpourri emanating from Longfellow. 纵然如此，也还是可以闻到来自朗费罗的一种轻微的杂烩的味道。 来自辞典例句
• Many surface waters, particularly those emanating from swampy areas, are often colored to the extent. 许多地表水，特别是由沼泽地区流出的地表水常常染上一定程度的颜色。 来自辞典例句

3 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

4 analog   

n.类似物，模拟

参考例句：

• The analog signal contains high-frequency video information,which helps make up the picture.模拟信号包括有助于构成图像的高频视频信息。
• The analog computer measures continuously,without proceeding step by step.模拟计算机不是一步一步地进行，而是连续地进行量度。

5 conversion   

n.转化，转换，转变

参考例句：

• He underwent quite a conversion.他彻底变了。
• Waste conversion is a part of the production process.废物处理是生产过程的一个组成部分。

6 vibrations   

n.摆动( vibration的名词复数 )；震动；感受；（偏离平衡位置的）一次性往复振动

参考例句：

• We could feel the vibrations from the trucks passing outside. 我们可以感到外面卡车经过时的颤动。
• I am drawn to that girl; I get good vibrations from her. 我被那女孩吸引住了，她使我产生良好的感觉。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

8 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。

9 machinery   

n.(总称)机械，机器；机构

参考例句：

• Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗？
• Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。

10 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。